No one shaped South Florida’s cultural life more than Michael Tilson Thomas | Opinion
Michael Tilson Thomas had a stellar career in orchestral music. The protégé of Leonard Bernstein, he was one of the great cultural and musical figures of the 20th century. He died last week.
MTT, as he was known, led many of the world’s most important symphony orchestras. That included his principal roles with the London Symphony Orchestra, 25 years at the helm of the San Francisco Symphony — shaping it into one of the great orchestras of the world — and of course, his seminal work in creating and building the New World Symphony in Miami Beach.
The New World Symphony is the preeminent postgraduate institution for music students in the world. It sends fellows as ambassadors of music — and of Miami Beach — to major orchestras. The fellows evangelize popularizing classical music and also tell a story about MTT’s home for many years, Miami Beach.
In the history of Miami Beach, few figures have done more than Thomas to positively shape this community. There was John Collins, who founded the city; Carl Fisher, who created the resort community that Miami Beach became and — when the city needed to be reborn — the vision of Barbara Capitman to recognize the treasure of Art Deco architecture that helped spark the revitalization of this community.
Thomas, though, had his own special role in changing the identity of the city. When I was a kid growing up in Miami Beach, there were almost no arts or culture in the city and precious little in the region. Then this incredible thing happened in Miami Beach in the 1980s, when arts organizations were created and began to grow. The growth, centered largely on Lincoln Road, was led by the Miami City Ballet, the ArtCenter South Florida and the New World Symphony, which, with money from Lin and Ted Arison, bought and refurbished the Lincoln Theater as its rehearsal and performance space.
That became the cultural center and spawning ground for arts and cultural institutions throughout this region. It was a cornerstone of the renaissance of Miami Beach, which became known as a great arts and cultural city. Though there were many important figures in that movement during that period of time, none had a more profound and lasting effect than MTT.
The creation of the New World Center, the campus of the New World Symphony, is part of Thomas’ legacy. In the late 1990s, he had a vision of what could be created for the advancement and evolution of orchestral music, and also for Miami Beach. He foresaw creating a great building that would be a laboratory for the study, creation and presentation of music and a great park in the heart of the city where there was only a surface parking lot.
Others had different ideas. They wanted to put shopping centers there. We were able to prevent that from happening, and MTT was able to achieve his dream, working to design the New World Center with his childhood babysitter, Frank Gehry, the greatest architect of our time.
We now have this magnificent Gehry building as the home of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach. It functions like no other building of its kind. Institutions, universities and orchestras try to emulate what has been created here with the New World Center and Sound Space Park. The park is an incredible gift to the public to enjoy music and experience our beautiful environment for free.
This is a part of MTT’s lasting legacy — not only shaping and changing the world of orchestral music, not only being a leader in his field for two generations, but also leaving his indelible mark on the city in making Miami Beach and, indeed, South Florida a center for arts and culture.
That achievement is anchored by the magnificent New World Center, a physical manifestation of all that MTT has done for our community. No one has done more to shape Miami Beach and the cultural landscape in South Florida than Michael Tilson Thomas.
Neisen O. Kasdin is a former mayor of Miami Beach and past chairman of the board of the New World Symphony and co-managing partner of Akerman, LLP Miami.