James DePreist Bust
by Rip Caswell
James DePreist is featured at AfriClassical.com
Necrology 2013 by Dominique-René de Lerma:
Bennett, Lerone, III, 1960-2013. College professor, attorney. Son of the Lerone Bennett, Jr., author and executive editor of Ebony
Died in Atlanta of lymphoma, 21 January. Survivors include his wife,
Janet Anderson-Bennett, daughter of the composer T. J. Anderson.
Bland, Robert Calvin, 1930-2013. Bobby Blue Bland (né Brooks),
half-brother of James Cotten, infused his R&B music with gospel
intensity. He died in Germantown TN, outside of Memphis after a long
illness on 23 June.
Bland, Ed, 1926-2013.
Edward Osmund Bland, from South Side Chicago, attended the University
of Chicago and American Conservatory on the G. I. Bill, having served in
the army during World War II (in which his father was killed). A
prolific composer of instrumental works, he wrote the music for TV's
production of A raisin in the sun and for films, including A soldier's story. His 1959 film, Cry of jazz (since available on DVD), is regarded as informationally important and historically significant.
Brevett, Tony, ca. 1950-2013. Jamaican rocksteady bandsman, died of lung cancer.
Byrd, Donald, 1932-2013.
Jazz trumpeter, born as Donaldson Touusaint L'Ouverture Byrd II.
While still a student at Detroit's Cass Technical High School he played
with Lionel Hampton. He was a graduate of Wayne State University, the
Manhattan School of Music, and Columbia University Teachers College
(Ph.D., 1982). He was associated with John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock,
Thelonious Monk ,Jackie McLean, and Eric Dolphy. He held faculty
appointments at Rutgers University, Hampton Institute, New York
University, Howard University, Oberlin College, Cornell University,
Delaware State University, and North Carolina Central University. A
resident of Teaneck NJ, he died on 4 February.
DePreist, James Anderson, 1936-2013.
Had he never stepped on the podium, he would be remembered for his work
as a youth in jazz. He attended the Wharton School of the University
of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Conservatory for his undergraduate
degree, studying with Vincent Perischetti, then earned his master's from
the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of
Pennsylvania. Crippled by polio in 1962 while in Thailand, he
nonetheless then won the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Conducting
Competition. He was assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic
under Leonard Bernstein in 1965 and held the same post with the National
Symphony Orchestra under Antal Dorati in 1971, meanwhile appearing as
guest conductor throughout Europe. He was the first African American to
hold the position of Music Director, that with the Orchestre
Symphonique de Québec (1976-1983). In his final Canadian years he was
also Music Director of the Oregon Symphony (1980-2003). He was
particularly popular in Japan, where he was conductor of the Tokyo
Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and was fictionalized in animé films.
He was awarded 15 honorary doctorates and honored by institutions in
Sweden, Finalnd, Monaco, and in the United States. A life-long friend of
Bill Cosby, he arranged the comedian's TV theme song. His two books of
poetry were published in the 1980s. During her final years, he cared
for his aunt, Marian Anderson. In 2012 he had a heart attack from which
he never fully recovered. He died in Scottsdale OR on 8 February,
survived by his wife, Ginette DePreist. He never accepted a position on
the basis of his race and, while proud of his heritage, was not
professionally engaged in minority causes.
Diaz, Diomedes, 1957-2013. Vallenato musician, died in his Colombian home town of Valledupur.
Doruzka, Lubomir, 1924-2013.
Important jazz critic who began writing as an undergraduate for the
underground press during Nazi occupation, when jazz was banned. He was
later active with the Prague International Jazz Festival and
International Jazz Festival.
Hall, Jim, 1930-2013.
Guitarist at age 10, from Buffalo. He studied at the Cleveland
Institute of Music and was a member of the trio that included Chico
Hamilton and Jimmy Giuffre. In 2004 he was named an NEA Jazz Master. He
died in his sleep in his Greenwich Village apartment.
Hamilton, Chico, 1921-2013. A native of Los Angeles (né
Forestorn Hamilton), his high school colleagues were Charles Mingus and
Dexter Gordon. In 1956 he formed a quartet with cello (Fred Katz),
flute (Buddy Colette), and guitar (Jim Hall) in which he was drummer,
which he regarded as a lyric, not percussive role. He died in New York.
Havens, Richie, 1941-2013. Born in Brooklyn, his father was a Blackfoot native whose uncle and father had been in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show,
his mother was from the British Caribbean. An R&B guitarist, he
appeared at the 1969 Woodstock Festival. He never fully recovered from
2010 kidney surgery, and died of heart failure in Jersey City NJ 22
April 2013.
Herseth, Adolph, 1921-2013.
