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Tom Service talks to the American conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony, Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and Artistic Director of the New World Symphony. This week Tilson Thomas celebrates his 70th birthday in concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican. In this extended interview he talks to Tom about his approach to conducting, which comes directly from his upbringing by a father and grandfather involved in the directing of Yiddish theatre in New York. ÌýHe reflects on the work that he has done with many leading contemporary composers, particularly Steve Reich, whose music he took from the creative spaces and studios of New York into the concert hall. Tilson Thomas discusses the concert halls of San Francisco and explains how cutting-edge computer innovations in the SoundBox, designed by Frank Gehry, enable him to rethink programming. He is always seeking new ways in which to communicate with a wider audience and tells Tom about how he is using online technology to reach young musicians and even to conduct youth orchestras in real time, but remotely!

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