Pentatone will honor Michael Tilson Thomas’ lifetime of contributions as a composer by releasing a deluxe collection of CDs and digital recordings of his compositions, titled GRACE: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas.
To be released in celebration of his 80th birthday, this four-disc set spans more than five decades of his compositional career and features 18 works, from premiere recordings to remastered archival recordings available for the first time. The collection also includes an extensive booklet containing composer’s notes, original essays, and a timeline of archival photos chronicling MTT’s life as a pianist, conductor, composer, recording artist, and teacher.
Michael Tilson Thomas is Music Director Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra, and Co-Founder and Artistic Director Laureate of the New World Symphony. Born in Los Angeles, he is the third generation of his family to pursue an artistic career. His grandparents, Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, were founding members of the Yiddish Theater in America; his father, Ted Thomas, was a producer at the Mercury Theater Company in New York before moving to Los Angeles where he worked in film and television; and his mother, Roberta Thomas, was the head of research for Columbia Pictures.
Mr. Tilson Thomas began his formal studies at the University of Southern California, where he studied piano with John Crown and conducting and composition with Ingolf Dahl. At age nineteen he was named Music Director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra. During this same period, he was the pianist and conductor in master classes of Gregor Piatigorsky and Jascha Heifetz and worked with Stravinsky, Boulez, Stockhausen, and Copland on premieres of their compositions at Los Angeles’ Monday Evening Concerts.
As a guest conductor, he has appeared with orchestras worldwide, including the major orchestras of Europe and the United States. A winner of twelve GRAMMY Awards, Mr. Tilson Thomas appears on more than 120 recordings. His discography includes The Mahler Project, a collection of the composer’s complete symphonies and works for voice and orchestra performed with the San Francisco Symphony, as well as pioneering recordings of music by Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles, Steve Reich, John Cage, Ingolf Dahl, Morton Feldman, George Gershwin, John McLaughlin, and Elvis Costello. His recordings span repertoire from Bach and Beethoven to Debussy and Stravinsky, and include collaborations with artists ranging from Sarah Vaughan to Metallica.
All net proceeds from GRACE: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas will be donated to brain cancer research at the UCSF Brain Tumor Center.
