After a career that brought him to orchestra podiums in
Helsinki, Rotterdam and Los Angeles, James Anderson DePreist was
memorialized Monday near 19th and Fitzwater Streets in South
Philadelphia at his boyhood church, steps from his onetime home.
"Jimmy was the prince of our family," cousin Sandra Grymes said of
DePreist, who died Feb. 8 at 76. He lost his father at age 6, she told
the gathering of about 80 friends and family members at Union Baptist
Church, and was raised by three Anderson women who were "able to make
space for him to do his own thing." One of them was his aunt Marian
Anderson, the celebrated contralto.
DePreist's mother wanted him to be a lawyer, but Anderson "exercised a
quiet subversion," feeding his interest in music and giving him
orchestral scores.
"Jimmy grew up listening to her stories - the acclaim, the
discrimination," said Grymes. "He was the son she never had, and she was
his muse." She also recalled the episode in the 1960s when, on a tour
of Southeast Asia, DePreist contracted polio. "Aunt Marian called Bobby
Kennedy, and Jimmy was flown home on a military plane being used to
transport soldiers in the Vietnam War."
DePreist lost the use of his legs, and as an African American who
conducted from a seated position, he was a rare sight in the orchestral
world, if a welcome one.
No comments:
Post a Comment