Herbert Blomstedt, who headed San Francisco Symphony from 1985-95, dies at age 99

Herbert Blomstedt, who headed the San Francisco Symphony from 1985-95 and led orchestras in Scandinavia and Germany during a career over seven decades, died Wednesday. He was 99.

Blomstedt died at his home in Gothenburg, Sweden, according to his management agency, KünstlerSekretariat am Gasteig.

His final performance was on May 15 with the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Hall, when he entered the stage in a wheelchair and struggled to get through Gustav Mahler's Ninth Symphony, which halted for several minutes during the third movement. He was replaced for concerts the following two days and canceled future scheduled appearances this year.

“An an extraordinary role model," Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra music director Manfred Honeck said. "One of the greatest conductors and a beacon of humanity.”

Blomstedt had performances scheduled into 2027, including with the Vienna Philharmonic next June, just shy of what would have been his 100th birthday.

“Until the very end, we had hoped to celebrate his 100th birthday with a concert together,” Vienna Philharmonic chairman Daniel Froschauer said.

Blomstedt was a Seventh-day Adventist who refused to conduct rehearsals on Friday nights and Saturdays because of the Sabbath but would lead performances on those days because he considered himself a preacher of music.

“Every bar, every note is shared by us, and it’s a very intense communication,” he said of his conducting during an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” broadcast last year. “It’s like intense sex.”

He won Grammy Awards for recordings with the San Francisco Symphony of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” in 1993 and of Johannes Brahms’ “Ein Deutsches Requiem” in 1996.

“My mission is to bring good music to as many people as possible,” he said in an interview posted in 2020 by the DW Music YouTube channel. “It makes you think differently. You gave a more keen feeling for proportions and beauty.”

Blomstedt was principal conductor of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra in Sweden from 1954-63, music director of the Oslo Philharmonic from 1962–68, principal conductor of the Danish Radio Symphony from 1967-77 and the Swedish Radio Symphony from 1977-82 and then became chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden and Semperoper in Germany from 1975-85.

“Almost like turning an electrical switch for me,” he added. “When I hear the sound, it transforms me. I'm in heaven.”

Esa-Pekka Salonen, who led the San Francisco Symphony from 2020-25, said during an interview with London's Philharmonia Orchestra in 2021 that he asked Blomstedt how he was filled with joy that orchestras responded to.

“I refuse to have any stress,” Salonen recalled Blomstedt telling him. “I only do things I absolutely love. I only conduct music that matters to me and I only work with people that I like and in some cases love.”

After leaving San Francisco, Blomstedt was principal conductor of Hamburg's NDR Symphony Orchestra from 1996-98 and music director of the Leipzig Gewanhaus Orchestra from 1998-2005.

Born to Swedish parents in Springfield, Massachusetts, on July 11, 1927.

His family moved back to Sweden in 1929 and he attended Stockholm's Royal Academy of Music and Uppsala University. He studied under Igor Markevitch, then with Jean Morel at The Juilliard School.

When his scholarship at Juilliard was about to expire, he showed up without an appointment at Leonard Bernstein's apartment at The Osborne across from Carnegie Hall, rang the doorbell and left a half-hour later with a scholarship to study with Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. Blomstedt was impressed with Bernstein's musicianship but disliked his exuberant podium mannerisms.

Blomstedt won the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize in 1953, made his professional debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra in 1954 and won the Salzburg Conducting Competition in 1955.

He married his wife, the former Waltraud Petersen, in 1955, and she died in 2003. He is survived by four daughters and seven grandchildren.

FILE - Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt appears at a press conference in the Leipzig concert hall "Gewandhaus" in Germany on April 10, 1996. (AP Photo/Eckehard Schulz, File)

FILE - Swedish conductor Herbert Blomstedt directs the Gewandhaus-orchestra during the first rehearsal after Blomstedt's official inauguration for "Gewandhauskapellmeister" (conductor of the Gewandhaus) in the concert hall in Leipzig, Germany, on Aug. 25, 1998. (AP Photo/Eckehard Schulz, File)

PLANO, Texas (AP) — Voters in a Dallas suburb have rejected a proposition that would have authorized new taxes related to a planned new arena for the NHL's Stars.

Unofficial results from Tuesday's vote in the city of Plano showed 54.6% of the more than 102,000 votes cast were against the single ballot proposal to authorize taxes on tickets, parking, car rentals, hotel rooms and the professional teams that would use the arena. Those taxes were to help the city pay off up to $700 million in bonds it has committed to the proposed $3 billion mixed-use development that would include the new arena.

The vote was about the proposed taxes, and not whether the $1 billion arena could be built as part of a large-scale redevelopment project of The Shops at Willow Bend, where the last enclosed mall built in Texas is being demolished. It could include sports, entertainment, retail, dining and public gathering spaces.

The Stars said in a statement Wednesday night that while disappointed the proposition didn’t pass, the team remains confident in the long-term vision for the project and the positive impact it can have on the city of Plano.

“As Proposition A was a component of a broader financing strategy, we look forward to continuing our partnership with the city of Plano as it pursues a project finance zone to be created by the Texas legislature,” the Stars statement said. “We remain committed to advancing this important project that will create jobs, attract new visitors, and generate economic benefits for the Plano community for decades to come.”

The hockey-specific arena would be owned by the city, with the Stars intending to lease it for 30 years.

Plano Mayor John Muns said in an earlier statement that the proposed redevelopment at The Shops at Willow Bend remains an important opportunity for the community.

“We are committed to thoughtful reinvestment and responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars as we consider what comes next,” the mayor said.

Stars officials hope to move in 2031 about 20 miles north of the downtown American Airlines Center, which they have shared with the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks since it opened in 2001. That is when the AAC leases for both teams expire. The Mavericks have plans for a similar project of their own away from downtown, about 10 miles north on the former site of a Dallas mall.

See AP’s full NHL coverage here

Dallas Stars' Arttu Hyry (25), Thomas Harley (55) and others celebrate a goal scored by Harley during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Columbus Blue Jackets in Dallas, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)