Herbert Blomstedt, Former San Francisco Symphony Music Director, Dies at 99
Herbert Blomstedt, the conductor who led the San Francisco Symphony from 1985 to 1995, has died at age 99. He died at his home in Gothenburg, Sweden. His management agency, KünstlerSekretariat am Gasteig, announced the death, and ABC News reported it in a wire story.
Blomstedt was born on July 11, 1927, in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Swedish parents. He built a career across Europe and North America, and he spent many years leading orchestras on the Continent. He was chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden, one of Germany's oldest orchestras, and of the Semperoper, the opera house in Dresden, from 1975 to 1985. Later, from 1998 to 2005, he served as music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
His tenure in San Francisco began in September 1985. The orchestra's own announcements say it ended with the 1994-95 season. During those years he took the orchestra on regular tours of Europe and Asia, carrying the group's sound well beyond its home city. Two of his recordings with the orchestra earned Grammy Awards, the music industry's top prizes. The first came in 1993, for Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, a dramatic choral work. The second came in 1996, for Johannes Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem, a large work for chorus and orchestra.
Blomstedt kept a close tie to the orchestra long after he left the post. He held the title of Conductor Laureate, an honorary role given to former leaders. His final performance with the orchestra took place on May 15 at Davies Hall, the orchestra's home concert hall in San Francisco. He conducted Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony that night.
Many musicians who worked with him have built long careers of their own. For audiences in San Francisco, his name is tied to a decade when the orchestra won national attention on recordings and on tour.
The orchestra and his agency have not announced funeral or memorial plans. Blomstedt is survived by the work he left on record and on the stage, and by the many players, singers and listeners who heard him conduct across three continents.
