Conductor J. Levine to Miss Tanglewood Due to Kidney Surgery
James Levine, the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, will reportedly miss the remainder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood season due to medical problems. The conductor will undergo surgery this week to have a kidney removed.

Levine, 65, who also conducts the Metropolitan Opera, will need six weeks to recover after the surgery according to a statement released by the BSO. The well-known conductor will hopefully be back on the podium in September to conduct the BSO’s season opening at Symphony Hall.

The conductor - who conducts while seated on a chair - will have to have his kidney removed due to a cyst that is causing pressure and discomfort.

"It is extremely frustrating that I need to have this surgery now," Levine said in a statement and added that he especially regrets not being at the Tanglewood with Elliott Carter for his 100th birthday celebration.

“And I’m very disappointed at having to miss concerts with my colleagues in the BSO, as well as my work with the young musicians of the Tanglewood Music Center,” he added.

In its statement, the BSO underlined that the Tanglewood schedule will go on as planned. In the statement, Mark Volpe, the BSO’s managing director, also expressed his disappointment that Levine had to leave Tanglewood this summer, but the main concern is now the conductor’s health.

Levine’s last appearance on the podium was at the BSO in the opening of its Tanglewood season last weekend in a concert performance of Berlioz's "Les Troyens."

Levine, who has sciatica, has been the BSO’s music director since 2004 and music or artistic director of the Met since 1976.