BSO Conductor Out for Season

The music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, James Levine, will miss the remainder of the season at Tanglewood because of surgery.

WBUR's Monica Brady-Myerov reports.

MBM: James Levine will sit out the rest of the BSO's Tanglewood season because he's having a kidney removed. The BSO said the kidney has a cyst that is causing pressure and discomfort. Levine will recover for six weeks and is expected to be back in his role as music director in the fall, says BSO Managing Director Mark Volpe.

VOLPE: What his doctors have told him, the word is curative, which is something they can address. It's not chronic, once they remove the kidney they remove the problem .

MBM: In a statement, Levine called it "extremely frustrating" that his surgery will disrupt his schedule at Tanglewood. Last weekend he opened the season with a performance of Berlioz's opera "Les Troyens".