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Michael Tilson Thomas

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Michael Tilson Thomas
Thomas in 2008
Born(1944-12-21)December 21, 1944
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
DiedApril 22, 2026(2026-04-22) (aged 81)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Occupations
  • Conductor
  • Composer
  • Pianist
  • Music pedagogue
Organizations
Spouse
Joshua Robison
​
​
(m. 2014; died 2026)​
Awards
Websitemichaeltilsonthomas.com

Michael Tilson Thomas (December 21, 1944 – April 22, 2026) was an American conductor, composer, pianist and music pedagogue. He was music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra from 1971 to 1979. He founded the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy in Miami Beach, Florida, in 1987, serving as artistic director until 2022 and then as artistic director laureate. Thomas was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 1988 to 1995, and then music director of the San Francisco Symphony until 2020. He conducted a wide repertoire of music, with a focus on the works by Gustav Mahler and of contemporary American music; he was the first to record some works by Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, and Steve Reich. Thomas appeared on television in the Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic and hosted the Keeping Score series. He collaborated with popular artists including Elvis Costello and Metallica.

His compositions include From the Diary of Anne Frank (1990), Shówa/Shoáh (1995) for the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Poems of Emily Dickinson (2002), and Meditations on Rilke (2019). He was the subject of the American Masters documentary Michael Tilson Thomas: Where Now Is.

Life and career

[edit]

Thomas was born on December 21, 1944, in Los Angeles, California,[1][2][3][4] to Ted and Roberta (Meritzer)[5] Thomas, a Broadway stage manager and a middle school history teacher, respectively.[6][7] He was the grandson of Yiddish theater stars Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, who performed in the Yiddish Theater District in Manhattan.[8] The family talent goes back to 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.[8]

He was an only child and musical prodigy.[4] Thomas studied piano with John Crown and composition and conducting with Ingolf Dahl at the University of Southern California,[9] where he graduated from the USC Thornton School of Music '67 and MM '76.[10] As a student of Friedelind Wagner, Thomas was a Musical Assistant and Assistant Conductor at the Bayreuth Festival.[2][11] As a young man, he was driving and heard music "so powerful I pulled over to the side of the road." It was James Brown singing "Cold Sweat". He credited Brown with influencing his musical timing.[12]

Boston, Buffalo, New York, and Los Angeles

[edit]

From 1968 to 1994, Thomas was the music director of the Ojai Music Festival seven times. After winning the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood in 1969, he 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 to international recognition at the age of 24. He stayed with the Boston Symphony as principal guest conductor until 1974[13] 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.[14]

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

Between 1971 and 1977, Thomas 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. Thomas temporarily left the stage.[15] In 2007, he returned to the Hollywood Bowl, leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic again in the Mahler Eighth, asking jokingly, "Now where were we?"[16]

New World Symphony

[edit]
Tilson Thomas with Audrey Hepburn in 1990

In 1987, Thomas founded the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, an orchestral academy for 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 maintained a relationship with the organization as Artistic Director Laureate.[18] (The two had personal history: Gehry sometimes baby-sat for Thomas when both were growing up in Los Angeles.[18]) In March 2022, Thomas announced that he would stand down as artistic director of the New World Symphony as of June 1, 2022.[19]

London

[edit]

From 1988 to 1995, Thomas was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO)[1] and recorded with them for such labels as Columbia (now Sony Classical), including Mahler's Symphony No. 3. From 1995, he held the title of principal guest conductor with the LSO, and became conductor laureate in 2016.[20]

San Francisco

[edit]

Thomas became the San Francisco Symphony's 11th music director in 1995. He made his debut with the orchestra in January 1974 conducting Mahler's Symphony No. 9. During his first season with the San Francisco Symphony, 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.[21] During his tenure, the orchestra began to issue recordings on its own SFS Media label.[22][23] He conducted Elvis Costello's Il Sogno.[24]

Thomas conducting Mahler's Ninth at Carnegie Hall, 2019

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.[25] 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.[26]

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, with soloists such as Mason Bates, Measha Brueggergosman, Joshua Roman, Gil Shaham, Yuja Wang, and Jess Larsen, 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 April 15. The concert was later made available on YouTube.[27] On March 20, 2011, Thomas also conducted the "YTSO2" (YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2) in Sydney.[28]

In October 2017, the orchestra announced that 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.[21][29]

Thomas was featured on the 2020 album S&M2 with thrash metal band Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony.[30] Thomas only conducted during the performance of "Scythian Suite, Opus 20 II: The Enemy God and the Dance of the Dark Spirits", "The Iron Foundry, Opus 19", and "The Unforgiven III", and then conducted "Enter Sandman" before moving to keyboards and leaving Edwin Outwater conducting[31] the symphony orchestra.[32]

As educator

[edit]

Thomas was also devoted to music education. He led 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. He founded the New World Symphony in Miami in 1987. Thomas 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.

