Blomstedt, oldest active conductor, dies at age 99

(Berlin = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kim Gye-yeon = AP and dpa reported that Herbert Blomstedt, who until recently was the oldest active conductor, passed away at the age of 99 at his home in Gothenburg, Sweden, on the 4th (local time).

Blomstedt was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, in July 1927, to a Swedish missionary father and a pianist mother. After learning the violin in Stockholm, Sweden and studying with Leonard Bernstein, he debuted as a conductor with the Stockholm Philharmonic in 1954.

After serving as chief conductor of the Staatskapelle in Dresden, Germany, he served as music director of the San Francisco Symphony in the United States for 10 years from 1985. Since then, he has been active for over 70 years, standing on podiums at the NDR (North German Broadcasting) Symphony and the Leipzig Gewandhaus. In 2016, when he was 89 years old, he visited Korea and performed with the Bamberg Symphony in Germany.

He had performances scheduled until next year, when he turns 100. At his last concert with the San Francisco Symphony on May 15, which was his last performance, he conducted Mahler's Ninth Symphony from a wheelchair. At the time, the performance was temporarily halted due to his health issues, and the remaining conducting schedule for the year was cancelled.

Blomstedt was especially famous for his interpretations of Bruckner and Beethoven. The Berlin Philharmonic, which invited him to perform Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 last April, paid tribute to him as "a musical thinker who constantly sought honesty and truth in his scores."