Michael Tilson Thomas (born December 21, 1944, Los Angeles, California, U.S.) is an American conductor and composer of classical music, pianist, and educator who was noted as a champion of contemporary American composers and as the founder and music director of Miami’s New World Symphony and the music director of the San Francisco Symphony.
Tilson Thomas came from a line of creative family members. His paternal grandparents, Bessie and Boris Thomashefsky, were Russian immigrants and founders of the People’s Theater in New York City, a major centre of Yiddish theatre (see Yiddish literature: Yiddish theatre). His father, Ted Thomas (shortened from Thomashefsky), was involved in theatre in New York as well before moving to the West Coast to pursue film and television work. Tilson Thomas’s mother, Roberta, worked at Columbia Pictures. Tilson Thomas studied piano and earned a master’s degree in music in 1967 from the University of Southern California. He also studied conducting in college and at age 19 was named music director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra. In 1969 he became the assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and he was later named principal guest conductor. From 1971 to 1979 Tilson Thomas served as the music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic. During that period he met composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, who became a significant mentor and friend. During the 1970s Tilson Thomas, like Bernstein before him, regularly conducted the New York Philharmonic for its Young People’s Concert series.
Tilson Thomas became the principal guest conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1981 and held that position through 1985. He then became the principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra two years later (through 1995). In 1987 he established the New World Symphony, composed of recent graduates of the best music programs from around the world. In the 21st century the New World Symphony served as an academy and incubator for future leaders in classical music and as a cultural and educational resource for the larger community, providing access to classical music performances as well as music lessons to school children throughout Miami.
Tilson Thomas served as the music director of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2020, when he became music director laureate. He and the symphony produced Keeping Score (2004–11), a PBS series of documentaries that explores the careers of notable composers and includes a performance by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Over the course of his career, Tilson Thomas became known for championing the work of living composers and performing experimental programs that drew on a diverse repertory. His compositions included Street Song for Symphonic Brass (1988), From the Diary of Anne Frank (1990), Shówa/Shoáh (1995), Whitman Songs (1999), Poems of Emily Dickinson (2002), Notturno (2005), and Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind (2016). In the summer of 2021 Tilson Thomas announced that he was taking a break from conducting in order to recuperate following surgery for a brain tumour. However, he quickly returned to the podium, leading the New York Philharmonic that fall in performances of works by Ruth Crawford Seeger, Alban Berg, and Ludwig van Beethoven.
Tilson Thomas was the recipient of numerous honours. He was a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of France and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006. He was awarded the 2009 National Medal of Arts by U.S. Pres. Barack Obama and was a Kennedy Honors recipient in 2019.