Seventh-day Adventist Conductor Herbert Blomstedt Dies at 99

Herbert Blomstedt, a world-renowned Seventh-day Adventist conductor, died in his home in Gothenburg, Sweden. He was 99. His final concert took place earlier this year, when he was 98.

The San Francisco Symphony’s website has described him as “noble, charming, sober, modest,” adding, “such qualities . . . are rather atypical for extraordinary personalities such as conductors.” A tribute from music agency KünstlerSekretariat am Gasteig described his music-making as based on “intellectual curiosity, modesty, kindness, and an enduring opening to new experiences.”

A Life Dedicated to Music

Blomstedt was born on July 11, 1927, in the United States, as the son of a Seventh-day Adventist pastoral couple. He received his first musical education at the Royal Conservatory in Stockholm and the University of Uppsala. Later he studied conducting at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, contemporary music in Darmstadt, Germany, and Renaissance and Baroque music at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, Switzerland.

In 1954 Blomstedt debuted as a conductor of the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Later, as chief conductor, he directed important Scandinavian orchestras. He worked as a music director at the San Francisco Symphony orchestra, chief conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg, Germany, and others.

The tribute by KünstlerSekretariat am Gasteig reminded readers that Blomsted was a family man, married to Waltraud (Traute) Petersen from 1955 until her death in 2003. According to the same source, he would speak with affection of his wife, “once describing his marriage as the most important event in his personal life.” The marriage resulted in four daughters and seven grandchildren.

Recognized All Over the World

Blomstedt was an elected member of the Royal Swedish Music Academy and was awarded several honorary degrees and important prizes all over the world.

On November 10, 2022, Blomstedt was awarded the Grand Cross of Merit with Star of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany at the Leipzig Concert Hall in recognition of his life’s work.

According to the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk on its TV program MDR-Aktuell, Saxony minister-president Michael Kretschmer presented the award and paid tribute to Blomstedt. “Maestro Blomstedt,” he said, “we are all full of admiration for your vitality and mental elasticity, for your strength without stubbornness.” 

Music, Art, and the God Blomstedt Served

In an article published in Adventist Review in 2012, Blomstedt summarized his philosophy of musical performance and the connections he sees between his art and the God he serves.

“I am often asked: How can you continue to play the same symphonies over and over?” Blomstedt wrote in 2012. “The answer is that I am looking for the truth. The truth in a performance of a musical masterwork is to achieve a perfect balance between all its elements. It is very complicated. Thousands of details must fit together perfectly in a split second. Not only do all the technical difficulties have to be solved—the expressive and emotional qualities also have to come through.”

The Role of the Conductor

In the same article in 2012, Blomstedt had discussed how he saw his role as conductor. “As a performer, I must remain in the background,” he wrote at the time. “The message of the music as laid down by the composer, the truth of the music, gets obscured if too much attention is focused on the performer.”

Blomstedt had also offered his estimate of the reality of human achievements versus an ideal search for truth. “I hope to come closer to that truth with every performance, even if I know it will never be perfect because in the arts we never reach the ideal,” he wrote. “A work of art is in fact never finished. . . . Even God’s creation is not finished. The seven days were only ‘the beginning.’ It still goes on today—in every budding green, in every baby born.”

Blomstedt and the Sabbath

In an interview with the New York Times in February 2017, Blomstedt talked about the secret of how he handles such a workload at his age. “It’s a gift,” Blomstedt said. When asked about the seventh-day Sabbath as his day of rest, he explained why he did not rehearse on Saturday (Sabbath), but performed with the orchestras on that day. 

“I thought of my father [who was a pastor]: he prepared his sermon very thoroughly during the week,” Blomstedt said. “On Fridays at sunset he closed his books and spent time with his family; but on the Sabbath he preached the sermon. I love rehearsing, working with the orchestra. But on the Sabbath we don’t practice anymore—we just play what we’ve rehearsed together. And that is a blessing for all of us,” Blomstedt said.

The tribute by KünstlerSekretariat am Gasteig emphasized that Blomstedt’s religious convictions remained “a quiet but fundamental part of his life, shaping an ethos in which music is associated with humanity, reflection, and a sense of service.”

Passing the Torch

In 2023 Blomstedt’s United States tour included five weeks of rehearsals and concerts with several first-class orchestras and various programs in American metropolises such as New York, San Francisco, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Chicago. In March of that year he included three concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which featured 95-year-old Blomstedt and 29-year-old Adventist cellist Andrei Ioniţă. “This is Adventist history!” Blomstedt said enthusiastically at the time.

With 66 years between the two, the age range could hardly be bigger. In their performances the “old” and “young” met to do something together that required the highest skill, the most intensive preparation, and the greatest commitment in equal measure: classical music in live performances with a world-class orchestra, organizers and supporters said in 2023.

When questioned about his age, Blomstedt was ready to answer.

“Age? It’s just a number!” he said.

With archives information from the Adventist Review, the Adventistischer Pressedienst, Lake Union Herald.