Thomas served 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 was on the faculty of the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.[33]

Due to health concerns, Thomas announced on March 2, 2022, that he would be stepping down as the artistic director of the New World Symphony and instead serve as the artistic director laureate.[34]

Personal life

[edit]

Thomas lived in San Francisco.[35][36][37] He married Joshua Robison on November 2, 2014.[38] The two were together for 50 years, having first met as 11 and 12 year-olds in a junior high orchestra.[1] Robison died on February 22, 2026, at the age of 79.[39]

On August 6, 2021, Thomas disclosed publicly for the first time that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, called glioblastoma multiforme.[19][40][41]

On January 9, 2022, Thomas returned to his hometown to conduct—for the first time since his cancer disclosure—the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Despite the small audience at Walt Disney Concert Hall due to more than 43,000 newly-diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, Thomas was greeted warmly. He proceeded to lead a concert of works by Gabriel Fauré, Thomas's own Meditations on Rilke—wistful reflections on life and death as the composer turned 75 in 2019—and to conclude, a performance of Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony.[42] In 2023, Thomas was featured in the American Masters documentary Michael Tilson Thomas: Where Now Is.[43]

In February 2025, Thomas announced that his brain tumor had returned.[44] His final public appearance was on April 26, 2025, when he conducted the San Francisco Symphony in a belated 80th birthday celebration concert.[45]

On April 22, 2026, Thomas died of the disease at his home in San Francisco, at the age of 81.[1][2][3]

Film and television

[edit]

Thomas first appeared on television in the Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic, airing from 1971 to 1977.[46] He regularly appeared on PBS, in broadcasts from 1972 through 2008. Eight episodes of WNET's Great Performances series featured him. He also appeared on Japan's NHK and the BBC many times in the last three decades.

In 1976, 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.[47]

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.[48]

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.[49]

Keeping Score discography[49]

Recordings

[edit]

Thomas recorded extensively for labels including Columbia, Sony, Deutsche Grammophon (DG), Argo and RCA. His discography includes works by Bach, 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.[50][51] He was renowned for his interpretation of Mahler's music,[52] recording all nine symphonies and other major orchestral works with the San Francisco Symphony. These recordings have been released on the high-fidelity audio format Super Audio CD on the San Francisco Symphony's own recording label.

His recordings include:[53][54]

