Franz-Paul Decker is in continual demand in many of the world's international music capitals, particularly because of his reputation as a conductor of the large scale works from the German repertoire. Born in Cologne, he studied at the Cologne Hochschule für Musik and made his conducting début at the age of 22. In a wide-ranging illustrious career he has enjoyed eminently successful appointments as Music Director of the Wiesbaden Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Symphony Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada. He succeeded Zubin Metha as Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, became chief conductor of the Orquestra Ciutat de Barcelona, and chief conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. In 1992 Franz-Paul Decker embarked on a four year Mahler cycle when all the symphonies and song cycles were performed with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colón with Bernadette Greevy as soloist. In 1995 he commenced the monumental task of conducting Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen in the same great theatre, concluding in
