DEPREIST, JAMES

James DePreist, newly appointed Permanent Conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, is Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at the Juilliard School and Laureate Music Director of the Oregon Symphony. Widely esteemed as one of America’s finest conductors, during the past three decades he has served as Music Director of L’Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Sweden’s Malmö Symphony, L’Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and the Oregon Symphony. As a guest conductor he has appeared with every major North American orchestra, and internationally he has conducted 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 début with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in April 2005.

James DePreist appears regularly at the Aspen Music Festival, with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Music Center, and the Juilliard orchestras at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. With more than fifty recordings to his credit, he has a substantial presence in the recording arena. His varied recorded repertoire includes a celebrated Shostakovich series with the Helsinki Philharmonic and fifteen recordings with the Oregon Symphony which have helped establish that orchestra as one of America’s finest. Born in Philadelphia in 1936, he 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. DePreist made his highly acclaimed European début with the Rotterdam Philharmonic in 1969. In 1971 Antal Dorati chose him to become his Associate Conductor with the National Symphony in Washington, D.C.

James 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, and is a recipient of the Insignia of Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland, the Medal of the City of Québec and is an Officer of the Order of Cultural Merit of Monaco. In 2005 the President of the United States presented James DePreist with the National Medal of Arts, the nation’s highest honour for artistic excellence. He is the nephew of the legendary contralto Marian Anderson.

For more information, please go to www.jamesdepreist.com.

Albums featuring this artist are available for download from ClassicsOnline.com
GUBAIDULINA: Offertorium/ Rejoice! Freue dich	BIS-CD-566
MAHLER: Symphony No. 5	8.557990
MALMO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: Portrait	BIS-CD-570
MARTINU: Fresques de Pietro della Francesca (Les) / Viola Rhapsody-Concerto / Double Concerto	BIS-CD-501
PROKOFIEV: Symphony No. 4 / Lieutenant Kije, Op. 60	BIS-CD-531
SAINT-SAENS: Symphony No. 3 / Dance macabre / Bacchanale / 3 Rhapsodies	BIS-CD-555
SALLINEN: Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5	BIS-CD-607
SCHNITTKE: Faust Cantata	BIS-CD-437
SHOSTAKOVICH: Cello Concertos Nos. 1 & 2	BIS-CD-626
WALKER / ZWILICH: Trombone Concertos	BIS-CD-628