Michael Tilson Thomas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael Tilson Thomas (born December 21, 1944), nicknamed MTT, is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is the son of Broadway stage manager Ted Thomas, and the grandson of noted Yiddish theater stars Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky. His mother, Roberta Thomas, was a middle school history teacher.
He was born in Los Angeles, California, where he studied at the University of Southern California under Ingolf Dahl among others. As a student of Friedlinde Wagner, Michael Tilson Thomas was a Musical Assistant and Assistant Conductor at the Bayreuth Festival. In 1969 he made his conducting debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, replacing an unwell William Steinberg in mid-concert. He stayed with the Boston ensemble as an assistant conductor until 1974. He was music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra from 1971 to 1979, and from 1971 to 1977 conducted the series of Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic.
From 1981 to 1985 he was principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, and from 1988 to 1995 he was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, becoming principal guest conductor thereafter. In 1995 he became music director of the San Francisco Symphony. He is founder of the New World Symphony Orchestra (based in Miami, Florida) which acts as a training ground for young musicians.
Tilson Thomas has conducted a wide variety of music, and is a particular champion of modern American works, recording the complete symphonies of Charles Ives and the premiere recording of Steve Reich's The Desert Music. Reich's composition The Four Sections was actually commissioned for the San Francisco Symphony and dedicated to Thomas. Thomas premiered the piece in San Francisco and later recorded the piece for Nonesuch with the London Symphony Orchestra. He is also famous for his interpretation of Gustav Mahler's works, and since the death of Leonard Bernstein he is considered to be the world's premier interpreter of the works of Aaron Copland.
His compositions include From the Diary of Anne Frank; Shówa/Shoáh, memorializing the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima; Poems of Emily Dickinson; and Urban Legend.
Michael Tilson Thomas hosts the Keeping Score television series, three one-hour documentary-style episodes and two live-concert programs which began airing nationally on PBS stations in early November 2006. They have been compared to Leonard Bernstein’s Young People's Concerts which aired in the 1960s.1
In April 2005 he conducted the Carnegie Hall premiere of Remembrances of Thomashefsky's Yiddish Theater. NPR story
[edit] Quotations
(In response to an interviewer's question as to why Michael Tilson Thomas did not list Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven among his favorite composers): "You can't have Bach, Mozart and Beethoven as your favorite composers: They simply define what music is!" (Interview during concert broadcast)
[edit] References
1. Anthony Tomassini, The New York Times: “Updating ‘Uncle Lenny’ for a Multitasking Age,” November 3, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/arts/music/03thom.html?_r=2&ref=arts&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
[edit] External links
- G. Schirmer - Michael Tilson Thomas biography and further reading
- NewMusicBox: Michael Tilson Thomas in conversation with Frank J. Oteri, 2001
- MTT BPO Music Director, 1971-79
- American Mavericks MTT
- Sony Classical MTT
| Preceded by: Claudio Abbado |
Principal Conductor, London Symphony Orchestra 1987–1995 |
Succeeded by: Sir Colin Davis |
| Preceded by: Herbert Blomstedt |
Music Director, San Francisco Symphony 1995– |
Succeeded by: incumbent |
