The renowned conductor Michael Tilson Thomas announced on Monday that he would scale back his engagements because of a recurrence of brain cancer.
Thomas, 80, who has been grappling since 2021 with glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive form of the disease, said in a statement that his doctors recently told him the cancer had returned. Thomas, who was music director of the San Francisco Symphony for 25 years, said there were still treatment options available, but “the odds are uncertain.”
“Now is the time to wind down my public appearances,” he said in the statement.
Thomas, an eminent figure in the music industry, said he still planned a few more engagements. In late March and early April, he will conduct the New World Symphony, a Miami ensemble that he helped found in 1987. And in April, he will join the San Francisco Symphony for a celebration of his 80th birthday.
“At that point,” he said, “we all get to say the old show business expression, ‘It’s a wrap.’”
Thomas will withdraw from a planned appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra in early March, his representatives said.
Thomas has defied expectations since his diagnosis, appearing with top orchestras even as he underwent treatment. He opened the New York Philharmonic’s season in September with Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. And in October, he led the London Symphony Orchestra in performances of Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony.
At the same time, he has had a difficult medical journey. He underwent surgery at the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center in 2021 to remove a brain tumor and had a second surgery in 2023. He said in the statement on Monday that he had also had to “manage complications from the treatments that have held the tumor at bay.”
Even as he kept performing, Thomas reduced his administrative commitments. In 2022, he stepped down as artistic director of the New World Symphony, a prestigious training orchestra.
Thomas said on Monday that he was passing the time at home in San Francisco with his husband, Joshua Mark Robison, and making occasional trips to Bolinas, a small township about 20 miles northwest of San Francisco.
”Our home is filled with memories of a full life,” he said. “There’s a keyboard on each floor and occasionally a piece by C.P.E. Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Schumann, a Broadway melody or one of my own tunes seem to emerge. Sometimes I can share these moments. Other times I find my own personal peace and solace.”
Thomas said having the chance to work with some of his favorite ensembles after his diagnosis had been “very special.” He compared this part of his life to a musical coda, the concluding passage of a piece.
“A coda can vary greatly in length,” he said. “My life’s coda is generous and rich. Life is precious.”
