Michael Tilson Thomas
Tilson Thomas in 2008
Tilson Thomas in 2008
Background information
Born (1944-12-21) 21 December 1944
GenresClassical
Occupation(s)Conductor, Pianist, Composer
Websitehttps://michaeltilsonthomas.com

Michael Tilson Thomas (born December 21, 1944) is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is Artistic Director Laureate of the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy based in Miami Beach, Florida, Music Director Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, and Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Biography

Tilson Thomas was born in Los Angeles, California, to Ted and Roberta Thomas, a Broadway stage manager and a middle school history teacher, respectively. He is the grandson of noted Yiddish theater stars Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, who performed in the Yiddish Theater District in Manhattan. The family talent goes back to Tilson Thomas's great-grandfather, Pincus, an actor and playwright, and before that to a long line of cantors; his father, Theodor Herzl Tomashefsky (Ted Thomas), was also a poet and painter.

He was an only child and musical prodigy.[1] Tilson Thomas studied piano with John Crown and composition and conducting under Ingolf Dahl at the University of Southern California, where he graduated from the USC Thornton School of Music ’67 and MM ’76. As a student of Friedelind Wagner, Tilson Thomas was a Musical Assistant and Assistant Conductor at the Bayreuth Festival.

Tilson Thomas lives in San Francisco with his husband and partner of over 40 years, Joshua Robison.[2][3][4] The couple married on November 2, 2014.[5] In March 2022, Tilson Thomas disclosed publicly for the first time that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, called glioblastoma multiforme.[6][7]

Career

Tilson Thomas has conducted a wide variety of music and is a particular champion of modern American works. He is also renowned for his interpretation of the works of Gustav Mahler; he has recorded all nine Mahler symphonies and other major orchestral works with the San Francisco Symphony. These recordings have been released on the high-resolution audio format Super Audio CD on the San Francisco Symphony's own recording label. Tilson Thomas is also known as a premier interpreter of the works of Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, and Steve Reich.

A sampling of Tilson Thomas's own compositions include From the Diary of Anne Frank (1990),[8] Shówa/Shoáh (1995, memorializing the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima),[9] Poems of Emily Dickinson (2002)[10] and Urban Legend (2002).[11]

Tilson Thomas has also been devoted to music education. He leads a series of education programs titled Keeping Score which offers insight into the lives and works of great composers, and led a series of Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic. Tilson Thomas founded the New World Symphony in Miami in 1987. Most recently, Tilson Thomas has led two incarnations of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which brings young musicians from around the world together for a week of music making and learning.

Tilson Thomas currently serves as president of the Tomashefsky Project, a $2 million undertaking formed in 2017 that is intended to record and preserve his grandparents' theatrical achievements, and is on the faculty of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.[12]

Due to health concerns, Tilson Thomas announced on March 2, 2022, he would be stepping down as the Artistic Director of the New World Symphony and instead serve as the Artistic Director Laureate.[13]

Boston, Buffalo, New York, and Los Angeles

From 1968 to 1994, Tilson Thomas was the Music Director of the Ojai Music Festival seven times. After winning the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood in 1969, Tilson Thomas was named Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. That same year, he made his conducting debut with the orchestra, replacing an unwell William Steinberg mid-concert and thereby coming into international recognition at the age of 24. He stayed with the Boston Symphony as Principal Guest Conductor until 1974[14] and made several recordings with the orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon. He was music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra from 1971 to 1979, and recorded for Columbia Records with the orchestra.[15]

Thomas conducting the New York Philharmonic Young People's Concert, 1977.

Between 1971 and 1977, he also conducted the series of Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic as well as the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra based in Los Angeles. From 1981 to 1985, he was principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. During a 1985 performance of Mahler's Eighth Symphony at the Hollywood Bowl, a (police) helicopter flew over the venue, disrupting the concert. Tilson temporarily left the stage.[16]

In 2007, he returned to the Hollywood Bowl leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic again in the Mahler Eighth, announcing jokingly, "Now where were we?" He returned in 2013 with Mahler's Second Symphony, when another helicopter flew over the venue. He stopped the orchestra, but then resumed the performance.

