One of America's most important conductors, James DePreist is permanent Conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at the Julliard School and Laureate Music Director of the Oregon Symphony.  He has served as Music Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Sweden's Malmö Symphony, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and the Oregon Symphony. In addition to making regular appearances with the Julliard orchestras at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, he has led virtually every major North American orchestra as a guest conductor, with comparably extensive appearances abroad. His substantial and wide-ranging discography includes a celebrated Shostakovich series with the Helsinki Philharmonic and 15 recordings with the Oregon Symphony that helped to establish that orchestra as one of America's finest. Maestro DePreist has been awarded 13 honorary doctorates and is the author of two books of poetry. In 2005 he was presented with the National Medal of Arts.

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.  He is the nephew of the legendary contralto Marian Anderson ... read full bio

Widely esteemed as one of America's finest conductors, James DePreist is currently Permanent Conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Director of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at the Julliard School and Laureate Music Director of the Oregon Symphony.  Over the past three decades he has served as Music Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Sweden's Malmö Symphony, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and the Oregon Symphony. 

As a guest conductor he has appeared with virtually every major North American orchestra, and abroad 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 debut with the London Symphony at the Barbican in April 2005.

James DePreist appears regularly at the Aspen Music Festival and at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall with the Juilliard orchestras and has led the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood and the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Music Center on a number of occasions.

With more than 50 recordings to his credit, James DePreist has a substantial presence in the recording arena. His wide-ranging discography includes a celebrated Shostakovich series with the Helsinki Philharmonic and 15 recordings with the Oregon Symphony that 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 debut 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 13 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, 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. In 2005 the President of the United States presented James DePreist with the National Medal for the Arts, the nation's highest honor for artistic excellence. He is the nephew of the legendary contralto Marian Anderson.