National & International Obituaries

Conductor, composer and educator Michael Tilson Thomas, who led the San Francisco Symphony for 25 years, establishing its reputation as a world-class orchestra, died Wednesday. He was 81.

Thomas led the San Francisco Symphony from 1995 to 2020, helping to establish its reputation as a world-class orchestra. In 2021, he was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, a type of brain cancer.

Grammy-winning country songwriter Don Schlitz passed away this month at 73. He was the writer behind songs such as Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler" and Randy Travis' "Forever and Ever, Amen".

NPR's Scott Simon talks with topiary artist Michael Gibson about South Carolina's Pearl Fryar, a notable self-trained topiary artist who died earlier this month.

Klose led NPR for a decade starting in 1998, a period of incredible growth for the public media network.

Legendary Bollywood singer Asha Bhosle has died at 92 years old. Her decades-long career left a lasting impact in India and across the world.

Kids' television creator Sid Krofft, who along with his brother Marty created some of the most memorable and weirdest children's programming of the late 1960s, '70s and early '80s, has died at age 96.

We remember former Morning Edition technical director Brian Jarboe, who died Monday.

We take a moment to remember former NPR audio engineer Brian Jarboe, who died on Monday. As a colleague, he was kind, agile and skilled in the studio — and he always had a guitar pick on him.

The Bollywood legend was one of the world's most recorded artists — who, by her own reckoning, made more than 12,000 songs.