Michael Tilson Thomas, L.A.-born maestro who led San Francicso Symphony, dies at 81
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Grammy-winning conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, the bird-like maestro affectionately dubbed MTT and a “bad boy of classical music” while leading almost all the major orchestras of the United States and Europe since his teen years, has died in his San Francisco home.Born in Los Angeles, the celebrity conductor and former child prodigy, died Wednesday of glioblastoma, the New York Times wrote.
He was 81.He had a brain tumor removed in 2021 and was set to undergo months of therapy.The 1960s wunderkind long served as the San Francisco Symphony’s music director and later the conductor laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra, leading the latter ensemble on regular tours in Europe, the United States and Japan, as well as the Salzburg Festival.
He was also a guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the 1980s.The 2019 Kennedy Center honoree, a protege of the late Leonard Bernstein, was a gifted pianist known for his exuberant compositions and ability to break down musical genres, particularly his dynamic interpretations of Gustav Mahler.He also specialized in music from Russia, work by George Gershwin and his friend and colleague Aaron Copland.
He could conduct Beethoven one moment and dance like James Brown in the next, according to a Times review.Tilson Thomas made a habit of imploring his orchestras and audience members to trust him and “come inside the music,” and his talents and charismatic personality attracted attention and praise worldwide.Though sometimes moody and no stranger to tantrums, Tilson Thomas once stormed off the Hollywood Bowl stage to protest noise from a police helicopter — and won applause for the stunt.
He reportedly tossed lozenges into the audience when a fit of coughing disrupted a performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.He also once asked a mother to move midway through a New World Symphony Orchestra concert in Florida, ...