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Tilson Thomas and Gershwin

I just came across this interesting tidbit in an article about a concert
conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas dedicated to George Gershwin:

"The conductor's grandfather, Boris Thomashefsky, wanted Gershwin to write
music for the Yiddish theater.

`He was 14 or 15 and at that point he didn't write music that well,' says the
conductor. `The collaboration didn't work out. What would have been a great
thing for the Yiddish theater turned out to be a great thing for the American
musical theater.'

While Tilson Thomas' uncles were involved in Yiddish theater, his father
worked in Orson Welles' Mercury Theater in New York City then moved to Los
Angeles and worked in film and television."

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