I think music needs to be presented in a way so that kids can grasp songs, dances, simple music that's associated with some particular defining moment in human experience.

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• Michael Tilson Thomas:

  If we are able to get inside the music and inhabit it convincingly enough, it will cause everyone t

• Michael Tilson Thomas:

  In earlier times, so many people sang much more. You know as a kid you'd go to some kind of religio

• Michael Tilson Thomas:

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• Michael Tilson Thomas:

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• Michael Tilson Thomas:

  The whole path of American music has been so much about the recognition of stylistic diversity, and

• Michael Tilson Thomas:

  They are representations of many shared hours of collaboration between us all. That's the real natu

• Michael Tilson Thomas:

  You know, they were returning to the language of the people and trying to use musical language, par

• Michael Tilson Thomas:

  Being a conductor is kind of a hybrid profession because most fundamentally, it is being someone wh

• Michael Tilson Thomas:

  But a large symphony orchestra basically is a repertory company and it has a very enormous repertoi

• Michael Tilson Thomas:

  When I first was conducting as guest conductor in Europe 25 years ago, I would propose doing Americ