According to multiple reports, Tilson Thomas died at his home in San Francisco, as confirmed by spokesperson Connie Shuman. He had undergone surgery for a brain tumor in 2021 and resumed his career before conducting his final concert with the San Francisco Symphony in April 2025.
Tilson Thomas received 39 Grammy award nominations, winning 12, and was among the Kennedy Center Honors recipients in 2019. He was born in Los Angeles on 21 December 1944 to parents involved in theater and film. His grandparents were pioneers in American Yiddish theater. He studied at the University of Southern California and worked with notable composers including Pierre Boulez and Igor Stravinsky. He held music director positions with the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and made a celebrated New York debut in 1969 replacing an ailing William Steinberg.
I don't fling the word genius around lightly, but I fling it around about Michael. He reminds me of me at that age, except that he knows more than I did. Not only music, but things like the functions of the brain, cerebrology, physics, biochemistry.
According to The Guardian - World, Leonard Bernstein described Tilson Thomas as a genius, while critic Harold C. Schonberg noted his immense confidence and authority on stage. Tilson Thomas once said of music, "It's meant to have various intriguing and alluring, questioning things that you hear on first hearing."