Michael Tilson Thomas, 1944 – 2026

Classical music conductor, pianist, and composer Michael Tilson Thomas, 81, died on April 22. I grew up in a musical household—not like The Seven Little Foys; I just mean we all loved a variety of music. I fell in love the with Baroques—Bach, Vivaldi, Corelli (my father leaned toward the loud, crashy composers, and my mother liked swing and Motown). Anyway, Thomas was conducting and composing practically before he was out of short pants, and eventually conducted (and recorded) with the San Francisco Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the New World Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, and many other orchestras; he was the San Francisco Symphony's music director—Thomas also formed the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, selected from 30 countries based on more than 3,000 video auditions. Thomas specialized in American composers (Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, Leonard Bernstein), saying that “The whole path of American music has been so much about the recognition of stylistic diversity, and the recognition of the importance of music which was from one of the vernacular traditions.”