Latest Michael Tilson Thomas Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I have a strange situation as far as my name is concerned, because of course, what should my name really be? Is it my traditional Jewish name? Or this curious name my parents put together, partially to honor departed family members, and partially to keep me away from the absolute craziness of my grandparents' fame and the intrusiveness of their fans? So many people call me "MTT," and some do say, "Oh Maestro," and some are comfortable calling me Michael.

  Michael Tilson Thomas

  People, Parent, Departed

  Source: www.motherjones.com

• If you're alive, you have all the experience necessary to understand classical music.

  Michael Tilson Thomas

  Alive, Classical Music, Ifs

  "The Superconductor: SF Symphony’s Michael Tilson Thomas (Condensed Version)". Interview with Clara Jeffery, www.motherjones.com. March/April 2010.

• Pop music, which I deeply admire and wish I could play better than I can, is based on expressing one mood, one feeling at a time. Classical music is by its very nature involved with different kinds of music, constantly transforming one another, which is more akin to the way our experience of life really is.

  Michael Tilson Thomas

  Play, Feelings, Wish

  "The Superconductor: SF Symphony’s Michael Tilson Thomas (Condensed Version)". Interview with Clara Jeffery, www.motherjones.com. March/April 2010.

• It's easier to interest a conservative audience in pushing the musical boundaries than to involve a young audience used to very noisy, assertive music in something like Schubert or Bach because the further back you go, the less bells and whistles there are.

  Michael Tilson Thomas

  Musical, Bells, Pushing

  "The Superconductor: SF Symphony’s Michael Tilson Thomas (Condensed Version)". Interview with Clara Jeffery, www.motherjones.com. March/April 2010.

• The real deep text of music and the whole reason that it has continued with the profundity and urgency that it has for over a thousand years, has to do with what the notes say, what the notes witness, different experiences of hope or doubt that people are able to distill and encode and pass on in this way.

  Michael Tilson Thomas

  Real, Years, Different Experiences

  "The Superconductor: SF Symphony’s Michael Tilson Thomas". Interview with Clara Jeffery, www.motherjones.com. March/April 2010.

• Thank God for movie music. It preserves the rich vocabulary in classical music through challenging times.

  Michael Tilson Thomas

  Vocabulary, Challenges, Thank God

  "The Superconductor: SF Symphony’s Michael Tilson Thomas (Condensed Version)". Interview with Clara Jeffery, www.motherjones.com. March/April 2010.

• A conundrum of music is that music brings people together, yet to become a skilled musician involves a certain amount of lonely time in which you're just figuring it out, practicing.

  Michael Tilson Thomas

  Lonely, People, Together

  "The Superconductor: SF Symphony’s Michael Tilson Thomas (Condensed Version)". Interview with Clara Jeffery, www.motherjones.com. March/April 2010.

• One of my central maxims is how a major part of what a conductor tries to do is get a large group of people to agree on where "now" actually is.

  Michael Tilson Thomas

  People, Trying, Groups

  "The Superconductor: SF Symphony’s Michael Tilson Thomas". Interview with Clara Jeffery, www.motherjones.com. March/April 2010.

• Part of my mission is simply that: to bring the world of the arts, particularly classical music, closer to people so they don't feel that it is something remote that they have to specially prepare themselves for, or dress up for.

  Michael Tilson Thomas

  Art, People, Dresses

  "The Superconductor: SF Symphony’s Michael Tilson Thomas (Condensed Version)". Interview with Clara Jeffery, www.motherjones.com. March/April 2010.

• When I was a kid, three years old, I couldn't walk by the piano without reaching up and trying to play a few notes on it. There are kids who are just drawn to listening to music and dancing to it and trying to conduct.

  Michael Tilson Thomas

  Kids, Years, Play

  "The Superconductor: SF Symphony’s Michael Tilson Thomas". Interview with Clara Jeffery, www.motherjones.com. March/April 2010.

• The way you survive in the performing arts is by having a sense of your audience, and doing things which entertain and satisfy the audience, but in a more important way, cause the audience to question many things.

  Michael Tilson Thomas

  Art, Important, Way

  "The Superconductor: SF Symphony’s Michael Tilson Thomas (Condensed Version)". Interview with Clara Jeffery, www.motherjones.com. March/April 2010.