Musicians You Should Know: James DePreist

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Basic Facts

Born: November 21, 1936, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died: February 8, 2013, Scottsdale, Arizona
Type of Performer: Conductor
Genre: Classical
Awards/Notable Achievements:
  1. National Medal of the Arts, 2005
  2. Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  3. Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music
  4. Insignia of Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland
  5. Medal of the City of Quebec
  6. Officer of the Order of Cultural Merit of Monaco
  7. Awarded thirteen honorary doctorates

About James DePreist

James DePreist was born in 1936 in Philadelphia. He was born into a musical family; his aunt was famed vocalist Marian Anderson. He studied composition and conducting with Vincent Persichetti at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music and he earned both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the University of Pennsylvania. He contracted polio during a State Department-sponsored trip to Bangkok in 1962 that left him paralyzed from the waist down and required him to conduct from a chair. However, he continued to conduct and won first prize in the Dimitri Mitropoulous International Conducting Competition two years later. In 1965, he was appointed by Leonard Bernstein to be an assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic. He was then appointed the associate conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra in 1971. 

His career took him all over the world to guest-conduct major orchestras, including the Israeli Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, and every major orchestra in the United States. He served as the Music Director for the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, Sweden's Malmo Orchestra, the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. His longest post and the one for which he is most well-known was from 1980-2003 with the Oregon Symphony. He also taught conducting at the Juilliard School for seven years as the Director of Conducting and Orchestra Studies, appeared regularly at Tanglewood, Aspen Music Festival, and others, and logged over 50 recordings. He died in Arizona at the age of 76 after complications from a heart attack the previous year. 

Listen

Conducting the New York Philharmonic, Young People's Concert


Conducting the Pasadena Symphony



Further Reading

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