MTT’s 70th Birthday Party
Photo Credit: Moanalani Jeffrey
Photo Credit: Moanalani Jeffrey
Photo Credit: Moanalani Jeffrey
Photo Credit: Moanalani Jeffrey
Photo Credit: Moanalani Jeffrey
Photo Credit: Moanalani Jeffrey
Photo Credit: Moanalani Jeffrey
Photo Credit: Moanalani Jeffrey
Photo Credit: Moanalani Jeffrey
Photo Credit: Moanalani Jeffrey
Photo Credit: Moanalani Jeffrey
Photo Credit: Moanalani Jeffrey
Photo Credit: Ellian Raffoul for Moanalani Jeffrey
Photo Credit: Ellian Raffoul for Moanalani Jeffrey
The San Francisco Symphony threw a lavish party for Michael Tilson Thomas in honor of the music director’s 70th birthday and his 20th anniversary at the helm of the famed Bay Area orchestra on Thursday, January 15. Guests wore blue gowns—Tilson Thomas’ favorite color—to the glamorous dinner held at the Symphony’s new performance venue, SoundBox, for 350 family, long-time friends, and music patrons including Denise Hale, Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Jerry Brown, Charlotte Shultz, Sako Fisher, Randi Fisher, and Doris Fisher, Nellie Levchin, Helen Schwab, Dagmar Dolby, Barbro Osher, Lisa Pritzker, Yurie Pascarella, and Maria Manetti Shrem. Stanlee Gatti designed the dinner setting at the new concert space in Hayes Valley, adding blue balloons and using the letters for MTT’s initials as centerpieces. Thousands of white calla lilies that were suspended above tables gave the former rehearsal hall an instant grand ballroom feeling. Alice Waters conjured up the menu for the dinner by McCalls of grilled rack of lamb with pomegranate sauce (the many vegetarians at the party received baked peppers stuffed with raisin-dotted jeweled rice).
The sold-out concert held at Davies Symphony Hall was led by Tilson Thomas, who wore one of his birthday presents: a blue sports coat with his initials embroidered in silver on the back. Soloists, including Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Marc-Andr Hamelin, Emanuel Ax, Jeremy Denk and Yuja Wang—who donated their fees to the orchestra’s music education and community outreach programs—joined Tilson Thomas at the piano (six were needed) to play Liszt’s Hexameron. Petite pianist Wang also paid tribute with her dress for the evening. She donned a fitted blue gown to play a fortissimo Scherzo from Concerto Symphonique by Henry Charles Litolff to the man of the hour.
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