San Francisco Symphony

Michael Tilson Thomas and the SF Symphony and Chorus bow at an American Mavericks festival concert, June 9, 2000

1999–2000

INDEPENDENTLY OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM

98–99

00–01

With the season-ending American Mavericks festival, MTT, who has never been bashful in his programming and in his commitment to American music, outdoes even himself. The multimedia-infused festival spotlights 20th-century composers who work “resolutely, aggressively, independently outside the mainstream,” reacting to the times in which they find themselves. MTT considers these mavericks to be American heroes, and believes listeners are ready to give them a hearing. As has been the case since his first day, MTT calls it: The moment American Mavericks launches, the world focuses on San Francisco. Audiences respond in droves, connecting with classical music in new ways, without waiting to be told whether they should or shouldn’t like what they hear. (For the record: 18,000 ticketholders do.)

ICONS & ICONOCLASTS: THE AMERICAN MAVERICKS FESTIVAL

MTT bills the spectacular American Mavericks festival as a celebration of the nation’s visionaries, pioneers, and iconoclasts—composers whose expressive goals are to “explore unknown musical and psychological territories.” Among the mavericks whose music is explored are Charles Ives (who liberated American music from European bondage), John Cage (as much philosopher as musician), and George Antheil (whose Ballet mécanique had to wait almost 80 years for the advent of computer and MIDI tech to be heard as he conceived it). The Bay Area’s Lou Harrison is represented, as are Aaron Copland, Morton Feldman, Steve Reich, John Adams, Steven Mackey, Duke Ellington, and Henry Cowell. MTT’s plan to launch a festival of music designed to shock and surprise is not calculated for success. Needless to say, American Mavericks becomes iconic.

MTT, Steven Mackey, and Sherwood and Judy Weiser backstage

at a American Mavericks festival concert

MTT performs Feldman’s Piece for 4 Pianos

at the American Mavericks festival

Maverick composers are those who are pushing boundaries and exploring new sounds, either made by traditional instruments, by introducing entirely new instruments, or by using the vocabulary of electronics or sounds generated through computer technology—it’s young thinking. Their works are challenging and thought-provoking and shake up your whole conception of things. In many ways, Mavericks have a provocative, confrontational, and amusing attitude about music. Their music contains great poetry, but it also contains a two-fisted assault on your senses, and also a sense of humor. And what many of these composers have in common is their association with California, with the San Francisco Bay Area: Cage, Harrison, Cowell, John Adams, Mason Bates, all spent very important parts of their lives in San Francisco or are from here. They have an independent, left of center spirit—the same spirit that defines this community and this Orchestra. ”

— Michael Tilson Thomas

MTT performs Copland as part of the

American Mavericks festival

MTT leads the West Coast premiere of Antheil's Ballet mécanique

Exactly what makes a maverick is left intentionally unclear; nothing could be more unmaverick-like than laying down laws. . . . In the end, [Tilson Thomas] has mostly chosen the composers he cares about. His intent is revelation, and that makes the festival personal, about MTT and his relationship to the American musical scene and to this city. It is a festival the likes of which few, if any, traditional musical institutions would dare. ”

— Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, June 9, 2000