James A. Decker

James A. Decker

November 21, 1921 - September 10, 2013

James Decker has been a professional French Horn player ever since performing with his mother on radio broadcasts as a child. He graduated from Compton College with a major in Music Performance. He continued his career in music performance holding first chair positions in Hollywood movie, television and recording studios. He held contract positions in Hollywood at Columbia, Fox, Paramount and CBS. He was first horn for Columbia Masterworks recordings with Igor Stravinsky and Bruno Walter. Jim was Professor of Horn at USC for fifty years. He also taught on the faculty of The Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and at the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival in Maine. He reorganized and managed the Glendale Symphony Orchestra. He was first horn the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the California Chamber Orchestra for many years. He was a member of NARAS (Grammy Awards) and can be heard on hundreds of film sound tracks and recordings. Jim also served as a judge for the Grammy Awards as well as the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts. He wrote his own method book, The Master Series for Horn, and founded IVASI (Interactive Video Audition Service International) a system to help musicians prepare themselves for a career in symphony orchestras. He was born in Mar Vista, California November 23, 1921 to Benjamin and Maggie Decker and died in Westminster, California September 10, 2013. He is survived by his loving wife of 70 years, Maryella (Miller) Decker; four children: Marla, Brian, Douglas, and Mimi; 12 grandchildren, and 18 great-grandchildren. Please sign the guestbook
at www.presstelegram.com/obits.