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LENOX, MA – AUGUST 25: Michael Tilson Thomas conducts Copland’s Appalachian Spring perform at “The Leonard Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood” on August 25, 2018 in Lenox, Massachusetts. The Boston Symphony Orchestra was joined by members ((Photo by Paul Marotta/Getty Images))
SAN FRANCISCO – Former San Francisco Symphony director and globally celebrated conductor Michael Tilson Thomas announced on Monday that his brain tumor has returned.
In 2020, Thomas retired as the symphony’s director after an impressive 25 years.
Then in August 2021, he announced he had undergone surgery for a glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.
What they’re saying:
“The three and a half years since the initial diagnosis have been a special time in my life, filled with friends, family, and music,” Thomas penned in a moving letter posted on his website and addressed to “Friends.”
He shared those special moments which included life in San Francisco, with his husband Joshua Robison and their dogs.
They’ve enjoyed trips to the coastal community of Bolinas with music and memories filling their home.
“There’s a keyboard on each floor and occasionally a piece by CPE Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Schumann, a Broadway melody, or one of my own tunes seem to emerge,” he shared.
But the conductor acknowledged it has also been a difficult few years.
“I had to undergo a second operation and manage complications from the treatments that have held the tumor at bay,” he said, as he provided the update on his health, saying that he will continue the treatment he’s receiving at the UCSF Brain Tumor Center.
“There are treatment options,” he said, “but the odds are uncertain.”
Renowned figure
A renowned figure in the symphonic world, the Los Angeles-born Thomas first conducted the San Francisco Symphony in 1974.
He currently serves as music director laureate of the SF Symphony and a distinguished professor of music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
He also holds the title of conductor laureate for the London Symphony Orchestra. And he co-founded the Miami-based New World Symphony, a postgraduate academy with the mission of preparing young musicians of diverse backgrounds for leadership roles in classical music.
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Thomas said he has spent the past year doing what he loves, and it’s now time for him to wind down his performance engagements.
“I had the opportunity to come full circle with musicians and orchestras I hold most dear. My work with the London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic was very special,” he wrote.
What’s next:
And he looked ahead, sharing plans for his final concerts.
On March 29 and 30, he’s set to take the podium to conduct the New World Symphony.
On April 26, Thomas planned to return to San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall for what promises to be a profound and emotional event– his final concert and a belated 80th birthday celebration.
“At that point, we all get to say the old show business expression, ‘It’s a wrap,’” he wrote.
And to illustrate the symphonic composition of his life, he used the musical term known as a “coda,” which comes at the end of a piece.
“A coda can vary greatly in length. My life’s coda is generous and rich,” the revered conductor wrote, adding, “Life is precious.”
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