Michael Tilson Thomas
Tilson Thomas in 2008
Born (1944-12-21)December 21, 1944
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died April 22, 2026(2026-04-22) (aged 81)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Occupations Conductor, composer, pianist
Spouse
Joshua Robison
​
​
(m.  2014; died  2026)​
Website michaeltilsonthomas.com

Michael Tilson Thomas (December 21, 1944 – April 22, 2026) was an American conductor, composer, and pianist. In 1987, he founded the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy in Miami Beach, Florida, serving as its artistic director laureate. He was also music director laureate of the San Francisco Symphony and conductor laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra. He conducted his final performance with the San Francisco Symphony in April 2025 while fighting brain cancer.

Background

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

He was an only child and musical prodigy.[1] Tilson Thomas studied piano with John Crown and composition and conducting under Ingolf Dahl at the University of Southern California,[6] where he graduated from the USC Thornton School of Music '67 and MM '76.[7] As a student of Friedelind Wagner, Tilson Thomas was a Musical Assistant and Assistant Conductor at the Bayreuth Festival.[8][9]

Tilson Thomas lived in San Francisco.[10][11][12] He married Joshua Robison on November 2, 2014.[13] The two were together for 50 years, having first met as 11 and 12 year-olds in a junior high orchestra.[14] Robison died on February 22, 2026, at the age of 79.[15]

Health and death

On August 6, 2021, Tilson Thomas disclosed publicly for the first time that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, called glioblastoma multiforme.[16][17][18]

On January 9, 2022, Tilson 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, Tilson Thomas was greeted warmly. He proceeded to lead a concert of works by Gabriel Fauré, Tilson 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 Sergei Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony.[19]

In February 2025, Tilson Thomas announced that his brain tumor had returned.[20] His final public appearance was on April 26, 2025, when he conducted the San Francisco Symphony in a belated 80th birthday celebration concert.[21]

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

Career

Tilson Thomas conducted a wide variety of music and was a particular champion of modern American works. He was also renowned for his interpretation of the works of Gustav Mahler;[23] he 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. Tilson Thomas was also known as a premier interpreter of the works of Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, and Steve Reich.

A sampling of Tilson Thomas's own compositions include From the Diary of Anne Frank (1990),[24] Shówa/Shoáh (1995, memorializing the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima),[25] Poems of Emily Dickinson (2002)[26], and Urban Legend (2002).[27]

Tilson 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. Tilson Thomas founded the New World Symphony in Miami in 1987. Most recently, Tilson 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.

Tilson 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.[28]

Due to health concerns, Tilson Thomas announced on March 2, 2022, he would be stepping down as the artistic director of the New World Symphony and instead serve as the artistic director laureate.[29]

Boston, Buffalo, New York, and Los Angeles

From 1968 to 1994, Tilson Thomas was the music director of the Ojai Music Festival seven times. After winning the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood in 1969, Tilson Thomas 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 into international recognition at the age of 24. He stayed with the Boston Symphony as principal guest conductor until 1974[30] 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.[31]

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

Between 1971 and 1977, he 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. Tilson temporarily left the stage.[32]

In 2007, he returned to the Hollywood Bowl leading the Los Angeles Philharmonic again in the Mahler Eighth, asking jokingly, "Now where were we?"[33]

New World

In 1987, Tilson 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".[34] 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.[35] (The two had personal history, with Gehry sometimes having baby-sat for Tilson Thomas back when both were growing up in Los Angeles.[35]) In March 2022, Tilson Thomas announced that he would stand down as Artistic Director of the New World Symphony as of June 1, 2022.[16]

London

From 1988 to 1995, Tilson Thomas was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO),[14] and recorded with them for such labels as Columbia (now Sony Classical), including the Symphony No. 3 of Mahler. From 1995, he held the title of principal guest conductor with the LSO, and became conductor laureate in 2016.[36]

