Franz-Paul Decker (Conductor: Samson & Dalila)

Franz-Paul Decker is a graduate of the University of Cologne. He made is conducting debut with the Cologne Opera at the tender age of 22. Four years later he undertook the musical direction of both the Wiesbaden Symphony and the Staatsoper. Subsequently, he became music director of the Bochum Symphony and in 1962 music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic.

Following several European tours with that orchestra he was asked to fulfil engagements with all five major London orchestras, the Leningrad Philharmonic, the RIAS Symphony Orchestra, Berlin, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the French National Radio Orchestra, the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic and the Santa Cecilia in Rome. In 1967 he was appointed Director of Montreal Symphony Orchestra for nine years and he frequently conducted opera performances at Opera Montreal, Houston and Dallas Operas. He performed all five different highly acclaimed productions of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with Jon Vickers in the title role in Chicago, Montreal, Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona.

Between 1992 and 1998 he presented the complete Mahler cycle at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires with Bernadette Greevy as soloist. In 1976 Maestro Decker and the New Zealand Symphony began presenting Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung for the first time ever in New Zealand. Principal Guest conductor of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra following highly acclaimed associations with both, he led the latter to the Expo at Seville to perform with Kiri Te Kanawa. Maestro Decker has been honoured by the governments of Brazil, Holland , Spain Germany and Canada.