“The 3 ½ 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,” he said in a statement Monday.
Thomas said there are treatment options for the tumor, “but the odds are uncertain.”
Thomas was music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic from 1971-1979, and music director of the San Francisco Symphony from 1995-2020.
He is to conduct the New World Symphony on March 29 and 30, and on April 5 and 6, then the San Francisco Symphony on April 26 in a belated 80th birthday celebration.
“At that point we all get to say the old show business expression, ‘It’s a wrap,’” he said. “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.”