Dixon was born in the upper-
Manhattan neighborhood of
Harlem in
New York City to parents originally from the
Caribbean. He studied conducting with
Albert Stoessel at the
Juilliard School and
Columbia University. When early pursuits of conducting engagements were stifled because of racial bias (he was
African American), he formed his own orchestra and choral society in 1931. In 1941, he guest-conducted the
NBC Symphony Orchestra, and the
New York Philharmonic during its summer season. He later guest-conducted the
Philadelphia Orchestra and
Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1947 he conducted a
Naumburg Orchestral Concert, in the Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park for their summer series. In 1948 he won the
Ditson Conductor's Award. :
Tragic Ouverture, excerpt from a 1968 recording with the
Frankfurt Radio Symphony In 1949, he left the United States for the
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, which he directed during its 1950 and 1951 seasons. He was principal conductor of the
Gothenburg Symphony in Sweden 1953–60, the
Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Australia 1964–67, and the
hr-Sinfonieorchester in Frankfurt 1961–74. During his time in Europe, Dixon guest-conducted with the WDR Sinfonieorchester in Cologne and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munich. He also made several recordings with the Prague Symphony Orchestra in 1968–73 for Bärenreiter, including works of
Beethoven,
Brahms,
Haydn,
Mendelssohn,
Mozart,
Schumann,
Wagner, and
Weber. For
Westminster Records in the 1950s, his recordings included symphonies and incidental music for
Rosamunde by
Schubert, symphonic poems of
Liszt (in London with the Royal Philharmonic), and symphonies of
Schumann (in Vienna with the Volksoper Orchester). Dixon also recorded several American works for the American Recording Society in Vienna. Some of his WDR broadcast recordings were issued on Bertelsmann and other labels. Dean Dixon introduced the works of many American composers, such as
William Grant Still, to European audiences. During the 1968 Olympic Games, Dixon conducted the Mexican National Symphony Orchestra. Dixon returned to the United States in 1970 for guest-conducting engagements with the New York Philharmonic,
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, and
San Francisco Symphony in the 1970s. He also served as the conductor of the
Brooklyn Philharmonic, where he gained fame for his children's concerts. He also conducted most of the major symphony orchestras in Africa, Israel, and South America. Dixon's last appearance in the US was conducting the
Philadelphia Orchestra in April 1975. Dixon was honoured by the
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) with the Award of Merit for encouraging the participation of American youth in music. In 1948, Dixon was awarded the Alice M. Ditson award for distinguished service to American music. Dixon was to tour Australia in the autumn of 1975 but had to cancel most of the tour due to heart problems. He returned to Europe and died in
Zug,
Switzerland, on November 4, 1976, after suffering a stroke. He was 61 years old. He once defined the three phases 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 called simply
"the conductor Dean Dixon". ==Personal life==