New World and London

In 1987, Tilson Thomas founded the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, an orchestral academy for gifted young musicians whose stated mission is "to prepare highly-gifted graduates of distinguished music programs for leadership roles in orchestras and ensembles around the world."[17] He played an instrumental role in the development of the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center in Miami Beach, which opened in 2011, and currently maintains a relationship with the organization as Artistic Director Laureate.[18] (The two had personal history, with Gehry sometimes having baby-sat for Tilson Thomas back when both were growing up in Los Angeles.[18]) In March 2022, Tilson Thomas announced that he is to stand down as Artistic Director of the New World Symphony as of 1 June 2022.[6]

From 1988 to 1995, Tilson Thomas was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), and recorded with them for such labels as Columbia (now Sony Classical), including the Symphony No. 3 of Mahler. From 1995, he held the title of principal guest conductor with the LSO, and became conductor laureate in 2016.

San Francisco

Tilson Thomas became the San Francisco Symphony's 11th Music Director in 1995. He originally made his debut with the orchestra in January 1974 conducting Mahler's Symphony No. 9. During his first season with the San Francisco Symphony, Tilson Thomas included a work by an American composer on nearly every one of his programs, including the first performances ever by the orchestra of music by Lou Harrison, and culminated with "An American Festival," a two-week focus on American music.[19]

In June 2000, Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony presented a landmark 12-concert American Mavericks Festival, recognizing the innovative works of 20th century American composers. Additional season-ending festivals in Davies Symphony Hall have included explorations of the music of Wagner, Prokofiev, Mahler, Stravinsky, Beethoven and Weill, including semi-staged productions of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera-ballet Mlada, Beethoven's Fidelio, and Wagner's The Flying Dutchman.

During his tenure, the orchestra began to issue recordings on its own SFS Media label. In October 2017, the orchestra announced that Tilson Thomas would conclude his tenure as its music director at the close of the 2019–2020 season, and subsequently take the title of music director laureate.[20][19]

In April 2005, he conducted the Carnegie Hall premiere of The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater, partly as a tribute to his own grandparents.[21] Other American orchestras have since performed this production, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, New World Symphony and San Francisco Symphony. It has also been recorded for future broadcast on PBS.[22]

Tilson Thomas collaborated with YouTube in 2009 to help create the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra whose members were selected from 30 countries based on more than 3,000 video auditions on YouTube. The Orchestra, as well as such soloists as Mason Bates, Measha Brueggergosman, Joshua Roman, Gil Shaham, Yuja Wang, and Jess Larsen, and participated in a classical music summit in New York City at the Juilliard School over three days. The event culminated in a live concert at Carnegie Hall on Wednesday, April 15. The concert was later made available on YouTube.[23] On March 20, 2011, Tilson Thomas also conducted the "YTSO2" (YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2) in Sydney.[24]

Film and TV

His first television appearances were in the Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic, airing from 1971 to 1977.[25] He has also made regular appearances on PBS, with broadcasts featuring Tilson Thomas airing from 1972 through 2008. Eight episodes of WNET's Great Performances series have featured Tilson Thomas. He has also been featured on Japan's NHK and the BBC many times in the last three decades.

In 1976, Tilson Thomas appeared alongside Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck in a prime-time special, Bugs and Daffy's Carnival of the Animals, a combined live action/animated broadcast of The Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saëns.[26]

In 2011 he hosted a concert stage show celebrating his grandparents and the music of American Yiddish theatre The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater, which aired in 2012 on the PBS series "Great Performances." [27]

Tilson Thomas hosted the Keeping Score television series, nine one-hour documentary-style episodes and eight live-concert programs, which began airing nationally on PBS stations in early November 2006. He and the San Francisco Symphony have examined the lives and music of Gustav Mahler, Dmitri Shostakovich, Charles Ives, Hector Berlioz, Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Keeping Score discography
  • Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony – 2004
  • Beethoven's Eroica – 2006
  • Copland and the American Sound – 2006
  • Stravinsky's Rite of Spring – 2006
  • Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique – 2009
  • Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 – 2009
  • Ives' Holiday Symphony – 2009
  • Mahler: Origins and Legacy – 2011

Partial discography

Tilson Thomas has made more than 120 recordings, including works by Bach, Mahler, Beethoven, Prokofiev and Stravinsky as well as his pioneering work with the music of Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles, Steve Reich, John Cage, Ingolf Dahl, Morton Feldman, George Gershwin, John McLaughlin and Elvis Costello. He has recorded the complete orchestral works of Gustav Mahler with the San Francisco Symphony.

