Michael Tilson Thomas, co-conductor of Metallica‘s S&M2 concert and live album, has died at 81.
Thomas, who was the longtime director of the San Francisco Symphony, disclosed publicly in 2021 that he had been diagnosed with a rare aggressive form of brain cancer. He passed away on Wednesday, April 22nd, from complications related to the disease.
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S&M2, the 2019 follow-up concert to Metallica’s 1999 S&M (which both saw the band pair itself with the San Francisco Symphony), was co-conducted by Thomas and Edwin Outwater. Thomas, largely retired by that time, returned to assist Outwater with arrangements and conducting.
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Metallica shared the following statement on Thomas’ passing:
“It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of legendary conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. A towering figure in classical music, many of you became familiar with the man known as MTT when he worked with us as a major driving force in the development and live performances of the S&M2 shows in San Francisco in September of 2019.
MTT was more than a conductor; an accomplished pianist and composer, he served as the San Francisco Symphony’s musical director for 25 years. During his time with the orchestra, he brought innovation, experimentation, and community engagement to San Francisco. He fostered contemporary music by forming relationships with living composers and creating fresh accounts of standard repertory. Throughout his career, he earned 12 Grammy Awards.
We cherished our time with MTT and learned so much working with him to prepare the S&M2 performances; it was a very high honor to have him on the podium for our shows. He will be sorely missed.”
For the performance, Thomas conducted the opening classical pieces of the second set, “Scythian Suite, Opus 20 II: The Enemy God and the Dance of the Dark Spirits” and “The Iron Foundry, Opus 19” as well as “The Unforgiven III.” He returned to the stage for he the finale to conduct the opening of “Enter Sandman,” before transitioning to playing keyboards on the song (watch below).
Metallica recently announced a 24-date residency at Las Vegas’ Sphere, as well as two concerts at Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut. Tickets to their upcoming shows are available here.