Famed classical music conductor Michael Tilson Thomas took time off a little over a year ago to treat glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer. In the past months he has returned to the podium in various cities, including this past week conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, where he started his career in 1969. “It feels really great,” Thomas, 77, said after the performance. “It feels restorative.”

Even while taking a break from work to undergo surgery to remove a tumor from his brain, he has continued to compose and record piano pieces, and is working on a new set of videos exploring musical ideas.

“I feel more exhausted, more on edge physically, more on the edge of my nerves, than I have felt over the years,” he said. “On the other hand, I’ve learned that I can make some wonderful things happen without having to push myself so much physically.”

He is planning a full schedule of upcoming concerts booked through next summer in San Francisco, Miami, Cleveland, and New York, among others.

Read more of Thomas’s story here.