Franz-Paul Decker

Franz-Paul Decker (left) presents Princess Beatrix and Prince Claus with a record, 1966

Franz-Paul Decker (born June 26, 1923 in Cologne , † May 19, 2014 in Montreal ) was a German - Canadian conductor .

Life

Decker studied music at the Cologne University of Music , where Philipp Jarnach and Eugen Papst also taught in those years . He made his debut as a conductor at the age of 22 at the Cologne Opera . Four years later he was appointed conductor at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden and then worked at the Wiesbaden Symphony Orchestra. He then moved to the Bochum Symphony Orchestra as general music director , where he worked from 1956 to 1964. In Hanover he gave concerts ( Summer Music Days in Herrenhausen ) with the Lower Saxony Symphony Orchestra Hanover. He then went to the Netherlands , where he was chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 1962 to 1967. In 1967 he moved to Canada to the Orchester symphonique de Montréal , which he conducted until 1975. Further professional positions took him to Spain in the 1980s , where he directed the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra , and in the 1990s to New Zealand , where he conducted the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra .