Courtesy of MichaelTilsonThomas.com

Michael Tilson Thomas b. 1944

Conductor, composer, and pianist Michael Tilson Thomas is currently Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony. The grandson of Yiddish theater icons Bessie and Boris Thomashefsky, Tilson Thomas studied at the University of Southern California and, at age 19, was named music director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra. In 1969, after winning the Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood, Tilson Thomas was appointed assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and he went on to become principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Considered the foremost living interpreter of the works of Aaron Copland, Tilson Thomas has made more than 120 recordings.