Volpe: What Michael's doing is perpetuating an art form, perpetuating institutions. ♪♪ And I did some 40 more concerts that first season, and big variety of repertoire, nearly all of which I had never conducted before. We had the opportunity often to get together and look through scores, just kind of the design of them, the shape of them. Symphony No. Robison: Those were pretty wild days when we first got to Miami. [ Playing notes ] And I think that's the answer now. Her hair was flame red. Michael Tilson Thomas Documentary Trailer 1m 11s Explore the life and career of the Grammy-winning conductor, pianist and composer. Well, she was a special kind of grandma. ', Robison: First of all, I was really impressed because we walked in and all the people at the stage door knew Michael and they said, 'Oh, Michael, come in. Explore the life and career of the Grammy-winning conductor, pianist and composer. Let my loving take the sting from your tears, and don't be thinking that your life is a one-way door. It's much too early to be singing a sorry tune. And at the end of his fifth year, he did this festival called American Mavericks. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Immediately after that summer, when I won the Koussevitzky Prize, I was in New York for a few days and I was introduced to Leonard Bernstein, and we had this wonderful exchange of ideas which quickly turnedto one liners from the show biz, Yiddish theater world, and Stravinsky, and old stories about Piatigorsky, who had been a lot with Bernstein when Bernstein was himself a fellow at Tanglewood. That's how much fluidity and spontaneity and the improvisation goes into that. Michael Tilson Thomas Interview: The Thomashefskys, Stars Of The Yiddish Stage Bessie and Boris Thomashefsky were mega-stars in the Yiddish theater world. The whole thing was renovated, and that became the beginning of the real solid identity of the orchestra having our own theater. Explore the life and career of the Grammy-winning conductor, pianist and composer. ♪♪ Great, can more of it be at the same volume level? I have a terrible toothache, I'm getting over a cold, I've my arm and bursitis and all that's going on, been chasing my tail all over the world and thinking, 'Oh, okay, I made this appointment to hear this young man play this Bach piece. ♪♪ It was in the San Fernando Valley, and initially it was country. A National Medal of Arts recipient and longtime Grammy-winning music director of the San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas helped set the standard that an American orchestra should champion modern music. Major support for American Masters is provided by AARP. ♪♪ ♪♪ You feel that, you know that; don't assume that the audience necessarily feels it or knows it as much as you do. So he is in a position to perceive the total design of what is happening in the performance. Reich: So by the time the piece ended, there were a few bravos and overwhelming boos. There I am driving around town. I said, 'Well, let me play you some of my music. ♪♪ ♪♪ Grierson: USC in the '60s, they were magical years for both of us in that Heifetz and Piatigorsky and Ingolf Dahl and John Crown and all these people were teaching there. It's the music. He was the most brilliant conductor, you know, his gestures, his hands, his eyes, everything about Michael was alert. So as I walk by, I can test my knowledge. Morning, everybody. I'm so happy to be welcoming you tonight to this WALLCAST Concert, which is the start of the New World Symphony's 31st season. Lives in San Francisco with partner Josh Robison. Definitely the man to make the symphony a hot ticket this season. Thomas: Mahler's been essential to my relationship to music and my relationship with the San Francisco Symphony. The orchestra has become a great ensemble because of the work we've done together. And we got about, I'd say, a third of the way into the piece when protests began to erupt. Michael Tilson Thomas’ musical life shines forth in a new documentary Joshua Kosman July 16, 2020 Updated: July 16, 2020, 5:15 pm Left to right: James Brown, Michael Tilson Thomas in a scene from the documentary "Where Now Is," screening virtually July 18 as … ♪♪ ♪♪ I'm lucky enough to be in a situation with all these young people that I can expand a lot of the music world and expand a lot of their understanding in a way that my wonderful teachers did for me. Explore the life and career of the Grammy-winning conductor, pianist and composer. ♪♪ I was blown away by his intensity, his enthusiasm, his passion for the music. And one of the things that's happened very noticeably over the last 20-some-odd years that Michael's been here is that he has brought in musicians and retained musicians who share that kind of commitment with him. I remember from junior high school, but he was a star. So we basically joined BSOat the same time, Michael and I. Michael Tilson Thomas: Where Now Is Raises the Curtain on the Extraordinary Life and Career of the Renowned Conductor and Classical Music Innovator. By creating an account, you acknowledge that PBS may share your information with our member stations and our respective service providers, and