Herbert Blomstedt dies at 99, closing a seven-decade career that included a decade leading the San Francisco Symphony and prominent posts across Scandinavia and Germany. His management agency, KünstlerSekretariat am Gasteig, said he passed away Wednesday at his home in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Blomstedt’s final appearance came on May 15 at Davies Symphony Hall with the San Francisco Symphony. He arrived onstage in a wheelchair to conduct Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, a performance that paused for several minutes in the third movement.
He stepped aside for concerts the next two days and later canceled his remaining engagements this year.
Tributes quickly followed from the classical world. Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra music director Manfred Honeck called him “an extraordinary role model” and “one of the greatest conductors.”
Vienna Philharmonic chairman Daniel Froschauer said the orchestra had hoped to mark Blomstedt’s 100th birthday with a concert next June.
Herbert Blomstedt dies after a storied global career
Blomstedt maintained an active schedule well into his late 90s, with performances planned into 2027. He was widely admired for his integrity and clarity on the podium.
A Seventh-day Adventist, he avoided rehearsals on Friday nights and Saturdays in observance of the Sabbath, though he led performances on those days, describing himself as a preacher of music.
He earned two Grammy Awards with the San Francisco Symphony, for Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana in 1993 and Johannes Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem in 1996.
Reflecting on his mission in a 2020 interview, he said he sought to bring great music to as many people as possible because it shapes how listeners perceive beauty and proportion.
Blomstedt’s leadership posts included principal conductor of Sweden’s Norrköping Symphony Orchestra from 1954 to 1963, music director of the Oslo Philharmonic from 1962 to 1968, principal conductor of the Danish Radio Symphony from 1967 to 1977, and the Swedish Radio Symphony from 1977 to 1982.
He then became chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Semperoper from 1975 to 1985. After San Francisco, he served as principal conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra from 1996 to 1998 and music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra from 1998 to 2005.
Colleagues often remarked on his serenity and joy in music making. Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen recalled Blomstedt saying he refused to feel stress, chose only music that mattered to him, and worked with people he genuinely liked.
A life in music from Massachusetts to Scandinavia
Born to Swedish parents in Springfield, Massachusetts, on July 11, 1927, Blomstedt moved with his family to Sweden in 1929. He studied at Stockholm’s Royal Academy of Music and Uppsala University, trained with Igor Markevitch, and later studied under Jean Morel at The Juilliard School.
As his Juilliard scholarship neared its end, Blomstedt visited Leonard Bernstein unannounced at The Osborne in New York and left with support to study at Tanglewood.
He admired Bernstein’s musicianship, though not his flamboyant podium style.
Blomstedt won the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize in 1953, made his professional debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic in 1954, and captured the Salzburg Conducting Competition in 1955.
He married Waltraud Petersen in 1955. She died in 2003. He is survived by four daughters and seven grandchildren.
He sought to bring great music to as many people as possible because it shapes how listeners perceive beauty and proportion, a devotion to the arts echoed in stories like Dolores Huerta jazz passion showed her awe for the arts.
