James DePreist
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James DePreist, Permanent Conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, is also Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at the Juilliard School and Laureate Music Director of the Oregon Symphony. Widely acclaimed as one of America's finest conductors, DePreist has served for more than three decades in multiple roles as Music Director of L'Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Sweden's Malmö Symphony, L'Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and the Oregon Symphony.
As guest conductor, DePreist has appeared with every major North American orchestra. He has also led orchestras in Amsterdam, Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Manchester, Melbourne, Munich, Prague, Rome, Rotterdam, Seoul, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Vienna. He made his London debut with the London Symphony at the Barbican in April of 2005.
James DePreist appears regularly at the Aspen Music Festival, the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Music Center and the Juilliard Orchestra.
Maestro DePreist has more than 50 recordings to his credit. His varied repertoire includes a celebrated Shostakovich series with the Helsinki Philharmonic, as well as fifteen recordings with the Oregon Symphony.
Born in Philadelphia in 1936, DePreist studied composition with Vincent Persichetti at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music, going on to earn both bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1962 while on a State Department tour in Bangkok, he contracted polio. However he recovered sufficiently, allowing him to enter and to ultimately claim first prize in the Dimitri Mitropoulous International Conducting Competition. He was then chosen by Leonard Bernstein to become assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic during the 1965-66 season. DePreist made his highly-acclaimed European debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic in 1969. In 1971, Antal Dorati named him Associate Conductor of the National Symphony in Washington, D.C.
DePreist has been awarded thirteen honorary doctorates and is the author of two books of poetry. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. He is a recipient of the Insignia of Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland, the Medal of the City of Québec and an Officer of the Order of Cultural Merit of Monaco. In 2005, President George W. Bush presented him with the National Medal of Arts, the nation's highest honor for artistic excellence. Mr. DePreist is the nephew of the late contralto Marian Anderson.
| Preceded by: Lawrence Leighton Smith |
Music Directors, Oregon Symphony 1980–2003 |
Succeeded by: Carlos Kalmar |
| Preceded by: Gianluigi Gelmetti |
Music Directors, Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra 1994–1998 |
Succeeded by: Marek Janowski |
