The charismatic conductor, James DePriest one of the first African-American to lead on the world stage died Friday at his residence in Scottsdale Arizona.

DePreist suffered a major heart attack last March has been in and out of the hospital according to his wife Ginette DePreist.

"He had lots of setbacks," Ginette DePreist said, "but he kept fighting." In the past couple of weeks, his kidneys started to fail and he decided to stop fighting, she said.

His health problems have sometimes prevented him from conducting. He received a kidney transplant in 2001 after years of dialysis.

"We are talking about a man with an international career, who achieved many things on international stages," Oregon Symphony conductor Carlos Kalmar said. "And you can only do that if - aside from technicalities - you are a real personality, someone the musicians look up to, and you keep the audiences very, very interested. And I think in that sense Jimmy was great."

DePreist was the Director of Emeritus of Conducting and Orchestral Studies at The Juilliard School. He has led orchestras in Quebec, Monte Carlo, Tokyo and Malmo, Sweden.