BHS Day 24: Dean Dixon

Hi! For our last Music and Entertainment Spotlight I wanted to close it out with someone in music. I love exploring old school musicians, those from the first half of the century, since the long list of accomplishments from Black musicians in the second half are already well-documented. The first half of the 1900s are now close to, if not a century, ago and many of the Big Band-era musicians are becoming lost to history. It's important to keep those names circulating, and that brings me to today's entrant. 

Name: Dean Dixon, 1915-1976 Profession: Music conductor Why is the Spotlight on him today? For his talent and accomplishments in the music industry  Notables:
--formed the first racially integrated orchestra when he formed the Dean Dixon Symphony Orchestra after college --was Juilliard trained, first as a violin major then as a music pedagogy major, the latter of which he graduated with a Master's in from Columbia University --was considered to be a child prodigy due to his skill with the violin and was able to perform on radio stations in New York as a child --was personally invited by then-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to perform with his orchestra at the Hecksher Theater
--was unable to break through the racial barrier to receive a permanent conducting position and moved to Europe, where he was the principal conductor for the Swedish Goteburg Symphony and the Australian Sydney Symphony Orchestra
--conducted the Mexican National Symphony Orchestra during the 1968 Olympic Games
--was given the Award of Merit by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, or ASCAP for his work with children in music
--worked with the Brooklyn Philharmonic conducting children's concerts --guest-conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, some of them multiple times, throughout his career
--during his time in Europe, guest conducted for the WDR Sinfonieorchester, French National Radio Orchestra and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
--was able to introduce American composers to the European and Australian audiences while recording and composing overseas
--won the Ditson Conductor's Award for his work with the guest conducting spots
--after returning to the US, went on an eight-city national tour sponsored by Schlitz Beer and guest conducted for the Philadelphia and Chicago Symphony Orchestras and the Detroit, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and St. Louis Symphonies  --returned overseas before his death and conducted a 24-show concert tour in Australia
Further reading links:  1 | 2 | 3

Quote of the Day: 
"Dixon once defined the three phrases of his career by the descriptions he was given: firstly he was called ‘the black American conductor Dean Dixon’; when he started to be offered engagements he was ‘the American conductor Dean Dixon’; and after he had become fully accepted he was simply ‘the conductor Dean Dixon."

--a quote by Christopher Howell attributed to having been said by Dean Dixon