'ready for the fight' — windsor symphony maestro robert franz faces another cancer battle
maestro robert franz is in the fight of his life — agai...
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windsor symphony orchestra music director and maestro robert franz is shown on april 9, 2024, at the capitol theatre in downtown windsor as the wso launched its 2024-2025 season.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
maestro robert franz is in the fight of his life — again.
the popular head of the windsor symphony orchestra announced wednesday that the cancer he thought he beat nearly three years ago has returned.
“once you’ve beaten cancer, once you face it down and you beat it, you think, ‘that was, was a mountain to climb,’ and there you go,” franz, 56, told the star on wednesday following a platelet transfusion.
“and with the kind of cancer i have, they say if you can make it through three years, it’s pretty much never going to come back. and it’s been two and a half years.”
franz received his first cancer diagnosis of non-hodgkin lymphoma in oct. 2021. it was already stage 4. a ct medical imaging scan revealed a 10-centimetre tumour enveloping a nerve bundle, but the cancer had also spread to his spleen, liver, right leg, left arm, ribs, and bones.
after an intensive chemotherapy regimen, franz’s cancer went into remission.
but a couple of months ago, he started having pains again. he went back to the doctor, thinking it was his gallbladder. many tests followed. the results came back in january.
“it turns out the non-hodgkin lymphoma had come back,” said franz. “so, at that point, the feeling was okay, this is not great news. but i just need to buckle down and go at this again. here we go.”
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fortunately, unlike last time, doctors found a more localized mass.
“it’s not going through my whole body,” said franz. “it’s not in my other organs or my bones.”
“you take every little victory you can. but for sure, it’s better that it’s localized.”
he started chemotherapy treatments two weeks ago and will likely undergo a stem cell transplant before summer.
the wso said in a statement that franz has a comprehensive treatment plan and his medical team is “confident in his ability to continue his fight.”
“i can assure you i will attack this as intensely as humanly possible and that i am ready for the fight,” said franz.
that means on and off the stage. the symphony said he is committed to staying active in both his treatment and leading the orchestra with a passion that has made him the “face of live music in the region.”
it’s the same defiant approach franz took to his cancer battle four years ago, staying outwardly upbeat and continuing to lead his orchestra, while enduring gruelling cancer treatments.
“we are sad that robert has to go through this again, but we know his spirit and strength will pull him through,” said wso board president deborah severs. “he is so positive and tenacious. his wso family is here to support him in every way we can.”
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franz, an american who uprooted his family and moved from idaho to windsor, conducted his first concert at the helm of the wso in 2013. under franz’s leadership, the wso expanded its audience and outreach programs, developed new concert series, and came back from the brink of collapse under a $400,000 deficit.
among those new series are the onstage and cafe concerts, which regularly sell out. franz must bow out of conducting the season’s remaining concerts in those series to undergo chemotherapy treatments.
resident conductor geoffrey larson will step in for him.
but franz will take the stage to lead the two final masterworks concerts, lucid dreams cello concerto, on march 22 and 23. he will also conduct the season’s closing concerts, masterworks tchaikovsky on may 3 and 4.
franz said he can lead those concerts because they take place during the “recovery weeks” of his chemo treatments, which run in cycles.
he’s looking forward to those shows for “selfish reasons.”
“making music makes me feel so much better, so much more normal,” he said. “i can honestly say that when i get on the podium, any pain that i have, any thought of cancer, is gone completely as i focus on my work and what i do.
“i also really love being able to share that music with people. that’s part of my dna. it’s part of who i am. so being able to do those things and make me feel like me again, it’s really important in this process.”
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