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New Release

Grace: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas

A four-disc deluxe box-set that spans more than five decades of MTT’s compositional life and features 18 of his works, from premiere recordings to remastered archival recordings available for the first time.

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On Stage

The Philadelphia Orchestra

MTT returns to Philadelphia March 7–9 to lead Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”), Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand with soloist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and his own composition Agnegram.

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Now Streaming

The Thomashefskys

In The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theatre, MTT serves as guide through the lives and repertoire of his grandparents, Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky — two of the founding members of the American Yiddish theatre. MTT shares the stage with a 30-piece orchestra and four principal performers, mixing musical numbers with film clips and projections of archival photos and memorabilia to tell a uniquely American tale.

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Latest News

MTT Featured in BBC Music Magazine

By Michael White
classical-music.com

Some musicians seem incapable of ageing; and until quite recently a prime example was that most articulate, engaging and all-round alive of conductors Michael Tilson Thomas.

Decades passed and, with them, orchestras: the London Symphony, which he directed in the 1980s/90s; then the San Francisco Symphony, which he ran from the mid-90s through to 2020. Eras changed. But MTT, as people call him, somehow didn’t. He held onto a mercurially boyish grace and elegance – until, in 2022, news broke that he’d contracted a particularly cruel and aggressive kind of brain cancer.

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Featured Composition

Street Song (for Symphonic Brass)

“The founding members of the Empire Brass Quintet were some of my oldest musical friends. Our meeting dates back to student days at Tanglewood in the early 1970s when we discovered that we had reverence for good notes, good tunes, and good licks, whether from organum, serialism, or bop­shoo­wop. They commissioned and premiered Street Song and made the first recording. I’m pleased that the quintet version has found its way …

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Documentary

Where NOW Is

Presented as part of PBS’ award-winning American Masters series, Michael Tilson Thomas: Where NOW Is documents MTT’s life and career—from his childhood in California to his ascension to the world stage and leadership roles with the New World Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony.

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On Record

Complete Deutsche Grammophon & Argo Recordings

In celebration of MTT’s 80th birthday, DG Eloquence has released the first complete collection of MTT’s recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and Argo. The 14-disc box set comprises recordings spanning from 1970 to 2003, featuring Tilson Thomas as both conductor and pianist.

The collection includes all original jackets with archival photography, new remasterings, and authoritative notes by music journalist Peter Quantrill. Taken as a whole, the box set demonstrates Michael Tilson Thomas’s affinity for a wide range of repertoire, his ear for complex rhythms and textures, and his skills as an orchestra builder.

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Sony Classical Releases 80-Disc MTT Box Set

In celebration of MTT’s’s 80th birthday on December 21 this year, Sony Classical has released an 80-CD box set that collects Michael’s entire discography from Columbia, Sony and RCA recorded between 1973 and 2005.

The collection showcases many of the orchestras Michael conducted, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, and more.

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