that you have read and understand the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. I knew the music, but I didn't know the story behind the music oftentimes. ♪♪ Conferences, conferences, 43 new people -- so, I've learned all these names, that's why I have that poster over there. I'm listening to XERB Radio and suddenly I hear this music and it's so powerful that I have to pull to the side of the road and listen to it. Put your suit on! Five are already released. Michael Kantor is executive producer for American Masters. Explore the life and career of the Grammy-winning conductor, pianist and composer. And you go through it again and again, and you begin to think, now, how does this piece really go? Burton: One felt as one watched that, that the spirit of George Gershwin had somehow flown down from Valhalla and was entering into Michael Tilson Thomas's body, he sat there and he was playing as if it was Gershwin at the keyboard. Thomas: You could imagine doing 40 subscription concerts with the Boston Symphony, mostly with repertoire thatyou're doing for the first time, and then developing all these new series and new directions of things. MAJOR SUPPORT FOR AMERICAN MASTERS PROVIDED BY, "Being an American musician means being adventurous. Thomas: This piece, this Bartok piece, the piece was commissioned by Koussevitzky. We realized we had to havesome kind of more permanent home where we could have real practice rooms. But that kind of talent, that kind of music, it's just like, I'm ready to go all over again! It was really, really difficult on the older members. 3 (Third Symphony) AARON COPLAND . And little by little, the noise became so great that even on stage with these amplified instruments, we could not hear one another. Let's take the trumpets now. Beautiful, beautiful. ♪♪ Thomas: Along the way, I studied at USC with an extraordinary woman named Alice Ehlers, and she was a wonderfully brilliant, eccentric lady who, [ German accent ] She was talking with an accent like this -- I'm not going to do the whole shtick for you. The Ascent of Man with Jacob Bronowsli. One, and -- ♪♪ Burton: He had that ability to stretch time, he could stop and analyze it in his mind and know what he wanted and know the sound he was looking for. Work on the symphony per se began in the … It was kind of a renaissance golden age for new music, at least for us. ♪♪ 'Sunset Soliloquy,' also called 'Whitsett Avenue' -- Whitsett Avenue was the address of my parents' house, the house where I was born and grew up. ♪♪ Because Michael made the most wonderful recordings of Gershwin's music, and I felt immediately that he was in touch somehow with something that other conductors didn't have. Ohanian: And it was a hard sell for Michael to get that concept across. Bousfield: Professionally, Joshua is this kind of invisible ring of steel around Michael. He had the sense of the wondrous-ness of things, of music and everything else, even though his life was filled with pain and conflict, but he is the one who really taught me to experience the wonder in the music, and to whatever else happened., hold onto it. And he said, well, maybe we could make music in there. And I turned white as a sheet because I wanted people to love what I do. Thomas: Or maybe a mixture of here and here. That was a pretty good performance, don't you think? Je connaissait Michael Tilson Thomas comme l'excellent directeur de l'Orchestre de San Francisco mais ici il nous surprend avec un documentaire sur son grand-père acteur vedette et pionnier du theatre yidish à New York dans le début du 20ème siècle. She had six or eight bracelets up each arm, a long cigarette holder, wraparound sunglasses. I was afraid -- I was young, I was a woman, I was a new member. [ Humming ] Yeah, just let you enjoy,you know, it's kind of like a -- [ Playing ] You know, that -- [ Humming ] Yeah, a little bit stretchy. Robison: I was just stunned, and I remember just sitting there watching this guy who I kind of thought was kind of an intellectual science kid, but to see him at that kind of amazing command already at that age was really striking. You walked into the lobby space and you couldn't quite believe that you're going to hear Mahler. He said, 'It was absolutely a hell of a time because I had to just keep working and working and staying up. So that became our real... our real axis between London and Miami. [ Vocalizing ] Generally a little more forward motion, but setting up the four schlags -- okay, last time, figure two. Original production funding provided by the Leslie and Roslyn Goldstein Foundation. A National Medal of Arts recipient and longtime Grammy-winning music director of the San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas helped set the standard that an American orchestra should champion modern music. Michael Tilson Thomas et l'Orchestre Symphonique de San Francisco s'associent avec le compositeur vivant le plus joué aux Etats Unis, John Adams. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Great, Brendon, try this one thing for me once, would you: try this -- [ Playing piano ] ♪♪ Just do that once, see what it feels like. ♪♪ Reich: The piece 'Four Organs' took place, and basically it's about augmentation, short chord gets long -- very long indeed, and the duration of 20 minutes is probably one of the most abrasive pieces I ever wrote. