James DePreist, conductor
One of America’s most esteemed conductors, James DePreist has served over the past three decades as Music Director of the Oregon Symphony, L’Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Sweden’s Malmo Symphony, L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo. He has toured and recorded extensively during his tenure with each orchestra. He is currently Laureate Music Director of the Oregon Symphony and Principal Artistic Advisor of the Phoenix Symphony. Most recently, he was named Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School, beginning with the fall term in 2004.

As a guest conductor Mr. DePreist has appeared with every major North American orchestra and the leading orchestras of Amsterdam, Berlin, Budapest, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Manchester, Melbourne, Munich, Prague, Rome, Seoul, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Tokyo and Vienna. He makes London debut with the London Symphony at the Barbican in April 2005. He appears regularly at the Aspen Music Festival, with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood and with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Music Center.

With more than 50 recordings to his credit, Mr. DePreist has a substantial discography. His broad range of recorded repertoire includes a celebrated Shostakovich series with the Helsinki Philharmonic and 15 recordings with the Oregon Symphony, which have helped establish that orchestra as one of America’s finest. In 2003 he and the orchestra received their first Grammy nomination for their recording of Tomas Svoboda’s Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra with soloist Neil DePonte.

Born in Philadelphia in 1936, Mr. DePreist studied composition with Vincent Persichetti at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1962, while on a State Department tour in Bangkok, he contracted polio but recovered sufficiently to win a first prize in the Dimitri Mitropoulous International Conducting Competition. He was selected by Leonard Bernstein to be an assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic for the 1965-66 season, and in 1969 made his highly acclaimed European debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. In 1971 Antal Dorati appointed him Associate Conductor of the National Symphony in Washington, D.C.

Mr. DePreist has been awarded 13 honorary doctorates and is the author of two published books of poetry. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music; is a recipient of the Insignia of Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland and the Medal of the City of Québec; and is an Officer of the Order of Cultural Merit of Monaco. Mr. DePreist last appeared with the Cincinnati Symphony in 2002.

For more information visit www.JamesDePreist.com.