- Michael Tilson Thomas
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Thomas filming Keeping Score in 2008.
(Photo by Stefan Cohen.)Michael Tilson Thomas (born December 21, 1944) is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is currently music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and artistic director of the New World Symphony Orchestra.
Contents
Biography
Early years
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. Thomas studied at the University of Southern California, studying piano with John Crown and composition and conducting under Ingolf Dahl. As a student of Friedelind Wagner, Thomas was a Musical Assistant and Assistant Conductor at the Bayreuth Festival.
Career
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. Thomas is also known as a premier interpreter of the works of Aron Copland, Charles Ives, and [Steve Reich]]
A sampling of Thomas's own compositions include From the Diary of Anne Frank (1990),[1] Shówa/Shoáh (1995),[2] memorializing the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima; Poems of Emily Dickinson (2002);[3] and Urban Legend (2002).[4]
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 also founded the New World Symphony in Miami in 1987. Tilson Thomas has led two incarnations of the YouTube Symphony Orhchestra, which brings young musicians from around the world together for a week of music making and learning.
Boston, Buffalo, New York, Los Angeles
After winning the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood in 1969, Thomas was named Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. That same year Thomas made his conducting debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, replacing an unwell William Steinberg in mid-concert and thereby coming into international recognition at the age of 24. He stayed with the Boston ensemble as an assistant conductor until 1974 and made several recordings with the orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon, which were later reissued on CD. He was music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra from 1971 to 1979. He made recordings for Columbia Records in Buffalo.[5] 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.
New World and London
In 1987 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.”[6] Thomas is currently the academy's artistic director. From 1988 to 1995, he was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and since 1995 has held the title of principal guest conductor with the LSO. Since 1995, he has held the title of principal guest conductor with the LSO, where he recorded and toured extensively.
San Francisco and on
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. His 1995-96 season ended with "An American Festival," a two-week celebration of American music. In June 2000, Michael 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, Prokovief, 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.
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.[7] The piece has since been performed with numerous symphonies across the country, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, LA 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. [8]
Tilson Thomas joined-up 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, Anna Larsen, Charlie Lui, and Derek Wang, participated in 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.[9] On March 20, 2011 he also conducted the "YTSO2" (YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2) in Sydney Australia.[10]
Film and Television
His first television appearances were in the CBS Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic, airing from 1971-1977. [11] 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. Tilson Thomas has also been featured on Japan's NHK and the UK's BBC many times in the last three decades.[12]
Keeping Score
Tilson Thomas hosts 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. MTT 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"
Ive's Holiday Symphony - "2009"
Mahler: Origins and Legacy - "2011"Quotations
Responding to an interviewer's question about favorite composers:
“ You can't have Bach, Mozart and
Beethoven as your favorite composers...
They simply define what music is!” Awards
Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance
- 2006 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 7.
- 2003 Conducting the San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 6.
- 2000 Conducting the Peninsula Boys Choir, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, performing Stravinsky: The Firebird; The Rite of Spring; Perséphone.
- 1997 Conducting the San Francisco Symphony, performing Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet (scenes).
Grammy Award for Best Classical Album
- 2010 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 8.
- 2006 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 7.
- 2004 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 3, Kindertotenlieder.
- 2000 Conducting the Ragazzi Boys Chorus, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, performing Stravinsky: The Firebird; The Rite of Spring; Perséphone.
Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance
- 2010 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 8.
- 1976 Conducting the Cleveland Boys Choir and Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, performing Orff: Carmina Burana.
- 2007 The MTT Files produced by Tom Voegeli and American Public Media.
- 2009 National Medal of Arts.
See also
References
- ^ "Michael Tilson Thomas: From the Diary of Anne Frank". G. Schirmer, Inc.. http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2420&State_2874=2&WorkId_2874=33924. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
- ^ "Michael Tilson Thomas: Shówa/Shoáh". G. Schirmer, Inc.. http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2420&State_2874=2&workId_2874=33884. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
- ^ "Michael Tilson Thomas: Poems of Emily Dickinson". G. Schirmer, Inc.. http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2420&State_2874=2&workId_2874=33879. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
- ^ "Michael Tilson Thomas: Urban Legend". G. Schirmer, Inc.. http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2420&State_2874=2&workId_2874=33927. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
- ^ "Michael Tilson Thomas: BPO Music Director, 1971–79". Music Department, University at Buffalo. http://www.music.buffalo.edu/bpo/mtt.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
- ^ "New World Symphony Statement of Purpose". New World Symphony. http://www.nws.edu/AboutMission.asp. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
- ^ Jeff Lunden (2004-04-15). "Project Recalls Yiddish Theater Legends". National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4601242. Retrieved 2006-12-26.
- ^ Template:Http://www.thomashefsky.org/index.html
- ^ Source http://www.nycartsandentertainment.com/youtube_symphony_orchestra
- ^ Source http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/sydney-opera-house/what-a-twist-tognetti-and-barton-simply-the-warmup-acts-20110314-1btd9.html?s_cid=spotlight:smh:soh:Utubewhatatwist:150311to220311
- ^ Template:Http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Thomas-Michael-Tilson.htm
- ^ Template:Http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0863484/
External links
- Michael Tilson Thomas Official Website
- Michael Tilson Thomas at the Internet Movie Database
- Michael Tilson Thomas at Allmusic
- American Mavericks radio series
- Keeping Score TV and radio series
- Michael Tilson Thomas: Sony Classical Discography
- Works by or about Michael Tilson Thomas in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
- Michael Tilson Thomas collected news and commentary at The New York Times
- Michael Tilson Thomas collected news and commentary at San Francisco Chronicle
- Michael Tilson Thomas in conversation with Frank J. Oteri, 2001
- Michael Tilson Thomas serenades the mountain tapirs at the San Francisco Zoo
- America's Best Leaders 2008: Michael Tilson Thomas, San Francisco Symphony
- Michael Tilson Thomas GLBTQ Encyclopedia
Hans Richter (1904) · Edward Elgar (1911) · Arthur Nikisch (1912) · Thomas Beecham (1915) · Albert Coates (1919) · Willem Mengelberg (1930) · Hamilton Harty (1932) · Josef Krips (1951) · Pierre Monteux (1960) · István Kertész (1965) · André Previn (1968) · Claudio Abbado (1979) · Michael Tilson Thomas (1987) · Colin Davis (1995) · Valery Gergiev (2007)
Henry Hadley (1911) · Alfred Hertz (1915) · Basil Cameron / Issay Dobrowen (1930) · Pierre Monteux (1935) · Enrique Jordá (1954) · Josef Krips (1963) · Seiji Ozawa (1970) · Edo de Waart (1977) · Herbert Blomstedt (1985) · Michael Tilson Thomas (1995)
Categories:- 1944 births
- Culture of San Francisco, California
- 20th-century classical composers
- American classical pianists
- American composers
- American conductors (music)
- Grammy Award winners
- Jewish classical musicians
- Jewish American composers and songwriters
- LGBT composers
- American Jews
- LGBT Jews
- LGBT musicians from the United States
- Living people
- American music educators
- People from Los Angeles, California
- University of Southern California alumni
- London Symphony Orchestra principal conductors
- United States National Medal of Arts recipients
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