San Francisco

Tilson 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, Tilson 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.[37] During his tenure, the orchestra began to issue recordings on its own SFS Media label.[38][39]

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.[40] 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.[41]

Tilson 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 Wednesday, April 15. The concert was later made available on YouTube.[42] On March 20, 2011, Tilson Thomas also conducted the "YTSO2" (YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2) in Sydney.[43]

In October 2017, the orchestra announced that Tilson 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.[44][37]

Tilson Thomas was featured on the 2020 album S&M2 with thrash metal band Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony.[45] 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[46] the symphony orchestra.[47]

Film and television

His first television appearances were in the Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic, airing from 1971 to 1977.[48] 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. He has also been featured on Japan's NHK and the BBC many times in the last three decades.

In 1976, Tilson 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.[49]

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.[50]

Tilson 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.[51]

Keeping Score discography[51]
  • 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
  • Ives' Holiday Symphony – 2009
  • Mahler: Origins and Legacy – 2011

Partial discography

Tilson Thomas recorded extensively for labels including Columbia, Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, Argo and RCA. His discography includes works by Bach, Mahler, 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.[52][53]

His recordings include[54][55]:

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 for Orchestra, WoO 14 OCLC 1548593458
2010 San Francisco Symphony Symphony No. 5
Piano Concerto No. 4 (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. For details, see Arias and Barcarolles (Michael Tilson Thomas recording) OCLC 979418653 Deutsche Grammophon
1993 London Symphony Orchestra, London Voices On the Town (Daly, von Stade, Lear, Laine, McLaughlin, Hampson, Garrison, Ollmann, Ramey) For details, see On the Town (Michael Tilson Thomas recording) 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 – selections OCLC 1554311498
2002 Stravinsky
Cage
Reich		 The Rite of Spring
Three Dances
Four Organs OCLC 731618798		 Angel Records
1996 San Francisco Symphony Copland Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
Orchestra Variations
Short Symphony
Symphonic Ode (with Garrick Ohlsson)		 RCA Victor Red Seal
1972 Boston Symphony Orchestra Debussy Images
Prélude À L'Après-Midi D'Un Faune		 Deutsche Grammophon
1993 London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus Le martyre de St. Sebastien (with McNair, Murray, Stutzman, Caron) Sony Classical
2007 Boston Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players Sonata No. 1 for Cello and Piano (Eskin, Tilson Thomas)
Sonata No. 2 for Flute, Viola and Harp (Dwyer, Fine, Hobson)
Violin Sonata (Silverstein, Tilson Thomas)		 Deutsche Grammophon
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, Tilson Thomas) Sony Classical
1984 Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra Rhapsody in Blue (Tilson Thomas)
Second Rhapsody for Orchestra with Piano
Preludes for Piano Promenade
Unpublished Piano Works		 Columbia
1970 Boston Symphony Orchestra Ives
Ruggles
Piston		 Three Places in New England
Sun-treader		 Deutsche Grammophon
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
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 & Juliet RCA Red Seal
1991 Hungarian State Orchestra Puccini Tosca (Marton, Carreras, Pons, Tajo) Sony Classical
1989 London Symphony Orchestra Ravel Ma mère l'oye
Bolero
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 Schuman
Piston		 Violin Concerto (Paul Zukofsky)
Symphony No. 2		 Deutsche Grammophon
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		 Deutsche Grammophon
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
Persephone		 RCA Victor Red Seal
1993 New World Symphony Tangazo Tangazo Argo
1970 Boston Symphony Orchestra Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 1 Deutsche Grammophon
1990 Philharmonia Orchestra Suite No. 2
Suite No. 4		 Sony Classical
2005 Berliner Philharmoniker Violin Concerto (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
Coros Nos. 5 & 10		 RCA Victor Red Seal
1990 London Symphony Orchestra Weill The Seven Deadly Sins (Migenes)
The Little Three Penny Music		 Sony Classical
2013 London Symphony Orchestra Saint-Saëns Cello Concertos n°1 Op.33 & n°2 Op.119 (Steven Isserlis) RCA Red Seal
1974 Studio cast Stanley Silverman, Richard Foreman Elephant Steps--A Fearful Radio Show ("pop-opera") Columbia Records[56]

