James DePreist, 76, artistic adviser to the Pasadena Symphony and Pops and one of the few black conductors to lead major orchestras in the United States and abroad, died Friday, Feb. 8, at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., of complications from a heart attack he had last spring, said his manager.
Mr. DePreist overcame polio in his 20s to pursue a conducting career that, over four decades, took him to stages from Sweden to Japan. His longest and most distinguished tenure was with the Oregon Symphony, where he was music director from 1980 to 2003, a period when that orchestra gained national and international renown.
