Michael Tilson Thomas

Michael Tilson Thomas was among the most famous American-born conductors of his generation, best known as the longtime conductor of the San Francisco Symphony. He had a bright, extroverted personality and a wide-ranging repertoire that allowed him to take a place at the forefront of experimentation with the form and content of symphonic concerts, combining his eclectic style with various American music styles. He was also a respected composer, with his You Come Here Often?, for solo piano being featured on Yuja Wang's 2023 album The American Project. He won 12 Grammy Awards in several categories, including Best Orchestral Performance and Best Classical Album. Tilson Thomas was born in Los Angeles on December 21, 1944. He was musically influenced by his family: his grandparents were Boris and Bessie Thomaschevsky, founders of New York's Yiddish Theater, and his father Ted Thomas was an avid amateur pianist and worked in films and television. He studied piano at the University of Southern California with John Crown and conducting and composing with Ingolf Dahl. At the age of 19, he was named the music director of the Young Musicians Foundation Orchestra and accompanied master classes by Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky. Tilson Thomas became the assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1969 after winning the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood. On October 22, 1969, he was called to replace William Steinberg during a Carnegie Hall concert, repeating the circumstances of Leonard Bernstein's sensational debut 26 years earlier with nearly identical results: Tilson Thomas was catapulted into the top ranks of American conductors. In 1970, he was appointed the associate conductor of the Boston Symphony and then principal guest conductor until 1974. He served as the music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (1971-1979), principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1981-1985), and principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (1988-1995). In 1987, recognizing a need for music graduates to gain experience, he created the New World Symphony in Miami Beach; he served as the group's artistic director from its creation until 2022. Tilson Thomas also spent time composing, writing From the Diary of Anne Frank on commission from UNICEF in 1990 (the premiere was narrated by actress Audrey Hepburn). In 1995, he was commissioned by Hiroshima, Japan, to write Shówa/Shoáh for the 50th anniversary of the bombing of the city. That year, Tilson Thomas was appointed as the 11th music director of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Upon taking the post with the San Francisco Symphony, he became the principal guest conductor of the London Symphony. Together, he and the San Francisco Symphony went on international tours, won a 1997 Grammy Award for their recording of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, created the cross-platform educational program Keeping Score, and launched their own label in 2001, where many of Tilson Thomas' recordings with the orchestra were released. Among these is one of Mahler's Symphony No. 5, which was issued in 2006. In 2009, he received the National Medal of Arts, the highest artistic award given in the U.S. In 2016, Tilson Thomas was named conductor laureate of the London Symphony, and the following year, he announced he would retire at the end of the 2019-2020 season. He led the San Francisco Symphony on a complete cycle of Robert Schumann's symphonies in 2017. He received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2019. The following year, he led the orchestra on a recording of his From the Diary of Anne Frank and Meditations on Rilke, and he was named a Chevalier dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the San Francisco Symphony's planned farewell festivities to conclude Tilson Thomas' tenure were re-organized as a 25-day online celebration. He took the post of music director laureate and led the orchestra for several weekends a season. Tilson Thomas was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2021; he subsequently underwent surgery and treatment. He continued to conduct and compose, and in 2023, his solo piano work, You Come Here Often?, was included on Yuja Wang's Grammy-winning album The American Project. The collection Grace: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas, was issued in 2024, and although his health required him to drastically reduce his conducting appearances, Tilson Thomas led Mahler's Fifth Symphony in his final subscription concert that year, bookending his career with the San Francisco Symphony with the same composer he also conducted in his 1974 debut. In September 2024, he led the New York Philharmonic in that Mahler work to open the Philharmonic's season. In early 2025, Tilson Thomas announced that his brain tumor had returned. He made his final appearance that April, leading the San Francisco Symphony in a concert celebrating his 80th birthday. Tilson Thomas died at his San Francisco home on April 22, 2026, two months after the death of his husband and partner of nearly 40 years, Joshua Robison. ~ TiVo Staff, Rovi