Year Orchestra Composer Work (and soloists, if any) Label
1991 London Symphony Orchestra Adam Music from Giselle OCLC 1335674955 Sony
1990 London Symphony Orchestra, Ambrosian Singers Beethoven Late Choral Music OCLC 913823393 CBS Masterworks
1986 Orchestra of St. Luke's Symphony No. 3
Contredanses, WoO 14 OCLC 1548593458
2010 San Francisco Symphony Symphony No. 5
Piano Concerto No. 4 (Emanuel Ax) OCLC 873571690 		SFS Media
1999 English Chamber Orchestra Symphony No. 6 "Pastorale" OCLC 643939737 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. OCLC 979418653 DG
1993 London Symphony Orchestra, London Voices On the Town (Daly, von Stade, Lear, Laine, McLaughlin, Hampson, Garrison, Ollmann, Ramey)OCLC 249153348
1991 London Symphony Orchestra Brahms Serenade No. 1
Tragic Overture
Academic Festival Overture OCLC 906155931 		Sony Classical
1992 London Symphony Orchestra Serenade No. 2 / Haydn Variations / Hungarian Dances OCLC 1554311498
2002 Cage
Stravinsky
Reich 		Three Dances
The Rite of Spring
Four Organs OCLC 731618798 		Angel Records
1996 San Francisco Symphony Copland Piano Concerto
Orchestra Variations
Short Symphony
Symphonic Ode (with Garrick Ohlsson) OCLC 1523072164 		RCA Victor Red Seal
1972 Boston Symphony Orchestra Debussy Images
Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune OCLC 1501619271 		DG
1993 London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Le Martyre de saint Sébastien (with McNair, Murray, Stutzman, Caron) OCLC 1548673108 Sony Classical
2007 Boston Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players Cello Sonata (Eskin, Thomas)
Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp (Dwyer, Fine, Hobson)
Violin Sonata (Silverstein, Thomas)OCLC 1501620269 		DG
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 Live! (Sarah Vaughan, Thomas) Sony Classical
1984 Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra Rhapsody in Blue (Thomas)
Second Rhapsody
Preludes for Piano Promenade
Unpublished Piano Works 		Columbia
1970 Boston Symphony Orchestra Ives
Ruggles
Piston 		Three Places in New England
Sun-treader
Symphony No. 2 		DG
1991 Chicago Symphony Orchestra Ives Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4 Sony Classical
2002 San Francisco Symphony An American Journey RCA Victor Red Seal
1990 Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Holiday Symphony
The Unanswered Question (Herseth)
Central Park in the Dark 		Sony Classical
1992 London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Janáček Glagolitic Mass (Benackova, Palmer, Lakes, Kotscherga)
Sinfonietta
1974 London Symphony Orchestra Mahavishnu Apocalypse (Mahavishnu Orchestra)
2004 San Francisco Symphony Mahler Symphony No. 1 SFS Media
San Francisco Symphony and Chorus Symphony No. 2
San Francisco Symphony and Chorus,
Pacific Boychoir,
San Francisco Symphony Girls Chorus 		Symphony No. 3
Kindertotenlieder (DeYoung)
San Francisco Symphony Symphony No. 4 (Claycomb)
Symphony No. 5
Symphony No. 6
2005 San Francisco Symphony Symphony No. 7
2009 San Francisco Symphony and Chorus,
Pacific Boychoir
San Francisco Girls Chorus 		Symphony No. 8
2005 San Francisco Symphony Symphony No. 9
2008 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 		Symphony No. 3
Rückert Lieder (Baker) 		Sony Classical
1999 London Symphony Orchestra Symphony No. 7 RCA Victor Red Seal
2010 San Francisco Symphony 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 Romeo and Juliet RCA Red Seal
1991 Hungarian State Orchestra Puccini Tosca (Éva Marton, José Carreras, Pons, Tajo) Sony Classical
1989 London Symphony Orchestra Ravel Ma mère l'Oye
Boléro
Pavane pour une infante défunte
Pièce en forme de Habañera
L'Éventail de Jeanne
Fanfare
1990 Colorado Quartet,
Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra 		Reich The Desert Music Nonesuch
1994 London Symphony Orchestra The Three movements
1980 Buffalo Philharmonic Ruggles Complete Music of Carl Ruggles Columbia
1971 Boston Symphony Orchestra Schumann
Piston 		Violin Concerto (Paul Zukofsky)
Symphony No. 2 		DG
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 		DG
1997 London Symphony Orchestra Stravinsky in America Sony Classical
1999 San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Symphony Chorus,
San Francisco Girls Chorus,
Ragazzi, the Peninsula Boys Chorus 		Le sacre du printemps
L'oiseau de feu
Perséphone 		RCA Victor Red Seal
1993 New World Symphony Tangazo Tangazo Argo
1970 Boston Symphony Orchestra Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 1 DG
1990 Philharmonia Orchestra Suite No. 2
Suite No. 4 		Sony Classical
2005 Berliner Philharmoniker Violin Concerto (Joshua 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
Chôros No. 5 & 10 		RCA Victor Red Seal
1990 London Symphony Orchestra Weill The Seven Deadly Sins (Julia Migenes)
The Threepenny Opera 		Sony Classical
2013 London Symphony Orchestra Saint-Saëns Cello Concertos No. 1 & 2 (Steven Isserlis) RCA Red Seal
1974 Studio cast Stanley Silverman, Richard Foreman Elephant Steps--A Fearful Radio Show (pop-opera) Columbia[55]

Composition

[edit]

Thomas's compositions include From the Diary of Anne Frank (1990),[56] Shówa/Shoáh (1995, memorializing the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima),[57] Poems of Emily Dickinson (2002)[58], and Urban Legend (2002).[59]

