PJStar.com: James DePreist Conducts Peoria Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's Third Symphony

[James DePreist]

Maestro James DePreist (b. 1936) is featured at AfriClassical.com. He conducted the Peoria Symphony Orchestra in Mahler's Third Symphony Saturday:

Peoria Journal Star

By Gary Panetta

Posted Sep 17, 2011

“The Peoria Symphony Orchestra's opening concert of Beethoven, Mahler and composer John Orfe was nicely conceived and boldly executed Saturday at the Civic Center Theater.” “Then there was the finale of Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony. Subtitled 'What Love Tells Me,' this is a 25-minute, slow movement of yearning that culminates in a sort of rugged nobility - not an answer to life's sufferings, but a kind of wisdom won in the midst of suffering.”

“Orchestra players, though, pretty much outdid themselves with the Mahler, led by guest conductor (and National Medal of Arts winner) James DePreist, who conducted from a wheelchair.

“Seemingly energized by DePreist - a polio survivor and one of classical music's early African American trailblazers - the orchestra played with conviction. French horns, trumpets, trombones and tuba seldom sounded richer. And those high, mystical strings in the Mahler found a sympathetic vibration in the Orfe piece that began the concert.”

Peoria Journal Star: 'ARTSplus: Challenges forge guest conductor's resolve'

[James DePreist]

Maestro James DePreist (b. 1936) is profiled at AfriClassical.com. He also has his own website, http://www.JamesDePreist.com. On July 17, 2011 AfriClassical posted: “PJStar.com: James DePreist Conducts Peoria Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven & Mahler Sept. 17.” Today we present an excerpt from another article by Gary Panetta on the conductor and his interpretation of Mahler's Third Symphony:

Peoria Journal Star

By Gary Panetta

Posted Sep 11, 2011

PEORIA — “James DePreist, who will lead the Peoria Symphony Orchestra Saturday in the finale of Mahler's Third Symphony, is heir to an aristocracy of talent and to one of the most tangled and nationally embarrassing episodes in U.S. cultural history. A respected conductor with an international reputation who once counted Leonard Bernstein among his mentors, DePreist was encouraged in his career by his aunt, the great opera singer Marian Anderson - the 'voice of a century,' according to conductor Arturo Toscanini.

“In 1939, Anderson was infamously denied the honor of singing in Washington, D.C.'s Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution. But with the help of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Anderson instead performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday of the same year. Anderson's persistence and personal dignity were always a source of inspiration for DePreist, who had many challenges of his own to overcome - an early bout with polio, which left him unable to walk, and, in later years, a kidney transplant.

“Such experiences, perhaps, inform DePreist's reading of the final movement from Mahler's Third Symphony - one segment of a much longer piece, which employs a chorus, German folk poetry and excerpts from Friedrich Nietzsche's 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra,' which is, above all, about human self-assertion in the face of hopelessness.”

PJStar.com: James DePreist Conducts Peoria Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven & Mahler Sept. 17

[James DePreist]

Maestro James DePreist (b. 1936) is profiled at AfriClassical.com. After a long and successful conducting career at important orchestras in Québec, Sweden and Monte-Carlo, his prolific recording activities as Music Director of the Oregon Symphony helped transform that orchestra into a major regional ensemble. Maestro DePreist is now its Laureate Music Director.

James DePreist directed Orchestral and Conducting Studies at the Julliard School from 2004 to May 2011. He then assumed the positions of Principal Conductor and Director Emeritus. On May 22, 2011 Maestro DePreist was awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts degree at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. On September 17, 2011 he will be guest conductor of the Peoria Symphony Orchestra:

Peoria Journal Star

By Gary Panetta

Posted Jul 17, 2011

“PEORIA — The Peoria Symphony Orchestra will hold an open house from 5 to 7 p.m. July 20 at Grace Presbyterian Church, one of the orchestra’s new venues for the 2011-12 season.”

“The PSO’s 114th season begins Sept. 17 at the Civic Center Theater as music director George Stelluto and the orchestra welcome renowned pianist Jorge Osoria and guest conductor James DePreist for performances of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 and the Finale to Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. Grace Presbyterian Church is located at 8607 N. Route 91 in Peoria.”

Peoria JournalStar on Terrence Wilson: 'Symphony crowd wowed by pianist's approach'

[Terrence Wilson]

AfriClassical has frequently written about the pianist Terrence Wilson, whose website is: http://www.terrencewilsonpiano.com/. On September 25, 2009 we posted: “AfriClassical Interviews Terrence Wilson on Naxos CD of 'Deus ex Machina' by Michael Daugherty.”

Peoria JournalStar

By Gary Panetta

Posted Oct 24, 2010

PEORIA — “There's a strange unpredictability about Terrence Wilson, the pianist who appeared Saturday night with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra. Strange because, after all, what Wilson played - namely, Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 - is written down, frozen on the page in black and white. Yet this youthful-looking pianist performed with an exciting, improvisatory air, as if this music wasn't familiar at all but coming alive under his fingertips, ready to go in unexpected directions.

"This is what any great performance - and Wilson's performance was by any standard, great - should be of any piece of music. But it's particularly fitting for Rachmaninov, whose grand, sprawling concerto invites a certain subjective interpretation."

"Wilson, whose presence has graced stages nationally and internationally, approached this music with a capacious imagination, a reminder that musical ability doesn't merely reside in fingers and muscle and posture. The fluid fingering, the mastery of tempo, the delicate shades of dynamics, the precise use of the pedal - in sum, sheer technical power - served the goal of musical insight. The disappointingly small crowd of 1,300 at the 2,200-seat Civic Center Theater was transfixed throughout the lengthy three movement piece. Then came applause, cheers and foot-stomping."