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Michael Tilson Thomas is a conductor, composer, educator and pianist. He is Founder and Artistic Director of the New World Symphony, Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Tilson Thomas maintains an active presence on the international music scene, but throughout his career has devoted considerable time to music education. Among many activities, he led the television broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic Young People's Concerts from 1971 to 1977. Through his vision and commitment to developing young classical musicians, he founded the New World Symphony in 1987 with benefactor Ted Arison. NWS, a post-graduate academy for the most gifted
musicians of America's conservatories, has made an enormous impact on the field of music education. Each season Mr. Tilson Thomas devotes three months to the New World Symphony. In addition to his work as a conductor and educator, he has toured extensively with the orchestra and with it has released six critically acclaimed recordings.
Throughout his nine seasons as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, critics have praised Mr. Tilson Thomas for innovative programming. Mr. Tilson Thomas and the SFS' recordings on the BMG Classics/RCA Red Seal label have resulted in eight Grammy Awards. His recordings of Mahler's Symphonies Nos. 3, 6 and 7, released on the San Francisco Symphony's own SFS Media label, have each won Grammys for Best Orchestral Performance.
A Los Angeles native, Michael Tilson Thomas is the third generation of the Thomashefsky family to follow an artistic career. He began his formal studies at the University of Southern California where he studied piano with John Crown and conducting and composition with Ingolf Dahl. At age 19, he was named Music Director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra. In 1969, after winning the Koussevitsky Prize at Tanglewood, Mr. Tilson Thomas was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has served as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, and as Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Tilson Thomas' many honors include Columbia University's Ditson Award for services to American music,
Musical America's 1995 Conductor of the Year award, and France's
Chevalier des Arts et Lettres. He was named Gramophone's Artist of the Year for 2005 in recognition of his acclaimed recordings of the Mahler symphonies with the San Francisco Symphony. In 2006 he was inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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