Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas has embarked on a number of intriguing and worthy projects during his career, including a series of ambitious recordings with the San Francisco Symphony and a number of well-received concerts with the late Sarah Vaughan in the 1980s. Most recently, he has teamed up with PBS (and his colleagues in the San Francisco Symphony) to create the “Keeping Score: Revolutions in Music” television series. Visitors to this site can explore the very fine multimedia presentations that are meant to accompany and enhance the entire educational and aesthetic experience of the television programs. Currently, there are multimedia profiles of Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”, Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony and the development of Copland’s approach to creating an “American” sound. Each site features a brief introduction by Thomas, and then visitors are invited into the score to follow along as the piece progresses. In the top left-hand corner of the score, visitors can watch Thomas as he conducts. Overall, the experience of this website is stimulating and edifying, without being visually (or aurally) overwhelming.
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