American conductor Richard Woitach has died at the age of 84 after suffering a long illness.

Born in 1936, Woitach studied at the Eastman School of Music in 1959 and later joined the Metropolitan Opera as a staff conductor.

At the Metropolitan Opera, he led productions of “I Vespri Sicilianni,” with Cristina Deutekom, Cornell MacNeil, and Paul Plishka; “Madama Butterfly,” “La Gioconda,” “Tosca,” “Le siège de Corinthe” with Beverly Sills and Shirley Verrett; “Lucia di Lammermoor,” “Tosca” with Sylvia Sass; and “La Traviata,” among others. He went on to collaborate with a number of great artists including Jon Vickers, Jessye Norman, Mirella Freni, Tatiana Troyanos, and Judith Blegen. He would hold his position at the Met until 1997.

Outside of his commitments at the Met, he was a well-known recital pianist who collaborated with Teresa Stratas to record “The Unknown Kurt Weill” for Nonesuch Record. The recording was a landmark for Weill’s music as it featured unpublished songs of the German composer and garnered Woitach a Grammy nomination in 1982.

The conductor also collaborated with Jon Vickers on a number of recital recordings and guest conducted at the Cincinnati Opera, The San Francisco Opera, The Opera Company of Boston, The Vancouver International Festival, and the Milwaukee Florentine Opera

Woitach is survived by his wife soprano Jeryl Metz, his children, and grandchildren.