Michael Tilson Thomas 1944 - 2026

Mahler looms large, but it is the Americans MTT loved...

Michael Tilson Thomas (1944–2026), often known by his initials MTT, was a legendary American conductor, composer, pianist, and educator. He died on April 22, 2026, at 81, from glioblastoma. Initially diagnosed in 2021, MTT continued to work, conducting his last concert with the San Francisco Symphony almost exactly one year before his death. Michael Tilson Thomas made his final public conducting appearance on April 26, 2025, at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.

The performance was a special 80th birthday celebration concert with the San Francisco Symphony and Chorus. He conducted a program that included Benjamin Britten’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell and Ottorino Respighi’s Roman Festivals. Longtime vocal soloists Frederica von Stade, Sasha Cooke, Jessica Vosk, and Ben Jones joined Thomas for his special evening.

This event served as his farewell to the podium. It brought his career “full circle” by featuring Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, the same work he conducted for his first gala as San Francisco Symphony Music Director in 1995.

Considered one of the world’s preeminent interpreters of Gustav Mahler, MTT recorded all nine Mahler symphonies and major orchestral songs with the San Francisco Symphony (SFS), winning multiple Grammy Awards for these recordings. MTT was a tireless champion of American composers, particularly those he termed “American Mavericks”—pioneering, often unconventional figures that included Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles, and George Gershwin. He maintained close collaborative relationships with living composers such as John Adams, Steve Reich, and Meredith Monk, frequently commissioning and premiering their works.

Michael Tilson Thomas is an American hero.