Orchestra

[edit]
  • From the Diary of Anne Frank (1990) for narrator and orchestra[60]
  • Shówa/Shoáh (1995)[61]
  • Agnegram (1998)[62]
  • Whitman Songs (1999) for vocal baritone and orchestra[63]
  • Poems of Emily Dickinson (2002) for vocal soprano and orchestra[64]
  • Urban Legend (2002) for contrabassoon and orchestra[65]
  • Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind (2016) for mezzo-soprano, 2 female back-up singers, chamber orchestra, and bar band[66]
  • Meditations on Rilke (2019) for mezzo-soprano, baritone, and orchestra[67]

Chamber ensemble

[edit]
  • Street Song for Symphonic Brass (1988) for 3 C trumpets, B-flat flugelhorn, 4 horns in F, 2 trombones, bass trombone, and tuba[68]
  • Street Song for Brass Quintet (1988) for brass quintet[69]
  • Five Songs (1988) for vocal baritone and piano
  • Grace (1993) for vocal soprano[70]
  • Fame, from Poems of Emily Dickinson (2001)
  • Island Music (2003) for 2 solo marimba, 2 tutti marimba, and 2 percussion[71]
  • Notturno (2005) for flute and string quintet + harp (also available for flute and piano)[72]
  • Stay Together (2006) for electronics

Awards

[edit]

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.[75]

Kennedy Center Honor

  • 2019 Kennedy Center Honor was presented December 8, 2019.[76]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d Hirsch, Lisa (April 23, 2026). "Michael Tilson Thomas, renowned conductor and composer, dies at 81". NPR. Retrieved April 23, 2026.
  2. ^ a b c Barmann, Jay (April 23, 2026). "Michael Tilson Thomas, Beloved Composer and Conductor of SF Symphony, Dies at 81". SFist - San Francisco News. Retrieved April 23, 2026.[dead link]
  3. ^ a b Tommassini, Anthony. "Michael Tilson Thomas, Celebrated American Conductor, Dies at 81". The New York Times.
  4. ^ a b "Tilson-Thomas, Michael" (2004). Contemporary Musicians. Gale/Cengage Learning. Via Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
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  7. ^ Archives, L.A. Times (December 18, 1992). "Roberta Thomas; Retired Teacher". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 23, 2026.
  8. ^ a b "Thomashefsky, Boris". Congress for Jewish Culture. November 19, 1909. Retrieved April 23, 2026.
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  28. ^ What a twist: Tognetti and Barton simply the warm-up acts Archived January 6, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. The Sydney Morning Herald. March 14, 2011.
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  30. ^ Vaziri, Aidin (April 23, 2026). "Michael Tilson Thomas and Metallica: Revisiting an unforgettable San Francisco collaboration". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved April 23, 2026.
  31. ^ Ruskin, Zack (October 2, 2019). "Symphonic Metal at the Movies: What to Expect When Metallica's 'S&M2' Hits Screens". Variety. Archived from the original on June 4, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
  32. ^ Harrington, Jim (August 24, 2020). "'S&M2' conductor Edwin Outwater recalls magical Metallica shows". The Mercury News. Archived from the original on December 19, 2020. Retrieved September 3, 2020.
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  54. ^ "MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS: DISCOGRAPHY INCLUDING VIDEO" (PDF). San Francisco Symphony. June 2019.
  55. ^ "Elephant Steps Discs Issued by Masterworks." Record World, September 28, 1974, 57.
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  61. ^ "Shówa/Shoáh". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  62. ^ "Agnegram". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  63. ^ "Whitman Songs". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  64. ^ "Poems of Emily Dickinson". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  65. ^ "Urban Legend". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  66. ^ "Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  67. ^ "Meditations on Rilke". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  68. ^ "Street Song (for Symphonic Brass)". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  69. ^ "Street Song (for Brass Quintet)". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  70. ^ "Grace". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  71. ^ "Island Music". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  72. ^ "Notturno". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  73. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Michael Tilson Thomas | Artist | GRAMMY.com". grammy.com. Archived from the original on February 20, 2026. Retrieved April 23, 2026.
  74. ^ 67th Annual Peabody Awards: The MTT Files, May 2008.
  75. ^ "Remarks by the President at Presentation of the National Humanities Medal and the National Medal of the Arts". whitehouse.gov. February 25, 2010. Archived from the original on February 16, 2017. Retrieved April 23, 2026.
  76. ^ Gans, Andrew (July 18, 2019). "Sally Field and Linda Ronstadt Among 2019 Kennedy Center Honorees". Playbill. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved July 18, 2019.
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