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Sounds beautiful, John! Welcome to the MTT Channel. Thomas: That's -- you did that, that's good. Closed Captioning. And this piano piece came out of those improvisations. A lot of my ambitions for the San Francisco Symphony were part of this larger ideal I have that orchestral performance should be much like solo performance or chamber performance, that all the imagination of sound and phrasing and nuance that I had heard and the Heifetz/Piatigorsky master classes, this is just what we should be doing in an orchestra that, simply because it involves 90, 100 people, we shouldn't be checking all of our solo or chamber music ideals at the door. We The People with Peter Jennings. I only point out to you that in the music there are designs and structures and concerning these things you must make decisions, and there are consequences for your decisions.'. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Thomas: Relationship with the London Symphony of having the.... direct contact with the musicians themselves, people who really were making the music that we were making together was inspiring for me and taught me many lessons about working with people and sustaining a dream. ♪♪ The conductor has had the luxury of seeing the whole design in the score. We had so much fun. You've just tried to add this show to My List. ♪♪ Just really -- just to hold on to it and let your spirit investigate what that space feels -- really feels like. ♪♪ Okay, where exactly is that and where is it going? Instead, the freespirited Tilson Thomas—also a composer and pianist—forged his own path to become an 11-time Grammy-winning artist, National Medal of Arts recipient and Kennedy Center Honoree. Thomas: We were rehearsing various places on the beach. ", Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas shares the best advice from his mentors, Clip | Michael Tilson Thomas on what he learned from James Brown, Clip | The toy behind Michael Tilson Thomas’s love of dissonance, Subscribe to the American Masters Newsletter. And every Friday, she arrived at our house to spend the weekend looking after me. On my 20th birthday, I got a phone call from Gregor Piatigorsky, who said, 'You've been selected to be the new conductor of the Young Musicians Foundation debut orchestra.'. Reich: In 1970, the phone rang, and there was Michael Tilson Thomas. Trombones and tuba, here we are -- one and... ♪♪ Very nice, very nice. And you're terrified because, in spite of how good you are, you know that there's just so much talent in this business and you see all these talented people around you, your friends and colleagues. Il se produit comme pianiste, avec notamment des enregistrements consacrés à l'œuvre de Gershwin. But it was also a bigger goal to really kind of transform our musical culture. ♪♪ But he was always hungering for his own orchestra too, and we kept that, looking what was going on. Ohanian: March of 1970, I was asked to join the Boston Symphony in French horn section. Format: Hybrid Multi … We haven't done this for years and years. Is also founder and conductor of the New World Symphony located in Miami Beach, Florida. Let your salty tears' -- What's your line in that song? ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Orchestra fades, vehicles honking ] [ Musicians rehearsing ] [ Musicians tuning ] ♪♪ Man: The funny thing is about conducting, there's not that much that you have to do in terms of what you have to do with your hands. They were big stars who lived out the fantasies of their audience. [ Ratcheting ] Marriner: A well as a very different approach to orchestral politics, really. Thomas: Oh, it's, 'Never you mind if your sunny morning starts turning gray. It presented medieval music, renaissance music, contemporary music of every possible description, so-called avant garde music. Thomas: The situation for Josh and me was a special one. She said, 'I tell you to do something? Gehry: So we decided that the building should be a box, period -- just make an overall box. I knew that the biggest treasure was the dream that the music contained. And... That turned out to be an iconic weekend as far as beginning to reimagine the shape of our lives. Additional funding is provided by Rosalind P. Walter, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Ellen and James …, The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song. He's the one that looks out for him the whole time and just allows Michael just to be able to focus on what he needs to. ♪♪ An only child -- this kid in my parent's living room, in the darkness with the shimmering bands of light from the Venetian blinds streaming through. Robison: Michael and I met in school orchestra in 1958. More than in previous recordings, Michael Tilson Thomas's superbly paced approach conveys the music's sense of vast surrounding spaces, and the momentum of the biggest passages is the more thrilling... — BBC Music Magazine, June 2012, More… Release Date: 19th Mar 2012; Catalogue No: SFS0053; Label: SFS Media; Length: 47 minutes; Awards: SACD $18.00. My parents were absolutely against that. This guy is very talented -- Nicholas. Gehry: It was clear that Michael was headed on a meteoric path, you just didn't know where -- he could have become a... a serial killer even. It's when you graduate from school and not yet having a real job. About. Here you go.'