Career
Tilson Thomas has conducted a wide variety of music and is a particular champion of modern American works. He is also renowned for his interpretation of the works of Gustav Mahler; he has recorded all nine Mahler symphonies and other major orchestral works with the San Francisco Symphony. These recordings have been released on the high resolution audio format, Super Audio CD on the San Francisco Symphony's own recording label. Tilson Thomas is also known as a premier interpreter of the works of Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, and Steve Reich.
A sampling of Tilson Thomas's own compositions include From the Diary of Anne Frank (1990), Shówa/Shoáh (1995), memorializing the fiftieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima; Poems of Emily Dickinson (2002); and Urban Legend (2002).
Tilson Thomas has also been devoted to music education. He leads a series of education programs titled "Keeping Score" which offers insight into the lives and works of great composers, and led a series of Young People's Concerts with the New York Philharmonic. Tilson Thomas also founded the New World Symphony in Miami in 1987. Most recently, Tilson Thomas has led two incarnations of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which brings young musicians from around the world together for a week of music making and learning.
Read more about this topic: Michael Tilson Thomas
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