Remembering Classical Music Icon Michael Tilson Thomas

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KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2026

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’ll remember legendary conductor, composer, educator and San Francisco icon Michael Tilson Thomas who died on Wednesday. He served 25 years as music director of the San Francisco Symphony and was a towering figure in the classical music world in the Bay Area and globally. He is credited with revamping classical music with his risky musical choices, innovative collaborations, and talent for teaching young people. Thomas retired from the symphony in 2020 and was diagnosed with a rare brain cancer around that same time. We’ll talk about Thomas’ legacy and lasting imprint on San Francisco. Guests: Joshua Kosman, classical music critic, San Francisco Chronicle Mark Leno, former California state senator; longtime friend of Michael Tilson Thomas Donato Cabrera, music and artistic director, California Symphony John Adams, composer - his new opera "Girls of the Golden West" runs at San Francisco Opera through December 10th Julia Bullock, Grammy-winning opera singer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:31.5	From KQED. Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrival. This morning we remember an icon, a classical music
0:40.7	innovator and a San Francisco character. Michael Tilson Thomas was the longtime conductor of the San
0:47.1	Francisco Symphony, elevating the organization into the highest echelon of classical music. In the
0:53.3	world of high art and culture, Tilsen Thomas
0:55.9	represented our city and region with intensity and verve. The New York Times called him, quote,
1:02.6	the best teacher and demystifier of classical music for the general public since Leonard Bernstein.
1:08.9	Joining us to talk about his life and legacy, we begin with Joshua Costman, classical music critic,
1:14.6	formerly of the San Francisco Chronicle. Welcome.
1:16.6	Thank you.
1:17.6	And we have Mark Lenno, former California State Senator and a long, longtime friend of Michael
1:24.6	Tilsson Thomas and his husband Joshua Robeson. Welcome.
1:29.7	Great to be here. Yeah. Joshua, let's start with the music. What made him so special as a conductor?
1:41.0	There were, well, many answers to that. One of them would be his enormous curiosity and his ability to take in and take on an enormous range of repertoire.
1:55.1	He loved old music, early music, standard repertoire, Beethoven and Debussy and Stravinsky and so forth.
2:04.3	And then he was always, always devotee and champion of contemporary music.
2:10.2	And right from the very beginning of his career, when he was a teenager,
2:13.7	he was hanging out with Stravinsky in Los Angeles and playing pieces that were just fresh off the page.
2:22.1	So that would be one.
2:24.0	And the other one would be his endless passion to, as the New York Times Open rightly said, to bring the joys of music to an enormously wide audience. And he did this both in his performances
	...

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