Michael Tilson Thomas News

Whether he's foraging in the land of Radiohead, spelunking with the Cocteau Twins, or indulging in a little purified Bach-mania, eclectic pianist Christopher O'Riley seeks the true center of each piece of music he performs.

Debussy and Weill make a strange coupling in a series devoted to the 150th anniversary of the Frenchman's birth: Debussy's impressionism, probing the depths of emotion and sensation, is far removed from Weill's hard-edged social criticism.

Debussy 's early Fantasy for piano and orchestra gets few outings - it had none whatsoever in the composer's lifetime - but it formed the centrepiece of the first concert in the London Symphony Orchestra 's series focusing on the French master, presided over by Michael Tilson Thomas .

John Williams, Larry Field, Julia Gaskill, David Weiss, Frank Gehry and Michael Tilson Thomas attend the Young Musicians Foundation's 57th Annual Gala Concert on January 15 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Claude Debussy's "Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien" is vast and over-the-top, an idiosyncratic spectacle, to be sure -- quite strange and fabulously beautiful.