Michael Tilson Thomas Conducts His Own WorksMichael Tilson Thomas Conducts His Own Works

The superstar maestro and composer Michael Tilson Thomas (known to his fans as "MTT"!) leads the New World Symphony in two of his own musical creations. Composer, conductor, pianist, music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and artistic director and founder of the New World Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas has won admirers around the globe, from orchestra members to audiences. Born in Los Angeles in 1944, MTT had a passion from a young age for literature and American symphonic music, which he has never stopped promoting. Some of his works draw their inspiration from the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, and Carl Sandburg. His Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind is a musical adaptation of the poem of the same name by Carl Sandburg: "I read his collection Smoke and Steel and revelled in the images of speed, power and outcry that were there." A prodigy mentored by the great Leonard Bernstein himself, he has won 11 Grammy awards and participated in more than 120 recordings, and doesn't seem to be ready to stop any time soon!