Herbert Blomstedt, World's Oldest Active Conductor and Former San Francisco Symphony Director, Dies at 99

Herbert Blomstedt, the conductor who held the title of the world’s oldest active conductor and led the San Francisco Symphony for a decade, died Wednesday at his home in Gothenburg, Sweden. He was 99. He was still on the podium at 98, leading concerts with the Detroit Symphony and the Gewandhaus Orchestra despite falls and an ear infection.

His decade in San Francisco, from 1985 to 1995, helped raise the orchestra’s international profile through touring and recordings. Over his career he recorded all nine Beethoven symphonies twice, once with Dresden’s Staatskapelle and once with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, a rare double achievement in the classical world.

Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Swedish missionary parents, Blomstedt grew up in Gothenburg and was a devout Seventh-day Adventist who once refused Saturday rehearsals on principle. He called music an ethical and spiritual force. He had already canceled his 2026 and 2027 San Francisco Symphony dates due to health concerns, but he never framed his career as a countdown.“Without work, I don’t live,”he said.“If I just twiddle my thumbs, that is not living.”

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