Dixon, James (conductor)

Initially, Dixon played the trumpet in the brass band of his school in the town of Guthrie Center - and, according to his recollections, on May 8, 1945 he conducted an impromptu concert of the orchestra on the occasion of the victory in World War II ^[1] . After leaving school, Dixon, however, worked as a baker - but, impressed by attending a concert by the Minneapolis Orchestra conducted by Dimitris Mitropoulos, he left work and entered the University of Iowa School of Music. At university, Dixon initiated the creation of a student orchestra in which he played the timpani and learned to conduct. He was recommended to his idol Mitropoulos, received his approval and accompanied Mitropoulos as an assistant during the European tour of the famous conductor, as a result of which, in 1953 , when he was called up for military service, he became the conductor of the US Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra, stationed in Germany.

Upon returning from Germany, Dixon officially headed his university’s orchestra. In 1959 - 1961 Dixon directed the Orchestra of the New England Conservatory , then for a year was an assistant to Stanislav Skrovachevsky in the Minneapolis Orchestra, after which he returned to the University of Iowa Orchestra and, since 1962 , had been directing it for 35 years. At the same time in 1965 - 1994 . he led the Professional City Symphony Orchestra of Four Cities ( Eng. Quad City Symphony Orchestra ), last performing with him as a guest conductor in 2000 .

A long-standing creative community connected Dixon with Charles Vuorinen : with the university orchestra, Dixon premiered several works of Vuorinen, including the First Piano Concerto ( 1966 ). For the first time he also performed the symphonic poem by Brian Fennelli, “In Nature, the Salvation of the World” (1975) and others - in total about 40 world premieres ^[2] . Working with the newest music brought Dixon a reputation as the owner of “excellent ability to unravel complex scores” ^[3] . At the same time, Dixon was considered a music specialist by Gustav Mahler and was awarded the Malerov Medal.

Two episodes of Dixon’s creative biography dating back to 1975 attracted the most attention from the music community. September 24 , with a university orchestra (piano part - James Avery ), Dixon performed the first ever performance of Alexander Scriabin 's symphonic poem “Prometheus” (“The Poem of Fire”) , accompanied by a laser show, the installation for which was designed by Lowell Cross ; the concert was filmed and edited as a documentary, and in 2005 it was re-released on DVD ^[4] . And a month later, on October 22 , the same university orchestra under the direction of Dixon performed the premiere of the Third Symphony by Anthony Burgess ; the famous writer, who also wrote music throughout his life, wrote this work commissioned by Dixon, who contacted him after reading the novel A Clockwork Orange (allegedly, Dixon did not know about Burgess's music lessons, but suggested that the author of this book cannot not to be a composer) ^[5] . The symphony became Burgess's first publicly performed orchestral work, and thanks to this, he significantly increased his composer activity.

Among Dixon's recordings are Thomas Jefferson Anderson’s Chamber Symphony (with the London Philharmonic Orchestra ), Miriam Gideon ’s vocal cycle “Songs of Youth and Madness” (with soprano Judith Raskin and the American Composers Orchestra), the Libesrock symphonic parable for three electric guitars and orchestra Torres with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra ).

In 1980, Dickson was awarded the Ditson Prize for his conductor's contribution to American music.