SF Symphony's former director Michael Tilson Thomas dies at 81
SF Symphony's former director Michael Tilson Thomas dies at 81
Michael Tilson Thomas, the celebrated former music director of the San Francisco Symphony, has died at the age of 81.
SAN FRANCISCO - Michael Tilson Thomas, the celebrated former music director of the San Francisco Symphony, has died at the age of 81.
He conducted his final concert with the San Francisco Symphony in April 2025 and died at his home in San Francisco, spokesperson Connie Shuman told the Associated Press.
San Francisco Symphony
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It was a black tie affair Wednesday at San Francisco Symphony as they rolled out the pink carpet in honor of their world-renowned conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. KTVU's Paul Chambers reports it was a who's who of Bay Area, die-hard classical music connoisseurs.
Tilson Thomas led the San Francisco Symphony from 1995 until 2020.
Over his career, he received 39 Grammy Award nominations, winning 12, and was among the Kennedy Center Honors recipients in 2019.
He also led orchestras in Buffalo, Miami and London.
Early life
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Tilson Thomas was born in Los Angeles on Dec. 21, 1944, to a family steeped in the arts.
His father, Ted, was a producer at New York’s Mercury Theater Company, then worked in Los Angeles in the movie and television industry. His mother, Roberta, headed research for Columbia Pictures. His grandparents, Bessie and Boris Thomashefsky, were pioneers in American Yiddish theater.
He played piano at a young age and attended the University of Southern California. By the time he received a degree in 1967, he had worked with Pierre Boulez, Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
"I don’t fling the word genius around lightly, but I fling it around about Michael. He reminds me of me at that age, except that he knows more than I did," conductor Leonard Bernstein told The New York Times Magazine for a 1971 profile. "Not only music, but things like the functions of the brain, cerebrology, physics, biochemistry."
Health issues
San Francisco street could be named after symphony's Michael Tilson Thomas
Legislation introduced by Mayor London N. Breed on Tuesday, Oct. 24, would rename the block of Grove St. between Franklin St. and Van Ness Ave. in honor of Michael Tilson Thomas, who served as music director of the San Francisco Symphony for 25 years and is now the orchestra?s Music Director Laureate.
The conductor had been battling health issues for approximately five years. His medical challenges included undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumor.
In announcing his final concert would take place in San Francisco on April 26, 2025, in a belated 80th birthday celebration, Thomas issued a statement acknowledging his mortality.
"At that point, we all get to say the old show business expression, ‘It’s a wrap,’" he said. "A coda is a musical element at the end of a composition that brings the whole piece to a conclusion. A coda can vary greatly in length. My life’s coda is generous and rich."