You know, they were returning to the language of the people and trying to use musical language, particularly as Copland did to… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
But some people will say you just did these programs. Well, yes, the programs are important and I'm proud of the programs,… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
Part of my mission is simply that: to bring the world of the arts, particularly classical music, closer to people so they… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
One of my central maxims is how a major part of what a conductor tries to do is get a large group… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
But you know in the contemporary art world, you pose a very interesting conundrum. All sorts of people collect very contemporary art,… — 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
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
The real deep text of music and the whole reason that it has continued with the profundity and urgency that it has… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
I have a strange situation as far as my name is concerned, because of course, what should my name really be? Is… — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 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 music]. — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
You can't have Bach, Mozart and Beethoven as your favorite composers. They simply define what music is! — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
