James DePreist

[4] DePreist studied composition with Vincent Persichetti at the Philadelphia Conservatory while earning a bachelor's degree at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania in 1958.

On the side, he played percussion in a jazz quintet that performed on "The Tonight Show" with Steve Allen in 1956,[5] and did enough composing to win a commission from the Philadelphia Dance Academy.

In 1962, the State Department sponsored a cultural exchange tour and engaged DePreist as an American specialist in music.

However he recovered sufficiently, allowing him to enter and to ultimately claim first prize in the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition.

In 1976, DePreist was appointed music director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, a position he held until 1983.

[2][6] During his 23-year tenure, he led the transformation of the Oregon Symphony from a small, part-time orchestra to a nationally recognized group with a number of recordings.

DePreist also conducted the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra to provide the music for both the anime and the live action drama.

[15] DePreist appeared in the role of Lucy's shrink in the film New Year's Day, directed by the conductor's longtime friend, Henry Jaglom.

He died on February 8, 2013, at the age of 76, in Scottsdale, Arizona[14] and is interred at Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, Pennsylvania.