This week, Miami lost one of its finest.  A Musical Icon whose enormous legacy was our first -class New World Symphony and the city’s Frank Gehry-designed Symphony Hall. This appreciation of MICHAEL TILSON THOMAS was written by local Emmy-nominated filmmaker and occasional Queerguru contributor Kareem Tabsch

MTT as he was affectionately called, was a giant not only of classical music but of Miami’s cultural community. He founded New World Symphony alongside Lin and Ted Arison in 1987 in Miami Beach and made it a world-class orchestral academy that he led for 35 years. The reason Miami Beach has a Frank Gehry-designed symphony hall is because of Michael Tilson Thomas (who Gehry used to babysit!) and his contributions to the cultural landscape of our community and of orchestral music are immeasurable. I remember how excited and honored Dennis Scholl and I were when MTT and his husband Joshua came to the World Premiere of our film The Last Resort at Miami Jewish Film Festival and made a point to stick around to tell us how much they liked it. Josh passed away in February and Michael today. There’s a photo of all of us in the comments. I’ll treasure that moment.