But some people will say you just did these programs. Well, yes, the programs are important and I'm proud of the programs, but mostly I'm proud of the way the San Francisco Symphony plays these programs. — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
But still as compared to many, many orchestras in the world, I think you find a lot more new music and living composers on our programs than many other places. — 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
I can't do pieces I only admire technically. I have to feel some direct contact with them. — 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 of what… — Michael Tilson Thomas Copy Share Image
This extraordinary group has absolutely captivated my imagination, knocked my socks off - what more can I say? — 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].” quote by Michael Tilson Thomas](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/243/michael-tilson-thomas-15268_alive_if-you-re-curious-if-you-have-a-capacity_808688.jpg)
