James DePreist, longtime music director of the Oregon Symphony, was the nephew of Marian Anderson, the first black singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera, and like her, he was a trailblazer. It would have been pioneering enough for DePreist, who died Feb. 8 at 76, to be one of the few black conductors to lead major orchestras. But he also set himself apart by refusing to let a mere disability--the result of polio he contracted in 1962--stop him from leading major ensembles like the New York Philharmonic and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, though it sometimes meant approaching the podium...
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