Posted on 02/08/2013 6:00:43 PM PST by EveningStar
James DePreist, one of the first African-American conductors and a National Medal of Arts winner, died Friday at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., his manager Jason Bagdade said.
DePreist, who was 76, had been in and out of the hospital since a massive heart attack last March that was followed by open-heart surgery, his wife, Ginette DePreist, told The Oregonian newspaper.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
ping
Not to worry. He will still vote a straight democratic ticket for the next 5 elections
What the frak are you talking about? This is about classical music, not politics.
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sitetest
RIP.
When we first moved to Portland one of our neighbors worked for the Oregon symphony foundation. To make a long story short we had free tickets for a year and a half or so. We were able to see James DePreist conduct the Pines of Rome. The finale was was one of those moments in music where every nerve was electrified and a moment is often remembered but never replicated.
I was always sort of amused and amazed that DePriest became such a respected classical conductor, since in the late ‘50’s when I used to engineer at WXPN, the Penn radio station, DePriest was there as a jazz DJ - saw/heard him about ten years ago at the Mann Music Center in Philly conducting Rachmaninov’s Third Symphony - RIP, Jimmie......
It's a wonderful place for a concert on a summer evening with folks spread out over the grass hillsides.
He conducted the Eroica Symphony, Beethoven's Third, which has one of the most familiar, and extended, opening movements of all Ludwig's compositions.
I recall it vividly for being conducted unusually slowly. The opening phrase, "dah...dah,dah...." was stretched out to the extreme. It was the Eroica on Quaaludes. It would have needed to be played double-speed to even qualify as languid.
I've never heard that symphony since without recalling the DePriest concert from the early 1990's
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