Profile

Get to Know Me!

1. What do you like about teaching?

The things I love about teaching are seeing students light up with joy when they experience breakthroughs, particularly in their playing. I enjoy watching them become enlightened and apply their new knowledge to developing their skill sets. I’m excited to help students find their inner strengths and fully realize their own potential, and then pursue it with renewed focus. But the ultimate satisfaction from teaching is witnessing the culminating efforts as students present themselves to the world as confident, caring, contributing human beings.

2. What else do you do besides music?

I have many interests beyond music, such as bicycling, hiking, landscaping around my home, watching science-related programming, dancing, etc. But the many things I do still tend to fall within the extremely broad spectrum of music-related things. I am a performer, an educator, a teaching artist, and a promoter of community engagement. I sit on committees and am a creative producer. Most notably, I am the newly elected President of the American Federations of Musicians, Local 12, representing the Professional Musicians of Central California. I also am a co-founder of an arts consultant team, The Melanated Creative, LLC., in addition to my collaborative projects.

3. What has surprised you most about your career in music?

What surprised me most about my musical career happened when I was 20. I was just starting my junior year at San Francisco State, trying to figure out whether to pursue music or environmental studies, especially as a bio-calculus class was tracking me for failure. Then, out of the blue, an opportunity popped up that totally changed the trajectory of my entire life. I was invited to Anaheim, CA, to audition for the Tokyo Disneyland Jamaican Police Band, an ensemble of eight players slated to perform the last six months of Tokyo Disneyland’s grand opening season. I WON! This was my first major job as a musician! While in Japan, my experience connected me with the touring, world-renowned Empire Brass Quintet (EBQ). I got to meet all the top professional tuba players in Tokyo, hang out with celebrities Bobby McFerrin and Howard Johnson, and embrace the beautiful Japanese culture through language, travel, and new friends. After Japan and barely turning 21, I transferred to Boston University, studied with the EBQ, formed the Atlantic Brass Quintet, won several chamber music competitions, and toured the US and Canada under management, all within the subsequent four years. It was my unexpected Japan experience that allowed me to embark on my incredible musical journey.

Professional Bio

Tubist Julian C. Dixon, a native of San Francisco, has performed with a variety of groups and ensembles from brass quintets to symphonic orchestras, playing a wide range of musical styles from contemporary to Klezmer. His career has taken him across all of North America and overseas to Japan and Finland, including performances at such notable venues as Tokyo Disneyland, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, and the great stages at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Mr. Dixon has often performed with the many symphonic orchestras of Northern California. Presently, he is Principal Tuba of the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sacramento Opera, and the Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra, and he is often called to perform with the Berkeley Symphony.

Mr. Dixon is also a distinguished chamber musician, garnering top awards in 1988 at the Coleman, Shoreline Alliance, and Summit Brass First International Chamber Music competitions as an original member of the Atlantic Brass Quintet. Presently, Mr. Dixon displays his love for chamber brass music as a founding member of the Farallon Brass Ensemble of Berkeley, CA, and the Philharmonic Brass of Sacramento.

Mr. Dixon’s formal studies began at San Francisco State University, where his main influences were Zachariah A. Spellman of the San Francisco Opera and Floyd Cooley of the San Francisco Symphony. He later continued his undergraduate and graduate studies at Boston University, where he earned his MM degree under the great guidance of J. Samuel Pilafian and the Empire Brass Quintet.

Mr. Dixon has always been an enthusiastic teacher, sharing his passion for the tuba as a wonderful voice for high artistic expression. He has been on faculty at notable programs such as the Boston University Tanglewood Institute EBQ Seminar and the Farallon Brass Ensemble Brass Camp at the Crowden Music School in Berkeley. Currently, he is on faculty at California State University, Sacramento, where he initiated the first annual “Down In The Valley: A Festival of Tuba and Euphonium” in Spring 2006. Mr. Dixon is also active in the Sacramento Philharmonic’s outreach educational programs as frontman and narrator for Peter and the Wolf, Carnival of The Animals, Meet the Harmonic Winds, Philharmonic Brass, and Musicians On The Move.

Index

Get to Know Me!

Professional Bio