. We were not only living together for the first time, we were working together,we had become a production team. Meeting Aaron Copland and playing for Stravinsky and getting a real sense from his own singing how he wanted his music to be played. That's so charming, what you -- that line -- [ Humming ] That's the kind of stuff that we have to, like, make it a life mission to get out to the public. It then shifted to include conducting. It doesn't look like -- 'Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.'. -Thomas: Good evening. Thomas: Because it's so important that they be with people who are colleagues that will inspire them, that will get them... level -- to continue to grow. The film features original interviews with Tilson Thomas and classical music luminaries, including composer Steve Reich; Los Angeles Philharmonic CEO Chad Smith; pianist Ralph Grierson; Boston Symphony Orchestra CEO Mark Volpe; San Francisco Chronicle music critic Joshua Kosman; the BBC’s former head of music and arts Humphrey Burton; and Clive Gillinson, executive and artistic director of Carnegie Hall, as well as commentary from architect Frank Gehry, who babysat Tilson Thomas when he was a boy and built the New World Center, and Joshua Robison, Tilson Thomas’s husband and manager. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ You play this in a way that I kind of dreamt that I might ever be able to play it. [ Playing 'Happy Birthday to You' ] ♪♪ Bousfield: There were a lot of young players in the orchestra and he played a bit like a rock band. Of course, they know they want to be musicians, but in what kind of way do they want to be musicians? Michael Tilson Thomas rehearses and conducts Strauss's Till Eulenspiegel Introduction, Rehearsal, and Performance. Check to see. Preview: 10/23/2020 | 1m 11s Michael Tilson Thomas, Soundtrack: Manhattan. -Wilson: Of the right hand? And then we went into this room and Michael just started playing his music and I was just staggered to hear it, just the freshness and the virtuosity of it. So can we sort of move on a little bit more, but just take the tiniest bit of time to set up the four schlags each time they happen? Thomas: Well, you know, I say this to my young conductors I work with. Ohanian: He was too young to be a music director of the Boston Symphony. or in the PBS app. ♪♪ ♪♪ Okay, now that you understand that, there's more freedom there than you think. This idea was very much part of the new building to include a large wall of the building, which would be a projection surface. Preview: 10/23/2020 | 1m 11s | Video has closed captioning. Michael Tilson Thomas: Where Now Is Raises the Curtain on the Extraordinary Life and Career of the Renowned Conductor and Classical Music Innovator. Aaron -- I just remember, there was somebody here last year called Aaron also. This is good to -- -Thomas: Yeah, put that away. A National Medal of Arts recipient and longtime Grammy-winning music director of the San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas helped set the standard that an American orchestra should champion modern music. Michael Tilson Thomas rehearses and conducts Strauss's Ein Heldenleben Introduction, Rehearsal, and Performance. And I went on and conducted the second half of the program. I -- And my dad said, 'Well...' And Tootles himself can play the song for you. What Koussevitzky wanted from Bartok was a very entertaining piece to show off the talents of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. But first, we need you to sign in to PBS using one of the services below. On Friday, October 23, at 9pm, we’ll air a new American Masters’ documentary Michael Tilson Thomas: Where Now Is. [ Players tuning ] Bousfield: I first met Michael in 1987. A National Medal of Arts recipient and longtime Grammy-winning music director of the San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas helped set the standard that an American orchestra should … This was like returning to my father's world. He went on, took a bow, came back and went off to a hospital. I wasn't the first person to have gone through this ordeal by fire. [ Laughs ] And then I moved back to Buffalo. And there was a rehearsal room that was empty. Meet Toodles, the toy behind Michael Tilson Thomas's love of dissonant music. Additional funding is provided by Rosalind P. Walter, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Ellen and James …More. A couple of years later, my sister Paula, who is a flutist among the founding members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, called me up and she said, 'Hey, I'm doing a concert with your old friend, you should come, he's really good.'