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August 21, 2008ABOUT JOE DIXON
JOE DIXON is well known as a trombonist, brass clinician, instructor, and lecturer. He currently serves as a Master Clinician / Consultant for school music programs throughout Texas. His students have been welcomed at many of the world's great music schools including The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Yale University, Indiana University, University of North Texas, Harvard University, and the Royal Academy of Music in London. His students have performed with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Italian National Radio Orchestra, the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, I Solisti Veneti, the Kennedy Center Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico, and numerous other orchestras and chamber ensembles in North & South America, Europe, and Japan.
JOE DIXON's teachers included LEON BROWN (University of North Texas), ALLEN OSTRANDER (Bass Trombone, New York Philharmonic; NBC Symphony under Toscanini; Juilliard), and ROGER SMITH (Solo Trombone, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra; Solo Euphonium & Assistant Conductor, The Goldman Band; Juilliard). He was a composition student of electronic music pioneer MERRILL ELLIS (1916-1981) and toured with Prof. ELLIS as a soloist and ensemble member of his New Music Group. JOE DIXON began private teaching trumpet and trombone at the age of 16 and by the age of 19 maintained a private studio of 120 students. He has taught in the United States and Europe. As a trombonist, his performance experience includes symphony, opera, ballet, chamber music and appearances as a soloist.
JOE DIXON has presented hundreds of teacher training programs and has given Master Classes and lectures on brass pedagogy at numerous universities, specialist schools as well as national music educator conventions. His Master Classes and mini-residencies have included visits to Indiana University, the University of Houston, the University of Texas, Sam Houston State University, and presentations in Germany and Italy. In 2002 he was a panelist for the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) Biennial in Nashville, Tennessee. He has presented lectures for the "Careers in Music" program at Southern Methodist University, as well as lectures for its Brass Methods Classes. Recently, he has presented clinics for the Texas Bandmasters Association. He works with the Sam Houston State University Center for Music Education.
JOE DIXON was a Session Producer and/or sound engineer for critically acclaimed recordings by EDDIE GREEN and TOM BENNETT conducting the University of Houston Wind Ensemble, including the series of recordings for the International Grainger Society of wind works by Percy Grainger. The Ensemble's recording of "The Planets" (Holst) and "Appalachian Spring" (Copland) was honored as a semifinalist in three categories for a 1999 Grammy Award (Best Classical Recording, Best Orchestral Performance and Best Engineered Album, Classical) as well as a listing in the Stereophile magazine "Records to Die For" category. His project - music of Vittorio Giannini - was released by Naxos label in 2006.
JOE DIXON is a Lifetime Member of the International Trombone Association and is a member of the British Trombone Society. He plays an S. E. Shires trombone.
Hobbies & Other Passions - Literature ... good wine ... teaching young brass players ... photography ... my BMW 530i ... independent and international cinema ... collecting fine art photography.
... And What did YOU Do As a Teenager? - Performed concerts (singing!) with Grammy-winning choral conductors George Bragg, Gregg Smith and the Texas Boy's Choir ... was children's choir 'wrangler' for the world premiere of the staged "Death of the Bishop of Brindisi" with the composer Gian Carlo Menotti ("Amahl and the Night Visitors") supervising ... almost immigrated to the UK but was convinced to stay in USA by the late Raymond Premru (Bass Trombonist of the Philharmonia Orchestra and member, Philip Jones Brass Ensemble) ... flew to New York City monthly for private trombone lessons ... Denis Wick (former Principal Trombone, London Symphony Orchestra) made the first gold Wick trombone mouthpiece at the request of Joe Dixon. He liked the idea so well that almost all Wick mouthpieces were manufactured in gold-plate after that ... taught music composition and was a bunk counselor at a summer fine arts camp in New Jersey ... wrote and conducted the musical score (chamber orchestra) for a short student film.
Favorite Composers - Benjamin Britten, Gustav Mahler, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Claude Debussy.
Favorite Places That I Have Visited - San Francisco, London, New York, Chicago, Paris, Milan, Venice, Turin, Monte Carlo and the Cote d'Azur, Portofino, Assisi, and Jerusalem.
PORTOFINO ( photo © Joe Dixon )
A Much Younger Me (late 1980's)
This portrait of me was taken by Gordon Hallberg, former Bass Trombonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (1971-1985)