Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas ( MTT as known; born December 21, 1944 in Los Angeles, California) is an American conductor, pianist and composer. Since 1994 he is Principal Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
Life
Tilson Thomas studied at the University of Southern California piano with John Crown, composition and conducting with Ingolf Dahl. As a young pianist, he played in 1963 in Los Angeles, inter alia, with Gregor Piatigorsky and Jascha Heifetz. Under the supervision of Igor Stravinsky, he worked on the world premiere recording of the four-hand piano version of the Sacre du printemps. In 1966 he was assistant conductor at Bayreuth in 1969 and won the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood. In 1973 he was chief conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted regularly with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra ( principal conductor from 1988 to 1995, currently Principal Guest Conductor ) and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1990, he led his composition on " From the Diary of Anne Frank". Other works by him are, inter alia, Showa / Shoah, Urban Legend, Iceland Music, Nocturne, Street Song, Agnegram. Tilson Thomas lives openly gay in San Francisco.
Awards
Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance
Grammy Award for Best Classical Album
- 2000 with the Peninsula Boys Choir, the San Francisco Girls Chorus, the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus: Stravinsky: The Firebird; Le Sacre du Printemps; Persephone.
- 2004 with the Pacific Boychoir, San Francisco Girls Chorus, the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus: Mahler: Symphony No. 3, Kindertotenlieder.
- 2006 with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra: Mahler: Symphony No. 7.
- 2010 with the Pacific Boychoir, San Francisco Girls Chorus, the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus: Mahler: Symphony No. 8.
Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance
- 2009, awarded by U.S. President Barack Obama, ceremony on 25 February 2010