Born in Minnesota, he attended Luther College (Decorah IA), projecting a
career in education. During military service he studied at the U.S.
Navy School of Music and then at the New England Conservatory. While
still in Boston at work on his master's degree, he was engaged by Artur
Rodzinski for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, thus starting a 52-year
tenure (1948-2001), notable not just because of its length but
distinguished by his brilliant, majestic virtuosity and musicianship.
He died in Oak Park, survived by his wife, Avis, and their two children.
Hood, James, 1933-2013,
in Gadsden AL. With Vivian Malone, he defied George Wallace's denial
of their access to the University of Alabama in 1963. In 1997 he
earned his doctorate from the University of Alabama.
Lateef, Yusef, 1920-2013.
Born as William Emanuel Huddleston in Chattanooga, who joined the
Amadiyya Muslim Community in 1949, He was a flutist, saxophonist,
oboist, bassoonist, and composer with world-music interests who studied
Indian music, Stockhausen, and Pygmy music. His undergraduate and
master's degrees were earned at the Manhattan School of Music, which
later granted him an honorary doctorate. He worked with Dizzy
Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Cannonball Adderley, Donald Byrd, Miles
Davis, D. Antoinette Handy, and the Westdeutscher Rundfunk Orchester,
which commissioned his African American epic suite in 1993. In 2010 he was named an NEA Jazz Master. He died at his home in Shutesbury MA.
Lawson, Ricky, ca. 1954-2013. Drummer for Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, he died of a brain aneurism in Los Angeles.
Lord Infamous, 1973-2013. Born as Ricky Dunigan, he was a rapper whose subject included satanism, suicide, and mass murder. He died on 20 December.
Long, Richard A., 1927-2013, cultural historian. Atticus Haygood Professor emeritus
of Emory University. He held degrees from Temple University and the
Université de Poitiers. He held faculty positions prior to his
appointment at Emory University at West Virginia State College, Morgan
State University, Hampton University, and Atlanta University. Among his
many publications were One more time: Harlem Renaissance and historicism (2007), and Maya Angelou; A glorious celebration (2008). His materials are on deposit at the Auburn Avenue Research Library in Atlanta.
McPartland, Margaret Marian, 1918-2013 (née
Turner). She began playing the piano at age 3. While a student of
classical music at the Guildhall School of Music in her native England,
her interest in jazz was stimulated by hearing recordings of Duke
Ellington, Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson, and Mary Lou Williams. In 1945
she married Jimmy McPartland and moved to the United States. She began a
weekly radio series with jazz recordings and interviews in 1978 that
lasted until 2011. Her Portrait of Rachel Carson was performed
by the University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra in 2007. She
died at her home in Port Washington NY, age 95 (20 August 2013).
Minnesota Orchestra, 1903-?.
Established as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra by Emil Oberhoffer
110 years ago, it was described as "the greatest orchestra in the
world" by the New Yorker in 2010. But already in the 2008
depression, revenues had diminished and the Minnesota Orchestra
Association fell 13% short of raising the $168.5 million it had
projected as obligatory for its budget. As a result it sold $28.7
million in securities, a loss of almost $14 million and began using its
endowment to meet operating costs, a serious move that was to become
fatal for the New York City Opera. On 1 October 2012, the Association
locked Orchestra Hall and cancelled the season; no agreement had been
reached with the orchestra's musicians. Key players then left for
Zürich, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, and Oregon. Music Director Oscar
Vänska conducted the musicians in a final concert in October 2012, held
at Ted Mann Concert Hall on the campus of the University of Minnesota,
with Emanuel Ax as soloist. The concert ended with the Sibelius Valse triste. There was no applause; the audience left, many in tears. Vänska resigned.
Moore, Kermit Diton, 1929-2013. He
died on 2 November following surgery, survived by his wife, the
composer Dorothy Rudd Moore, and a sister, pianist Mary Moore Nelson.
He began studying piano when 5 with his mother and began the cello when
10. While still in high school, he was a student at the Cleveland
Institute of Music, later studying with Felix Salmond at Juilliard, Paul
Bazelaire, Gregor Piatigorsky, and Pablo Casals. He was principal
cellist with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and the Symphony of the New
World, of which he was co-founder and administrator. His recordings
include work with the Philip Glass Ensemble, McCoy Tyner, Dizzy
Gillespie, and Ron Carter. He studied musicology and composition at New
York University (from which he held a master's degree), the Paris
Conservatory, and with Nadia Boulanger. As composer his works include
the 1984 PBS documentary Solomon Northup's odyssey, the 1989 PBS documentary Ida B. Wells; A passion for justice and Many thousand gone, for chorus and chamber ensemble. A
student in conducting of Serge Koussevitzky, he was regular conductor
of the Brooklyn Philharmonic and guest conductor of the Detroit Symphony
Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Concertgebouworkest, the Berkeley
Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony of the New World, and Opera Ebony. He
served on the faculties of the Harlem School of the Arts and the Hartt
School of Music. A tribute was offered by William Zick's AfriClassical on 4 November.
