I had the rare privilege of working with Michael Tilson Thomas during the YouTube Symphony Orchestra: first at Carnegie Hall in '09, and again at the Sydney Opera House in '11.
What we were attempting, alongside our tireless YouTube team and visionary production partners, felt almost impossible at the time. We were building a world-class orchestra from thousands of digital auditions, ultimately bringing together 101 musicians from 33 countries. It could have easily remained just a bold idea; MTT made it real.
Going in, I expected to work with a legendary conductor. What I didn't expect was a true collaborator and a showman in the best sense of the word.
He didn't just conduct the orchestra; he embraced the medium. He understood that this wasn't only about music, it was about connection, access, and expanding what a symphony could be in a digital world.
He encouraged ideas that, on paper, felt unconventional:
Humanizing the global: Bringing audiences into the lives of musicians auditioning from their bedrooms.
Immersive Tech: Transforming iconic venues into immersive visual canvases.
Genre-blurring: Collaborating with creators like sand artist Kseniya Simonova to push storytelling beyond the stage.
Watching him take a group of musicians from entirely different cultures and backgrounds, people who had never met, and shape them into a single voice in just days was pure magic.
He made every performer feel seen and every audience member feel like they belonged inside the music.
A massive thank you to my colleagues at YouTube and Google that lived this journey with me and the incredible creative minds who pushed the boundaries of what a "performance" could be.
