Michael Tilson Thomas | MEMETERIA by Thomas May

April 23, 2026 • 7:38 am 0

RIP Michael Tilson Thomas (1944-2026)

The sad news we knew was coming, reported on the FaceBook page of Michael Tilson Thomas:

“It is with deep sadness that we let you know of Michael Tilson Thomas’s passing on April 22, 2026. In 2021, Michael was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme, an aggressive type of brain cancer. Through his illness he continued to make music—a testament to his legacy as an artist and communicator. He was preceded in death by his husband Joshua Robison, and passed away at home surrounded by loved ones and family. Joshua and Michael are survived by their sisters, nieces and nephews.”

Joshua Kosman, whose tenure as chief critic of San Francisco Chronicle spanned the entire Michael Tilson Thomas era with SF Symphony, provides a beautiful tribute here, while Lisa Hirsch – another longtime observer of MTT’s Bay Area career – offers a thoughtful assessment for NPR here; Tim Page reflects on MTT’s legacy for the Washington Post; and Anthony Tomassini’s NY Times obituary can be found here.

From PBS’s American Masters series:

Filed under: Michael Tilson Thomas, music news

March 25, 2022 • 2:12 pm Comments Off on Michael Tilson Thomas with the National Symphony

Michael Tilson Thomas with the National Symphony

Honored to have been able to write the program notes for this weekend’s National Symphony concerts with Michael Tilson Thomas. The program features his own remarkable, unclassifiable Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind.

Filed under: American music, Michael Tilson Thomas, National Symphony, program notes

September 27, 2019 • 7:21 am Comments Off on New from John Adams: I Still Dance

New from John Adams: I Still Dance

John Adams’s latest composition was recently given its world premiere by Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. Here’s my program note introducing I Still Dance:

The unique creative exchange between John Adams and the San Francisco Symphony spans four decades and represents one of the most significant success stories in the collaboration among contemporary American composers, orchestras, and audiences.

continue

Filed under: John Adams, Michael Tilson Thomas, program notes, San Francisco Symphony

June 24, 2018 • 11:36 am Comments Off on Michael Tilson Thomas: Music and Emotion through Time

Michael Tilson Thomas: Music and Emotion through Time

Filed under: Michael Tilson Thomas

June 22, 2016 • 10:38 am Comments Off on Brahms 1

Brahms 1

This is going to be a good concert:

Filed under: Brahms, Michael Tilson Thomas, San Francisco Symphony

July 4, 2015 • 11:30 am Comments Off on A Fourth with Ives

A Fourth with Ives

Celebrate American music! And you can’t do much better than Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony for this rep.

As Charles Ives impishly recalled about this third movement from his Holidays Symphony :

I did what I wanted to, quite sure that the thing would never be played, although the uneven measures that look so complicated in the score are mostly caused by missing a beat, which was often done in parades. In the parts taking off explosions, I worked out combinations of tones and rhythms very carefully by kind of prescriptions, in the way a chemical compound which makes explosions would be made.

And for good measure: