Michael Tilson Thomas takes his final bow with San Francisco Symphony
San Francisco Civic Center was awash in blue, from City Hall to Davies Symphony Hall, where various shades of the color could be seen throughout as fans donned the favorite color of San Francisco Symphony Music Director Laureate in honor of his 80th birthday.
Every seat in the full house even had a blue bandana for attendees, who enthusiastically waved the souvenir in the air once Thomas walked onstage Saturday, April 26 — which San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie declared 'Michael Tilson Thomas Day' — to be feted for his 51 years and contributions to the classical music scene locally and beyond.
The bandana featured a quote from Thomas himself, reading in part: 'There are two key times in an artist's life. The first is inventing yourself. The second, the harder part, is going the distance.'
The lobby bar even served a special 'Bolinas Breeze' cocktail — made with vodka, limoncello (Thomas and Robison grow Meyer lemons) and Blue Curacao — named for the West Marin town where Thomas and his husband Joshua Robison have a home.
'I can't believe that now this is the culmination,' said John Goldman, a past president of the Symphony and friend of Thomas and Robison, who remembered that when the couple first came to the city his family would attend synagogue together. 'You can't think of the San Francisco Symphony without thinking of Michael Tilson Thomas. They are institutions joined together forever.'
Thomas, one of the most acclaimed conductors of the past 50 years, joined the San Francisco Symphony as music director in 1995 and retired from the position in 2020, with his final season truncated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Thomas revealed he was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive form of brain cancer, and underwent surgery and treatment at the UCSF Brain Tumor Center.
In February, he announced that his brain tumor had returned, and that his 80th birthday concert would be his farewell to performing.
'There are treatment options, but the odds are uncertain,' Thomas shared in an email last month addressed 'Dear Friends.' 'Now is the time to wind down my public appearances.'
It was a night of big feelings for many in attendance.
Aly Geller of San Francisco wore a blue cardigan over a T-shirt she had made with a blue heart containing the words 'Thank you MTT' on the front and an excerpt of Gustave Mahler's Symphony No. 6 on the back, a piece he is renowned for conducting.
'I've loved him since I was in the sixth grade when he conducted the Ojai Music Festival,' said Geller. 'He made me fall in love with Mahler, he's such an amazing teacher to all of us.'
The two act program was produced by Robison, general manager of MTT Inc., and featured new arrangements of works by Thomas as well as sentimental favorites from his long career, including Joseph Rumshinsky's Overture from 'Khantshe in Amerike,' (which has a familial significance for Thomas whose grandmother Bessie Thomashefsky played the title role in the play's world premiere in New York) and the finale of his mentor Leonard's Bernstein's 'Chichester Psalms.'
Thomas' proteges Teddy Abrams and Edwin Outwater shared conducting duties with the maestro, who, if not at the podium, sat stage left during much of the evening.
'We saw Michael at his happiest. There's nothing like the joy he was expressing on that podium,' Abrams, music director of the Louisville Orchestra, told the Chronicle after the concert. 'He was where he was meant to be, on the stage sharing music.'
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