A Message from MTT
Dear Friends,
Three years ago, I wrote to tell you that I’m battling Glioblastoma. The three and a half years since the initial diagnosis have been a special time in my life, filled with friends, family, and music. They have also been challenging, as I had to undergo a second operation and manage complications from the treatments that have held the tumor at bay.
My doctors have informed me that the tumor has returned. We continue to work with the superb group at the UCSF Brain Tumor Center. There are treatment options, but the odds are uncertain.
Now Streaming
Watch the full show
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.
On Stage
This spring, MTT joins the New World Symphony and San Francisco Symphony, and his compositions are performed in Philadelphia and Boston.
Documentary
Watch more videos
Michael Tilson Thomas: 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.
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.
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 …
read more
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.
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.