Micheal Tilson Thomas has announced that he will step down from conducting after a celebration of his 80th birthday with the San Francisco Symphony on April 26, following a return of the brain tumour he’s been battling since 2021. After that, as he put it in a public letter full of warmth and humanity, ‘we all get to say the old show business expression, "It's a wrap.' 

'Three years ago I wrote to tell you that I'm battling Glioblastoma,' the conductor wrote. ‘The three and a half years since the initial diagnosis have been a special time in my life, filled with friends, family, and music. They have also been challenging as I had to undergo a second operation and manage complications from the treatments that have held the tumor at bay. My doctors have informed me that the tumor has returned. We continue to work with the superb group at the UCSF Brain Tumor Center. There are treatment options, but the odds are uncertain.’

Gramophone honoured the conductor with last year’s Lifetime Achievement Award, given in recognition of his extraordinary contribution to musical life, both as conductor and composer – and both on stage and in the studio – as well as his devotion to education and nurturing the next generation of artists and audiences. 

Despite his health, the past year has since MTT perform with orchestras with whom he’s been indelibly associated, including the London Symphony Orchestra (with whom he gave powerful performances of Mahler’s symphonies Nos 2 and 3), the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

In a moving conclusion to his letter, MTT wrote: 'A "coda" is a musical element at the end of a composition that brings the whole piece to a conclusion. A coda can vary greatly in length. My life's coda is generous and rich. Life is precious.'

You can read Joshua Kosman's celebration of MTT's career, published in our Awards issue, below.