San Francisco Symphony’s beloved Music Director Laureate, Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT) died at home on Wednesday, April 22, 2026 surrounded by family and friends. In 2021, he was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive type of brain cancer. Through his illness he continued to make music—a testament to his legacy as a musician and communicator. He was preceded in death by his husband Joshua Robison. MTT made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony in 1974 at age 29 and, since then, led nearly 1,800 concerts over the course of his 52-year relationship with the Symphony. During his incredible 25-year tenure as Music Director (1995–2020), MTT oversaw the launch of SFS Media, the Symphony’s own recording label, which released many Grammy Award-winning recordings; introduced Keeping Score, creating a lasting and memorable music education experience for countless young people; and created unforgettable concert experiences for the Symphony’s audiences and community. In early 2025, when Michael Tilson Thomas shared that his glioblastoma had returned, he announced that he would, at that point, wind down public performances. At that time MTT wrote, “A ‘coda’ is a musical element at the end of a composition that brings the whole piece to a conclusion. A coda can vary greatly in length. My life’s coda is generous and rich.” In January 2024, Michael Tilson Thomas conducted the San Francisco Symphony in Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, marking his final subscription series concerts with the Orchestra. On April 26, 2025, he made his final public conducting appearance during a special concert celebrating his 80th birthday, leading the San Francisco Symphony in Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, which MTT conducted for his first Gala as Music Director with the Orchestra in 1995, and Ottorino Respighi’s Roman Festivals.
Michael Tilson Thomas was Music Director Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra, cofounder and Artistic Director Laureate of the New World Symphony, and Distinguished Professor of Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He was a 12-time Grammy Award winner and conducted the major orchestras of Europe and the United States. Born in Los Angeles, he studied conducting and composition with Ingolf Dahl at the University of Southern California and, as a young musician, worked with artists including Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland. In his mid-20s, he became Assistant Conductor—and later Principal Guest Conductor—of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He subsequently served as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic, Principal Guest Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. In 1987, he cofounded the New World Symphony, a postgraduate orchestral academy in Miami Beach dedicated to preparing young musicians of diverse backgrounds for leadership roles in classical music. He worked with more than 1,200 NWS Fellows, many of whom have gone on to major musical careers. He became Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony in 1995, ushering in a period of significant growth and heightened international recognition for the orchestra, championing contemporary and American composers alongside classical masters. His discography includes more than 120 recordings, and his television work includes series for the BBC and PBS, the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts, and numerous televised performances. His profile Michael Tilson Thomas: Where Now Is aired on PBS’s American Masters series in fall 2020. Throughout his career, he was an active composer, with major works including From the Diary of Anne Frank, premiered with narrator Audrey Hepburn, and Meditations on Rilke. Both appear on SFS Media’s Grammy Award-winning recording of his music. In 2023, Yuja Wang and Teddy Abrams released a recording on DG that included Tilson Thomas’s You Come Here Often?, which won a Grammy Award in 2024 for Best Classical Instrumental Solo. He was 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, and a 2019 Kennedy Center Honoree. Three major recording projects were released in 2024 in celebration of his 80th birthday: GRACE: The Music of Michael Tilson Thomas, a four-disc box set of Tilson Thomas’s compositions on Pentatone; The Complete Columbia, CBS and RCA Recordings on Sony Classical, and The Complete Deutsche Grammophon & Argo Recordings on DG Eloquence.
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