New York City Opera, 1943-2013.
Founded with the enthusiastic support of New York's opera-loving
Italian-American mayor, Fiorello LaGuardia, the company had a mission to
offer opportunities to American composers and performers not readily
available at New York's other opera house, the Metropolitan. Within its
six decades it offered a New York introduction to Beverly Sills,
Sherrill Milnes, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Shirley Verrett,
Tatiana Troyanos, Jerry Hadley, Lawrence Winters, Catherine Malfitano,
Samuel Ramey, Camilla Williams, Robert McFerrin, Jennie Tourel, Todd
Duncan, and Kevin Short. Originally based in the New York City Center
on West 55th Street, it moved to the Lincoln Center complex in 1966.
Under the guidance of Laszlo Halasz (1943-1951), Todd Duncan was the
first African American to appear in a major opera production, this being
the role of Tonio in Leoncavallo's I pagliacci (1945), with Camilla Williams the next year as Cio-Cio San in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. The first première was William Grant Still's Troubled island
(1949). Halasz was fired following a union dispute, to be followed by
Joseph Rosenstock (1952-1956), who revived Jerome Kern's Showboat
in 1954 for a packed house (despite ridicule from the critics).
Following his resignation, Erich Leinsdorf served only one season.
Golden days arrived with the appointment of Julius Rudel (1957-1979) who
initiated the revival of Handel'soperas with Giulio Cesare, featuring Beverly Sills (1966), but also commissioning 12 new works and offering 19 premières (including Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites
(1966). He left for Buffalo in 1979, to be followed by Beverly Stills,
freshly retired from the stage. When she retired in 1989, she had
enlarged the company's budget from $9 million to $26 million, while
further reducing the admissions charge (seats in 1943 ranged from 75
cents to $2). A highlight was the première of Anthony Davis' X, the life and times of Malcolm X,
with Ben Holt in the title role (1986). Sills was followed by
Christopher Keene in 1989, who was an AIDS victim in 1995. He was
followed in 1996 by Paul Kellogg from Glimmerglass Opera, who won the
enthusiastic support for his 2001 innovations from Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
In 2008 things began to fall apart. Gérard Mortier resigned when he
learned the budget had been cut almost in half due to the national
economy. The hall was closed for renovation s during the 2008 season,
during which time three concerts were offered at the Schomburg Center in
Harlem, with tributes to Camilla Williams, Robert McFerrin, and to
Still's Troubled island. Unstaged performances, moving further
from the opera repertoire were offered to boost ticket sales, but the
endowment began being used for operating costs, in open violation of the
original agreement of the Lila Acheson and DeWitt Wallace Fund --
approved by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo. Funding was not available
for the 2013 season and on 1 October the company filed for bankruptcy.
Powell, Maxine, ca. 1915-2013.
Born in Texarkana TX, she moved to Detroit after growing up in
Chicago. The Maxine Powell Finishing School became affiliated with
Motown as the Artists Development Department, instructing the performers
in stage deportment. She died of natural causes in Southfield MI.
Prince Jazzbo, 1951-2013. Jamaican rap reggae performer, born Linval Carter.
Resnick, Regina, 1922-2013. Bronx-born mezzo-soprano (originally soprano) sang on radio's Major Bowes amateur hour
as a child and won the Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air, joining
the company for the 1944 season. She was active as stage director in
1971 and appeared on Broadway in 1987. She died on 8 August.
Starker, Janós, 1924-2013.
Cellist, born in Budapest to a Polish-Jewish father and a mother from
Ukraine, he gave his first performance at age six and made his concerto
debut at age 14, playing the Dvořák concerto with three hours' notice.
During the Second World War he was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration
camp (his two older brothers, both violinists, were murdered by the
Nazis). Following the war, he was named principal cellist of the
Budapest Philharmonic until 1946. After stays in Geneva and Paris, he
migrated to the United States where he became principal cellist of the
Dallas Symphony Orchestra (1948), then of the Metropolitan Opera
(1949-1952), then Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1952). In 1958 he joined
the faculty of Indiana University where he championed the works of David
Baker in recital and recording and taught most of the world's leading
cellists, including Anthony Elliott (University of Michigan) and Robert
K. Dodson (Boston University). He made more than 160 recordings.
Starker died on 28 April 2013.
Stevens, Risë, mezzo-soprano who virtually owned Carmen at the Met in the 40s and 50s.
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Dominique-René de Lerma
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