April 1, 2026
1946–2026
You could not talk about Joshua Robison without the conversation turning at some point to Michael Tilson Thomas. The two were so completely linked—friends from childhood, business partners, artistic partners, life partners even long before they married in 2014. Joshua was MTT’s conduit to the world beyond the stage, to the real life a public figure needs as much as and perhaps more than the rest of us need that life. Joshua loved the music, he knew the music, he knew what the music meant to MTT and how MTT meant to live the music. You could not talk about Joshua Robison without talking about MTT, but now the talk must be about Joshua.
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Joshua Robison died on February 22 at age 79. What septuagenarian has ever been more apt to scoff at that term, septuagenarian? Earlier in his life he had been a prize-winning gymnast at UC Berkeley. His demeanor and presence, the way he moved and spoke, told you he had been an athlete and probably still was, even if you weren’t likely to see him at work on the parallel bars. Around him, you felt a sense of kinetic abundance. If you want that statement confirmed, ask any of the partners who joined him in swing dancing (he was an expert). And he was gracious, a word used infrequently these days, when so much ungraciousness dominates our lives. He was a gentleman, a gentleman who could as easily laugh at a good joke as wrap his jacket around the shoulders of a woman shivering against an evening’s sudden chill.
Joshua Robison played a major role in the San Francisco Symphony during the MTT years, and anyone familiar with the Symphony knows how much that means. But as much as this is a time to mourn and to offer sympathy to MTT, and to Joshua’s family and colleagues, it is time to be grateful for Joshua’s energy, his wit, his charm. Composer John Adams captured all that in music he dedicated to Joshua and MTT. Adams titled the piece after something Joshua told him: “I Still Dance.” —Larry Rothe
Larry Rothe is author of the San Francisco Symphony history Music for a City, Music for the World and co-author of For the Love of Music.
Joshua Robison played a major role in the San Francisco Symphony during the MTT years, and anyone familiar with the Symphony knows how much that means. But as much as this is a time to mourn and to offer sympathy to MTT, and to Joshua’s family and colleagues, it is time to be grateful for Joshua’s energy, his wit, his charm. Composer John Adams captured all that in music he dedicated to Joshua and MTT. Adams titled the piece after something Joshua told him: “I Still Dance.” —Larry Rothe
Larry Rothe is author of the San Francisco Symphony history Music for a City, Music for the World and co-author of For the Love of Music.
