Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) became the San Francisco Symphony’s (SFS) 11th Music Director in 1995. He has made more than two dozen national and international tours with the SFS. Acclaimed for his work as a composer, the SFS has also premiered many of his works.

MTT studied piano, conducting, and composition 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, he was appointed Assistant Conductor (and later Principal Guest Conductor) of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He led the television broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic’s famed Young People’s Concerts (1971-1977), has been Chief Conductor and Director of the Ojai Festival and Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, and in 1988 became Principal Conductor (and is now Principal Guest Conductor) of the London Symphony Orchestra. Until 2000, he was co-Artistic Director of the Pacific Music Festival, which he and Leonard Bernstein inaugurated in 1990. He appears frequently as a guest conductor with the major orchestras of Europe and the United States.

MTT’s recordings have won numerous international awards, including 11 Grammys for SFS recordings. Among his many honors, he was presented the National Medal of Arts in 2010, named 1995 Conductor of the Year by Musical America, and in 2006 received Gramophone’s Artist of the Year award. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of France.

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