Basic Facts
Born: January 10, 1915, New York City, New York
Died: November 3, 1976, Zurich, Switzerland
Type of Performer: Conductor
Genre: Classical
Awards/Notable Achievements:
- First Black person to conduct the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra
- Rosenwald Fellowship, 1945-1947
- Alice M. Ditson Award, 1948
- Kilenyi Medal of Honor (posthumous), 2015
About Dean Dixon
Dean Dixon was born in New York City in 1915. His parents loved classical music and fostered the same love in their son. They took him to concerts at Carnegie Hall and banned popular music in the house. He learned to read music before he could read text, and he made his radio debut on violin at age 9. While in high school, he formed a small orchestra that he called the Dean Dixon Symphony Orchestra. Over the years, it grew to include people of all ages, races, and genders; it lasted until the 1940s and performed at the White House for Eleanor Roosevelt in 1941. Dixon went on to study violin, music education, and conducting at the Juilliard Center and graduated from Columbia University with his Master's in Music Education in 1939. He conducted around New York City, and in 1941, he became the first African American to conduct the New York Philharmonic when he led them during a summer concert. He also became the first African American to conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Due to prevailing racist ideologies in the United States that prevented him from landing a permanent post at a major symphony orchestra, much of Dixon's career took place in Europe. In 1949, he was invited to Paris to conduct the Radio Symphony Orchestra of the French National Radio. He went on to conduct orchestras all over Europe, as well as in Israel in 1950 and 1951. He settled in Sweden and conducted the Göteburg Symphony Orchestra beginning in 1953. From 1961 to 1970, he was the Musical Director of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, and he was appointed Music Director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 1964 to 1967. He was known in part for programming American music that the European audiences were unfamiliar with. He returned to the United States in the early 1970s to embark on a national conducting tour that included the New York Philharmonic and eight other major orchestras. He returned to his home in Switzerland where he continued to conduct until he died of heart problems, despite his healthy lifestyle, in 1976.
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