Year Orchestra Composer Work (and soloists, if any) Label
1991 London Symphony Orchestra Adam Music from "Giselle" Sony
1990 London Symphony Orchestra, Ambrosian Singers Beethoven Late Choral Music CBS Masterworks
1986 Orchestra of St. Luke's Beethoven Symphony No. 3
Contredanses for Orchestra, WoO 14		 CBS Masterworks
2010 San Francisco Symphony Beethoven Symphony No. 5
Piano Concerto No. 4 (Ax)		 SFS Media
1999 English Chamber Orchestra Beethoven Symphony No. 6, "Pastorale" Sony Classical
1996 London Symphony Orchestra Bernstein Arias and Barcarolles (von Stade, Hampson), Suite from A Quiet Place and Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. For details, see Arias and Barcarolles (Michael Tilson Thomas recording) Deutsche Grammophon
1993 London Symphony Orchestra, London Voices Bernstein On the Town (Daly, von Stade, Lear, Laine, McLaughlin, Hampson, Garrison, Ollmann, Ramey) For details, see On the Town (Michael Tilson Thomas recording) Deutsche Grammophon
1991 London Symphony Orchestra Brahms Serenade No. 1
Tragic Overture
Academic Festival Overture		 Sony Classical
1992 London Symphony Orchestra Brahms Serenade No. 2 / Haydn
Variations / Hungarian
Dances – selections		 Sony Classical
2002 Stravinsky
Cage
Reich		 The Rite of Spring
Three Dances
Four Organs		 Angel Records
1996 San Francisco Symphony Copland Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
Orchestra Variations
Short Symphony
Symphonic Ode (with Garrick Ohlsson)		 RCA Victor Red Seal
1972 Boston Symphony Orchestra Debussy Images
Prélude À L'Après-Midi D'Un Faune		 Deutsche Grammophon
1993 London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Debussy Le martyre de St. Sebastien (with McNair, Murray, Stutzman, Caron) Sony Classical
2007 Boston Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players Debussy Sonata No. 1 for Cello and Piano (Eskin, Tilson Thomas)
Sonata No. 2 for Flute, Viola and Harp (Dwyer, Fine, Hobson)
Violin Sonata (Silverstein, Tilson Thomas)		 Deutsche Grammophon
1999 New World Symphony Feldman Coptic Light (Cohen, Feinberg) Argo
1976 Columbia Jazz Band,
New York Philharmonic		 Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue (composer, piano roll)
An American in Paris		 Columbia
1990 Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra Gershwin Gershwin Live! (Vaughan, Tilson Thomas) Sony Classical
1984 Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue (Tilson Thomas)
Second Rhapsody for Orchestra with Piano
Preludes for Piano Promenade
Unpublished Piano Works		 Columbia
1970 Boston Symphony Orchestra Ives
Ruggles		 Three Places in New England
Sun-treader		 Deutsche Grammophon
1991 Chicago Symphony Orchestra Ives Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4 Sony Classical
2002 San Francisco Symphony Ives An American Journey RCA Victor Red Seal
1990 Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Ives Holiday Symphony
Unanswered Question (Herseth)
Central Park in the Dark		 Sony Classical
1992 London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Janáček Glagolitic Mass (Benackova, Palmer, Lakes, Kotscherga)
Sinfonietta		 Sony Classical
1974 London Symphony Orchestra Mahavishnu Apocalypse (Mahavishnu Orchestra) Sony Classical
2004 San Francisco Symphony Mahler Symphony No. 1 SFS Media
2004 San Francisco Symphony and Chorus Mahler Symphony No. 2 SFS Media
2004 San Francisco Symphony and Chorus,
Pacific Boychoir,
San Francisco Symphony Girls Chorus		 Mahler Symphony No. 3
Kindertotenlieder (DeYoung)		 SFS Media
2004 San Francisco Symphony Mahler Symphony No. 4 (Claycomb) SFS Media
2004 San Francisco Symphony Mahler Symphony No. 5 SFS Media
2004 San Francisco Symphony Mahler Symphony No. 6 SFS Media
2005 San Francisco Symphony Mahler Symphony No. 7 SFS Media
2009 San Francisco Symphony and Chorus,
Pacific Boychoir,
San Francisco Girls Chorus		 Mahler Symphony No. 8 SFS Media
2005 San Francisco Symphony Mahler Symphony No. 9 SFS Media
2008 San Francisco Symphony Mahler Das Klagende Lied (Shaguch, DeYoung, Moser, Lieferkus)
Das Lied von der Erde (Skelton, Hampson)		 RCA Red Seal
1990 London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus,
South End Boys		 Mahler Symphony No. 3
Rückert Lieder (Baker)		 Sony Classical
1999 London Symphony Orchestra Mahler Symphony No. 7 RCA Victor Red Seal
2010 San Francisco Symphony Mahler Songs with Orchestra (Graham, Hampson) SFS Media
1998 New World Symphony New World Jazz New World Jazz RCA Victor Red Seal
1997 London Symphony Orchestra Prokofiev Symphonies Nos. 1 & 5 Sony Classical
2004 San Francisco Symphony Prokofiev Romeo & Juliet RCA Red Seal
1991 Hungarian State Orchestra Puccini Tosca (Marton, Carreras, Pons, Tajo) Sony Classical
1989 London Symphony Orchestra Ravel Ma mère l'oye
Bolero
Pavane pour une infante défunte
Pièce en forme de Habañera
L'éventail de Jeanne
Fanfare		 Sony Classical
1990 Colorado Quartet,
Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra		 Reich The Desert Music Nonesuch
1994 London Symphony Orchestra Reich The Three movements Nonesuch
1980 Buffalo Philharmonic Ruggles Complete Music of Carl Ruggles Columbia
1971 Boston Symphony Orchestra Schuman
Piston		 Violin Concerto (Paul Zukofsky)
Symphony No. 2		 Deutsche Grammophon
1986 London Symphony Orchestra Strauss, R. Ein Heldenleben
Till Eulenspiegels Lustige Streiche		 Columbia
1972 Boston Symphony Orchestra Stravinsky Le sacre du printemps
Le roi des etoiles		 Deutsche Grammophon
1997 London Symphony Orchestra Stravinsky Stravinsky in America Sony Classical
1999 San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Symphony Chorus,
San Francisco Girls Chorus,
Ragazzi, the Peninsula Boys Chorus		 Stravinsky Le sacre du printemps
L'oiseau de feu
Persephone		 RCA Victor Red Seal
1993 New World Symphony Tangazo Tangazo Argo
1970 Boston Symphony Orchestra Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 1 Deutsche Grammophon
1990 Philharmonia Orchestra Tchaikovsky Suite No. 2
Suite No. 4		 Sony Classical
2005 Berliner Philharmoniker Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (Bell)
Méditation No. 1: Souvenir d'un lieucher
Swan Lake: Danse russe		 RCA Red Seal
1997 New World Symphony, BBC Singers Villa Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras Nos. 4 & 5 (Fleming)
Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9
Coros Nos. 5 & 10		 RCA Victor Red Seal
1990 London Symphony Orchestra Weill The Seven Deadly Sins (Migenes)
The Little Three Penny Music		 Sony Classical
2013 London Symphony Orchestra Saint-Saëns Cello Concertos n°1 Op.33 & n°2 Op.119 (Steven Isserlis) RCA BMG

