Dean Dixon

Born in Harlem, New York City in 1915, Dean Dixon studied conducting at the Juilliard School and Columbia University. Obviously gifted, in his first decade out of college Dixon guest conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, the first Black man to do so. But permanent positions eluded him, a frustration which Dixon attributed to racist attitudes in the classical music industry. Abroad, Dixon was treated more sympathetically, working as principal conductor of orchestras in Gothenburg, Sydney and Frankfurt. He strongly espoused composers of his native country, making important recordings of works by Edward MacDowell, Douglas Moore and Randall Thompson. In core repertoire, however, he was undervalued by the record companies, leaving a relatively small discography at his death in 1976. Powerful albums of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Stravinsky’s Perséphone survive, all bearing eloquent witness to Dixon’s penetrating musicianship and his unwavering emotional commitment.