. I did have a secret crush on Josh, he didn't know that -- I was admiring him from afar. You may have an unactivated WPSU Passport member This is Jiali -- she just got a job as principal in the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Current conductor of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. And I've been told that, I mean that, you know, how can someone so young, I mean, what are you going to tell us about Beethoven that we haven't heard almost from the source? Robison: One day I was sitting in my West Side apartment in October 1971, and there was Michael on the cover of So I said, 'Oh, so that's what happened to Michael.'. He was wandering around the desert and he was writing poetry and painting pictures and occasionally finishing a screenplay. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for regular inspiration and stories about American icons, including information on our latest films and digital content celebrating American creative achievement. A National Medal of Arts recipient and longtime Grammy-winning music director of the San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas helped set the standard that an American orchestra should champion modern music. A National Medal of Arts … You're going to have to live your life as you have to live it, whatever it costs. This restaurant was kind of like a magical clubhouse in my eyes from the time I was a very young kid, because when I first came here, I came here with my father, who was working at Universal and MGM. And then later I would come here when I was driving around L.A. in my own car, which, typical Angeleno, I was by age 17 or so. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Kosman: You say the Mahler Five is not the same tonight as it was 10 years ago. Marriner: So you need really interesting, adventurous programing. ♪♪ Bousfield: I once -- I was playing a little bit of devil's advocate, and I said, 'Come on, Michael, when you're conducting, you -- you don't really have to show the audience the structure of the piece, do you?'. The documentary film follows the life of free-spirited Michael Tilson Thomas, as he went his own way and stretched the boundaries of classical music. There was an immediate meeting of the minds and sensibilities. COMPOSED: The roots of his Third Symphony reach as far back at 1942, when he wrote his Fanfare for the Common Man, which would eventually be incorporated into the Symphony’s finale. Thomas: And I walked in and I just -- saw him, and I knew something. The 2020–21 concert season marks his first year as Music Director Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, with which he concluded his 25-year tenure as Music Director in June 2020. ♪♪ Robison: At the exact same time, we actually started the New World Symphony -- the same year that Michael started the LSO in 1987 was the same year we started the New World Symphony. And this is such an unusual moment because it is a moment during which the winds and strings are going to have to wait and listen while the brass rehearse something, as opposed to the other way around, which is nearly the way it always is. I mean, every American orchestra of consequence has people he's trained in the New World Symphony. His directorship of the San Francisco Symphony was a period of significant growth and heightened international recognition for the orchestra, marked by an adventurous expansion of the orchestra’s repertoire and a commitment to rethinking and innovating upon the traditional concert hall experience. Thomas: I think at one point he climbed up on the piano. They were always hoping for the really big movie deal. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Cheering and applause ] [ Indistinct chatter ] Thomas: Good evening, everybody. The Grammy-winning conductor, pianist and composer helped set the standard that an American orchestra should champion modern American music. I said, 'Well, I've got a piece called 'Four Organs'.' The American Masters documentary Michael Tilson Thomas: Where Now Is premieres in the United States on Friday, October 23rd, at 6.00 pm Pacific Time (check local times), and can be viewed on PBS, and the PBS Video app. Le projet est colossal et prévoit l'interprétation de deux oeuvres majeures, Absolute Jest et Grand... Lire la suite. Upbeat to two, all the strings, please. ♪♪ Thomas: For years, I had been mentioning that I thought it was a pity that there was no national resource for young musicians, and suddenly I hear that Ted Arison wants to talk to me. So it's like a very sculptural landscape inside. Then -- [ Humming ] Violas and cellos take the lead like crazy before E. One, and... ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Good, good, good, good, good. So suddenly we began to see thatthere were many areas in common. We can remove the first show in the list to add this one. So all of that was involved in the possibility that came up of my becoming the conductor, the music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic. ', I think that when you really have made up your mind what it means to you, and what you intend to do about it, it won't matter to you whatI think or anybody else thinks.'.

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