List of compositions

Orchestra

  • From the Diary of Anne Frank (1990) for narrator and orchestra
  • Shówa/Shoáh (1995)
  • Agnegram (1998)
  • Whitman Songs (1999) for vocal baritone and orchestra
  • Poems of Emily Dickinson (2002) for vocal soprano and orchestra
  • Urban Legend (2002) for contrabassoon and orchestra
  • Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind (2016) for mezzo-soprano, 2 female back-up singers, chamber orchestra, and bar band
  • Meditations on Rilke (2019) for mezzo-soprano, baritone, and orchestra

Chamber ensemble

  • Street Song for Symphonic Brass (1988) for 3 C trumpets, B-flat flugelhorn, 4 horns in F, 2 trombones, bass trombone, and tuba
  • Street Song for Brass Quintet (1988) for brass quintet
  • Five Songs (1988) for vocal baritone and piano
  • Grace (1993) for vocal soprano
  • Fame, from Poems of Emily Dickinson (2001)
  • Island Music (2003) for 2 solo marimba, 2 tutti marimba, and 2 percussion
  • Notturno (2005) for flute and string quintet + harp (also available for flute and piano)
  • Stay Together (2006) for electronics

Awards

Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium

Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance

Grammy Award for Best Classical Album

Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance

Peabody Award

National Medal of Arts

  • 2009 National Medal of Arts.

