You can't have Bach, Mozart and Beethoven as your favorite composers. They simply define what music is! — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
Earlier in my life, I performed a lot of music. Some of it because I felt it was a demonstration, or a… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
If you're curious, if you have a capacity for wonder, if you're alive, you know all that you need to know [about… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
I think music needs to be presented in a way so that kids can grasp songs, dances, simple music that's associated with… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
Part of my big message with all this is that if you are alive, you know all you need to know about… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
If we are able to get inside the music and inhabit it convincingly enough, it will cause everyone to find each other… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
Being a conductor is kind of a hybrid profession because most fundamentally, it is being someone who is a coach, a trainer,… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
But those musics do not address the larger kind of architecture in time that classical music does, whatever each one of us… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
In earlier times, so many people sang much more. You know as a kid you'd go to some kind of religious training… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
When I was a kid, three years old, I couldn't walk by the piano without reaching up and trying to play a… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
It's easier to interest a conservative audience in pushing the musical boundaries than to involve a young audience used to very noisy,… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
But without the experience of actually singing or playing these things yourself, you don't have the same kind of involvement or understanding… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
But a large symphony orchestra basically is a repertory company and it has a very enormous repertoire and it is important for… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
A conundrum of music is that music brings people together, yet to become a skilled musician involves a certain amount of lonely… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
If we are able to get inside the music and inhabit it convincingly enough, it will cause everyone to find each other in this… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share
Being a conductor is kind of a hybrid profession because most fundamentally, it is being someone who is a coach, a trainer, an editor,… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share
You know, they were returning to the language of the people and trying to use musical language, particularly as Copland did to create a… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share
The first year I started in San Francisco, there was an American work on every program and there's been a lot of music by… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share
But those musics do not address the larger kind of architecture in time that classical music does, whatever each one of us knows that… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share
If you're curious, if you have a capacity for wonder, if you're alive, you know all that you need to know [about music]. — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share
Classical music is a wonderful 1200 year-old tradition that witnesses everything that it has meant and what it means right now to be human. — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share
But a large symphony orchestra basically is a repertory company and it has a very enormous repertoire and it is important for the performers… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share
You can't have Bach, Mozart and Beethoven as your favorite composers. They simply define what music is! — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share
I can't do pieces I only admire technically. I have to feel some direct contact with them. — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share
But without the experience of actually singing or playing these things yourself, you don't have the same kind of involvement or understanding of what… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share
This extraordinary group has absolutely captivated my imagination, knocked my socks off - what more can I say? — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share
![“If you're curious, if you have a capacity for wonder, if you're alive, you know all that you need to know [about music].” quote by Michael Tilson Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/243/michael-tilson-thomas-15268_alive_if-you-re-curious-if-you-have-a-capacity_808688.png)
