Michael Tilson Thomas is the Music Director Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, conductor laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra, and cofounder and artistic director laureate of the New World Symphony. He is a 12-time Grammy Award winner and has 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. 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.

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 has worked with more than 1,200 NWS fellows, many of whom have gone on to major musical careers.

MTT became Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony in 1995, ushering in a period of significant growht and heightened international recognition for the orchestra. He led the Symphony in championing contemporary and American composers alongside classical masters, and as Music Director Laureate, he has returned to conduct the orchestra each season. 

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. “Michael Tilson Thomas: Where Now Is” aired on PBS’s American Masters series in fall 2020.

Throughout his career, he has been 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 released a recording on Deutsche Grammophon which included his You Come Here Often?
He is an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France, a member of the American Academies of Arts and Sciences and Arts and Letters, a 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 on Pentatone; The Complete Columbia, CBS, and RCA Recordings on Sony Classical; and Complete Deutsche Grammophon & Argo Recordings on DG Eloquence. 

For nearly five decades, the four-time Grammy Award-winner Anne-Sophie Mutter has been a fixture in the world’s major concert halls, making her mark on the world as a soloist, mentor, collaborator, humanitarian, and visionary artist.

Dedicated to supporting young musicians, Mutter founded the Association of Friends of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation in 1997, to which the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation was added in 2008. Since 2011, Mutter has regularly shared the spotlight on stage with her ensemble of fellows known as Mutter Virtuosi.

Mutter’s 2025 season includes this US recital tour, which marks her 37th year collaborating with pianist Lambert Orkis. She also performs John Williams’s Second Violin Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic; appears with the Sofia Philharmonia and Staatskapelle Berlin; and performs in a trio with pianist Yefim Bronfman and cellist Pablo Ferrández.

Mutter has been recognized around the world for her contribution to the arts, culture, social causes, and leadership. She has been awarded the German Grand Cross of the Order of Merit, the French Medal of the Legion of Honor, the Bavarian Order of Merit, the Decoration of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria, and numerous other honors. Most recently, the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music bestowed an honorary doctorate upon her in 2022, and in 2023, she received the Ruhr Piano Festival Prize and was awarded a Gold Medal from the Royal Philharmonic Society. She made her San Francisco Symphony debut in 1988 as a Shenson Young Artist and was an artist in residence in 2019–20.