Michael Tilson Thomas
Awarded 2008 Karl Haas Prize for Music Education

The 2008 Karl Haas Prize for Music Education has been awarded to Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony and host of the 8-part radio series, The MTT Files.










Tilson Thomas' seemingly effortless style of communication is near perfect in its ability to draw the listener into his world of music. The radio series is just one component of "Keeping Score," the ambitious cross-media undertaking by the San Francisco Symphony. Michael Tilson Thomas is the linchpin that makes the project so successful in communicating with its intended audiences.

This award's namesake, the late Karl Haas, received the first Fine Arts Radio International Awards Lifetime Achievement honor in 2000.

For further details about the series, visit the The MTT Files Web site.

Text of the 2008 Karl Haas Prize Recipient's Letter:

December 1, 2008

Dear Maestro:

Congratulations! You have been selected to become the fourth recipient of the Karl Haas Prize for Music Education. Past honorees distinguish themselves as music educators through the medium of radio, and you have continued to do such so very admirably with the recent radio series “The MTT Files,” exploring classical music and its influence on our lives-in unexpected ways. In the eight 60-minute programs, you reminisce about—and in conversation with—legendary artists with whom you have worked, a platform that is both intimate as well as uniquely effective in the first person.

“The MTT Files” are part of the San Francisco Symphony's acclaimed cross-media Keeping Score project, which includes a national PBS television series, public radio series, interactive websites, and K-12 Education and Community programs, all designed to make classical music more accessible to people of all ages and musical backgrounds. The component parts of this comprehensively integrated educational project have been beautifully crafted. The success of the Keeping Score project is in no small way due to your leadership and communication skills.

This was by no means the first educational initiative you have undertaken. Among other efforts, you regularly lead the San Francisco Symphony in education concerts, which the Orchestra has been providing for its community since 1919.

As director of the Buffalo Philharmonic during the period of 1971-1979, it was your custom to have informal pre-concert chats with the audiences. I witnessed firsthand the ease which you brought to those pre-concert talks. It was as if you had coached the Buffalo Philharmonic players, and now it was our turn as audience members to review the game plan, to know what to look out for during the concert. It was also during this time with the Buffalo Philharmonic that you became a regular conductor of “The Young People’s Concerts” with the New York Philharmonic, a platform that provided the same kind of personal educational opportunity, but for a predominately younger listenership.

The Karl Haas Prize for Music Education is presented annually by The Klassix Society/Friends of 88.7KXMS in the name of the man whose pioneering radio series, “Adventures in Good Music”, remains an inspirational beacon to radio producers and music educators alike.

On Behalf of the Klassix Society,

Jeffrey D. Skibbe
General Manager, 88.7KXMS

An Interesting Footnote . . .

Marcia Kimes is the Assistant to San Francisco Symphony Music Director, Michael Tilson Thomas. After graduating from Joplin Senior High School in 1958, Marcia received an Associate Degree in Business in 1960 from Joplin Junior College (an earlier incarnation of Missouri Southern State University).

Marcia has been with the San Francisco Symphony since 1981 and has worked with three Music Directors -- Edo de Waart, Herbert Blomstedt, and Michael Tilson Thomas. She also has been a member of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus and received a Grammy pin for singing in the chorus on the SFO Grammy Award recording of Brahms Requiem conducted by Herbert Blomstedt.