San Francisco Symphony Celebrates Music Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas At 80th Birthday Concert

On Saturday, April 26, 2025, the San Francisco Symphony celebrates Music Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas's 80th birthday with a one-night-only performance featuring MTT alongside the Orchestra. The event will feature special birthday surprises for MTT and the audience. 

 

The 80th birthday concert will feature Michael Tilson Thomas conducting Benjamin Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and Ottorino Respighi's Roman Festivals. The complete program, including special guests and more of MTT's favorite works, will be announced at a later date.  

 

“I am overjoyed that I will be back on stage with the wonderful musicians of the San Francisco Symphony,” said Tilson Thomas. “I remember our fantastic celebrations for my 60th and my 70th and I am so pleased that we can make music together for my 80th.” 

 

MTT's 80th birthday is this Saturday, December 21. Friends and fans can join in the celebration by posting birthday wishes and their favorite MTT memories on social media with the tag #MTT80.  

 

Tickets for MTT's 80th Birthday Concert with the San Francisco Symphony start at $99 and go on sale on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, at 10:00am PT at sfsymphony.org.

 

Michael Tilson Thomas made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 1974 at age 29 and quickly became a frequent and favorite guest conductor with the Orchestra. He was appointed Music Director in 1995, a role he served for 25 years. During his tenure, he pushed the boundaries of traditional orchestral performances through cutting-edge stagings of musical theater, operas, and theatrical works, the expansion of the symphonic repertory, and experimental new concert formats like SoundBox, which debuted in 2014. He has made a tremendous impact on the San Francisco Symphony and the entire classical music world as a conductor, composer, pianist, educator, mentor, and visionary.  

 

MTT has championed the City of San Francisco through orchestral tours nationally and internationally, and frequently collaborated with Bay Area luminaries, composers, and bands. He helped expand the San Francisco Symphony's education initiatives, affecting the lives of countless young people in San Francisco and beyond, as part of his deep commitment to education and mentorship of young people. Additionally, he created the acclaimed multimedia education series Keeping Score in 2004, making classical music more accessible to people of all ages and musical backgrounds. 

 

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony's recordings—many of them released through the Symphony's own SFS Media label, which launched under MTT's leadership—have been recognized with 12 Grammy Awards. In October 2024, to celebrate MTT's 80th birthday and honor his lifetime of contributions as a composer, PENTATONE released GRACE: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas, a deluxe collection of CDs and digital recordings of his compositions. The four-disc set spans more than five decades of MTT's compositional career and features 18 works, from premiere recordings to remastered archival recordings available for the first time, including nine works featuring the San Francisco Symphony. The deluxe 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. All proceeds from GRACE: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas will be donated to brain cancer research at UCSF Brain Tumor Center. 

 

Michael Tilson Thomas is an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France, member of the American Academies of Arts & Sciences and Arts & Letters, National Medal of Arts recipient, Peabody Award winner, Kennedy Center Honoree, and a member of the California Hall of Fame. In 2023, Mayor London N. Breed and Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi joined the San Francisco Symphony to honor and recognize MTT with new commemorative street signs for “MTT Way” on the 200 Block of Grove Street between Van Ness Avenue and Franklin Street, home to the iconic Davies Symphony Hall. 

 

Tickets for the MTT 80th Birthday Concert go on sale on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, at 10:00am PT, and can be purchased via sfsymphony.org or by calling the San Francisco Symphony Box Office at 415.864.6000.     

To post a comment, you must register and login.