Michael Tilson Thomas

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Template:Infobox musical artist Michael Tilson Thomas (b. December 21, 1944), aka MTT, is an American conductor, pianist, and composer. He is currently music director of the San Francisco Symphony.

1 Biography
2 Awards
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

Biography

Family and education

Thomas was born in Los Angeles, California, 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.

Thomas studied at the University of Southern California under Ingolf Dahl among others. As a student of Friedlinde Wagner, Thomas was a Musical Assistant and Assistant Conductor at the Bayreuth Festival.

Professional career

In 1969 Thomas 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.^[1] During much of the time from 1971 to 1977, he also 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. Thomas founded the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida in 1987, a premier 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.”^[2] Thomas remains involved, currently serving as the academy's artistic director. 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.

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 (1984). Reich's composition The Four Sections (1987), was actually commissioned for the San Francisco Symphony and dedicated to Thomas.^[3]^[4] The piece premiered with Thomas in San Francisco and was later recorded for Nonesuch with the London Symphony Orchestra. He is also renowned for his interpretation of the works of Gustav Mahler, and since the death of Leonard Bernstein he is considered the world's premier interpreter of the works of Aaron Copland.

A sampling of Thomas's own compositions include From the Diary of Anne Frank (1990),^[5] Shówa/Shoáh (1995),^[6] memorializing the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima; Poems of Emily Dickinson (2002);^[7] and Urban Legend (2002).^[8]

Thomas' 1976 recording of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the Columbia Jazz Band featured not only the original 1924 jazz band arrangement (as opposed to the more popular symphony orchestra arrangement, written in 1942), but also featured piano "played" by the late composer, via a piano roll made by Gershwin himself in 1925.

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.^[9]

In April 2005 he conducted the Carnegie Hall premiere of Remembrances of Thomashefsky's Yiddish Theater.^[10]