List of compositions

Orchestra

  • From the Diary of Anne Frank (1990) for narrator and orchestra[57]
  • Shówa/Shoáh (1995)[58]
  • Agnegram (1998)[59]
  • Whitman Songs (1999) for vocal baritone and orchestra[60]
  • Poems of Emily Dickinson (2002) for vocal soprano and orchestra[61]
  • Urban Legend (2002) for contrabassoon and orchestra[62]
  • Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind (2016) for mezzo-soprano, 2 female back-up singers, chamber orchestra, and bar band[63]
  • Meditations on Rilke (2019) for mezzo-soprano, baritone, and orchestra[64]

Chamber ensemble

  • Street Song for Symphonic Brass (1988) for 3 C trumpets, B-flat flugelhorn, 4 horns in F, 2 trombones, bass trombone, and tuba[65]
  • Street Song for Brass Quintet (1988) for brass quintet[66]
  • Five Songs (1988) for vocal baritone and piano
  • Grace (1993) for vocal soprano[67]
  • Fame, from Poems of Emily Dickinson (2001)
  • Island Music (2003) for 2 solo marimba, 2 tutti marimba, and 2 percussion[68]
  • Notturno (2005) for flute and string quintet + harp (also available for flute and piano)[69]
  • Stay Together (2006) for electronics

Awards

Grammy Award for Best Classical Compendium

  • 2021 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing From the Diary of Anne Frank & Meditations on Rilke[70]

Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance

  • 2013 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Adams: Harmonielehre & Short Ride in a Fast Machine[70]
  • 2006 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 7.[70]
  • 2003 Conducting the San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 6.[70]
  • 2000 Conducting the Ragazzi, the Peninsula Boys Chorus, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, performing Stravinsky: The Firebird; The Rite of Spring; Perséphone.[70]
  • 1997 Conducting the San Francisco Symphony, performing Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet (scenes).[70]

Grammy Award for Best Classical Album

  • 2010 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 8.[70]
  • 2006 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 7.[70]
  • 2004 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 3, Kindertotenlieder.[70]
  • 2000 Conducting the Ragazzi, the Peninsula Boy Chorus, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus, performing Stravinsky: The Firebird; The Rite of Spring; Perséphone.[70]

Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance

  • 2010 Conducting San Francisco Symphony, performing Mahler: Symphony No. 8.[70]
  • 1976 Conducting the Cleveland Boys Choir, the Cleveland Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, performing Orff: Carmina Burana.[70]

Peabody Award

National Medal of Arts

  • 2009 National Medal of Arts.[72]

Kennedy Center Honor

  • 2019 Kennedy Center Honor was presented December 8, 2019.[73]

See also

  • San Francisco Symphony
  • San Francisco Symphony Chorus
  • New World Symphony Orchestra

References

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  57. ^ "From the Diary of Anne Frank". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  58. ^ "Shówa/Shoáh". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  59. ^ "Agnegram". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  60. ^ "Whitman Songs". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  61. ^ "Poems of Emily Dickinson". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  62. ^ "Urban Legend". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  63. ^ "Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  64. ^ "Meditations on Rilke". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  65. ^ "Street Song (for Symphonic Brass)". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  66. ^ "Street Song (for Brass Quintet)". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  67. ^ "Grace". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  68. ^ "Island Music". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  69. ^ "Notturno". Michael Tilson Thomas. Retrieved April 25, 2026.
  70. ^ 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.
  71. ^ 67th Annual Peabody Awards: The MTT Files, May 2008.
  72. ^ "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.
  73. ^ 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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