Loading...
Creator
Dixon, Dean, 1915-1976
Call number
Sc MIRS Dixon 1999-34
Physical description
3 moving_image_recordings. 16 audio_recordings
Language
Multiple languages
Preferred Citation
Dean Dixon audio and moving image collection, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, The New York Public Library
Sponsor
An anonymous donor funded preliminary processing for this collection. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported a research library-wide grant for the digitization, and funded the Schomburg for the description and production of the finding aid as part of The Next Century of Black Studies Project.
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
Access to materials
Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

Charles Dean Dixon (January 10, 1915 - November 3, 1976) was a renowned conductor of symphony orchestras in the US, as well as in Asia, Australia, and Europe. The collection consists of three films of the New York Philharmonic's Young People's Concerts featuring Dixon as host and conductor, and sixteen audio recordings reflecting his career.

Biographical/historical information

Charles Dean Dixon (January 10, 1915 - November 3, 1976) was a renowned conductor of symphony orchestras in the US, as well as in Asia, Australia, and Europe. Born in Harlem, New York, Dixon was introduced to classical music as a young child. He received a BS from Juilliard Institute of Musical Art (Juilliard School) in 1939, and an MA in music pedagogy from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1939.

In 1941, Dixon guest-conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, becoming the first African American to do so. He later guest-conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 1948, Dixon won the Alice M. Ditson award for distinguished service to American music. Unable to secure a permanent conducting position in the US due to racial discrimination, he moved to Paris in 1949 to guest-conduct with the French National Radio Orchestra.

Dixon found success abroad, where he remained for the next two decades. He directed the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra during its 1950-1951 seasons. He was the principal conductor of Sweden's Gothenburg Symphony from 1953 to 1960, Australia's Sydney Symphony Orchestra from 1964 to 1967, and Germany's Hesse Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1961 to 1974.

Dixon returned to the US in 1970. During the 1970s, he guest-conducted for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, among other American orchestras, while continuing his conducting activities in Europe. He also guest-conducted the New York Philharmonic's Young People's Concerts, a series of televised educational classical music concerts for children and families.

Dixon married three times: to concert pianist Vivian Rivkin in 1948, with whom he had one daughter, Diane; to Finnish baroness and playwright Mary Mandelin in 1954, with whom he had a daughter Nina; and to Roswitha Blume in 1973.

Dixon died in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1976 at the age of sixty-one.

Scope and arrangement

The collection consists of three films of the New York Philharmonic's Young People's Concerts featuring Dixon as host and conductor, and sixteen audio recordings reflecting his career. They are arranged alphabetically by title. The titles are devised based on the content of the recordings. The audio items' original format are open-reels and some contain two or more parts. They include interviews with Dixon; concerts he conducted; rehearsals featuring him, multidisciplinary artist Gordon Parks, and musicians Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln; musical tales in French; WLIB host Larry Fuller's interviews with attendees of the musical Shuffle Along (1952); and an episode of Tonight with Belafonte; among other recordings. Some items include multiple recordings and are described separately. Square brackets indicate unclear names or spellings. Unless otherwise noted, recordings are in English.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Roswitha Dixon, 1999.

Processing information

Collection inventoried by Nathan Evans. Collection processed and described by Ornella U. Baganizi, archivist. Finding aid published in 2025.

Separated material

See the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division for the Dean Dixon papers, Sc MG 324.

See the Photographs and Prints Division for the Dean Dixon photograph collection, Sc Photo Dean Dixon Collection.

See the Art and Artifacts Division for the artifacts.

Related Material

Dean Dixon portrait collection, Sc Photo Dixon, Dean.

See the Schomburg Center LP record collection, Sc Re, for records by Dean Dixon.

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Third Floor

Access to materials

Appointment preferred: Request an in-person research appointment.

Access restrictions

At the time of publishing, three films are not available pending digitization.