Kennedy Center Honor

  • 2019 Kennedy Center Honor was presented December 8, 2019.[29]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Tilson-Thomas, Michael" (2004). Contemporary Musicians. Gale/Cengage Learning. Via Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
  2. ↑ Safer, Morley (February 5, 2006). "The Passion of Michael Tilson Thomas". 60 Minutes. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  3. ↑ Oestreich, James R. (February 10, 2002). "Michael Tilson Thomas: Maverick in a City of Same". The New York Times. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  4. ↑ "Thomas Gets Poetic Pondering the Big 6–0". San Francisco Chronicle. December 24, 2004. Archived from the original on April 2, 2008. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  5. ↑ Garchik, Leah (November 3, 2014). "38 years together, Tilson Thomas and Robison marry". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 3, 2014.
  6. 1 2 "A Letter from MTT / From the New World Symphony" (Press release). New World Symphony. March 2, 2022. Retrieved March 18, 2022.
  7. ↑ Ulaby, Neda (March 2, 2022). "Michael Tilson Thomas discusses cancer and his scaled-back New World Symphony role". National Public Radio. Retrieved April 1, 2022.
  8. ↑ "Michael Tilson Thomas: From the Diary of Anne Frank". G. Schirmer, Inc. Retrieved December 27, 2006.
  9. ↑ "Michael Tilson Thomas: Shówa/Shoáh". G. Schirmer, Inc. Retrieved December 27, 2006.
  10. ↑ "Michael Tilson Thomas: Poems of Emily Dickinson". G. Schirmer, Inc. Retrieved December 27, 2006.
  11. ↑ "Michael Tilson Thomas: Urban Legend". G. Schirmer, Inc. Retrieved December 27, 2006.
  12. ↑ "Michael Tilson Thomas named Judge Widney Professor of Music | USC Thornton School of Music". music.usc.edu. Archived from the original on May 26, 2014.
  13. ↑ Ulaby, Neda (March 2, 2022). "Michael Tilson Thomas discusses cancer and his scaled-back New World Symphony role". NPR.
  14. ↑ "Conductor: Michael Tilson Thomas". Profiles. Boston Symphony Orchestra. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
  15. ↑ "Michael Tilson Thomas: BPO Music Director, 1971–79". Music Department, University at Buffalo. Archived from the original on September 11, 2006. Retrieved December 27, 2006.
  16. ↑ "Hovering Helicopter : Tilson Thomas Strikes a New Note at Bowl". Los Angeles Times. August 1985.
  17. ↑ "New World Symphony Statement of Purpose". New World Symphony. Retrieved December 27, 2006.
  18. 1 2 Ouroussoff, Nicolai (January 23, 2011). "Architecture Review: Gehry Design Plays Fanfare for the Common Man". The New York Times.
  19. 1 2 Kosman, Joshua (October 31, 2017). "Michael Tilson Thomas to step down from San Francisco Symphony in 2020". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
  20. ↑ "Michael Tilson Thomas Announces Plans to Conclude His 25-Year Tenure as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Following the 2019–2020 Season" (Press release). San Francisco Symphony. October 31, 2017. Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved November 1, 2017.
  21. ↑ Lunden, Jeff (April 15, 2004). "Project Recalls Yiddish Theater Legends". NPR. Morning Edition. Retrieved December 26, 2006.
  22. ↑ The Thomashefskys Official Website – Home. Thomashefsky.org. Retrieved on November 22, 2011.
  23. ↑ "YouTube Symphony Orchestra". Archived from the original on May 31, 2009. Retrieved May 31, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  24. ↑ What a twist: Tognetti and Barton simply the warm-up acts. The Sydney Morning Herald. March 14, 2011.
  25. ↑ Michael Tilson Thomas (Conductor) – Short Biography. Bach-cantatas.com. Retrieved on November 22, 2011.
  26. ↑ Jones, Chuck; Klynn, Herbert; Woolery, Gerry (November 22, 1976), Carnival of the Animals (Animation, Comedy, Family), Mel Blanc, Michael Tilson Thomas, Chuck Jones Enterprises, Warner Bros. Television, retrieved September 20, 2023
  27. ↑ Jones, Kenneth (March 29, 2012). "Thomashefskys, Musical Portrait of Yiddish Stage, Airs on PBS March 29". Playbill. Archived from the original on April 10, 2012.
  28. ↑ 67th Annual Peabody Awards: The MTT Files, May 2008.
  29. ↑ Gans, Andrew (July 18, 2019). "Sally Field and Linda Ronstadt Among 2019 Kennedy Center Honorees". Playbill.
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