JoanDeVeeDixon.com

Last night's concert by Dr. Joan DeVee Dixon was nothing short of WONDERFUL! Her whole style and approach to performing are so refreshing and upbeat. People were not just inspired or soothed, they were uplifted and actually had FUN!

The Rev. Allan Weatherholt, St. Thomas, Hancock, Maryland

Thank you for your part in making the 50th Anniversary of the WAMSO Young Artist Competition so special. You were a joy to work with, and your concert was not just exceptional, it was inspirational!

Wendy Wenger, Executive Director, Wenger Corporation Foundation, Owatonna, Minnesota

Thank you so very much for the wonderful gift of music last evening. "Let praises ring!" and they did! I loved the program you played! It was the most original I'd ever heard. Rave reviews from all of our folks!

Kraig Windschitl, Organist, Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota

What a wonderful day we had on Sunday. Your presence and participation as well as leadership in worship made it a special time, a holy time, for all of us. Your concert was enjoyable, a good mix of favorites that were appealing to all. I have had people call or stop by all day telling me how much they enjoyed your concert. Please make a point of coming back to Oakland. Consider this your standing invitation to play here whenever it is possible. It will be our joy to have you back.

Sheldon Timmerman, Oakland Baptist Church, Rock Hill, South Carolina

Thank you for one of the best recitals I have heard in my 20 years of working with the recitals. It was absolutely fantastic!! We all enjoyed your outgoing personality and the notes that you added to the program. I hope you will be able to come back within the next couple years. I had two different people ask me already when we were going to have you back. Thank you once again for a wonderful, entertaining and relaxing afternoon.

Nadine West, Director of the Sunday School Series, Montauk, Iowa

Stompin at St. Mikes
If you thought organ music was just hymns, Bach and Phantom of the Opera (the old Lon Chaney horror movie, not the Andrew Lloyd Webber dripfest), Joan DeVee Dixon aims to disabuse you. Her new CD, Raise the Roof! includes Donizetti and Just a Closer Walk with Thee, but also such unorthodox selections as the Rimsky-Korsakov Flight of the Bumblebee, Scott Joplin and Up She Rises (a.k.a. What shall we do with the drunken sailor?). Dixon, who made her professional debut with Minnesota Orchestra back in the Neville Marriner days and has since performed at venues including Westminster Abbey and St. Marks Cathedral, Venice, returns to the Twin Cities to perform at 3pm today at a CD-release party, on the 48 rank Reuter organ at St. Michaels Lutheran Church in Bloomington.

by Judy Arginteanu, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Thanks so much for a lovely evening! What grand music and exquisite playing. I most appreciate, I think, the way that you make every conceivable sound that an instrument can make come alive! Again, thank you!

The Rev. Dr. Margee Iddings, Executive Director, Rising Phoenix Retreat Center, Flintstone, Maryland

I had the great honor of helping to sponsor a concert by Dr. Joan DeVee Dixon. In almost 40 years of working with the highest rated organists, I can say that Dr. Dixon ranks as second to none in her command of the organ. She has an ability to get into the composers psyche to interpret the music so that all can appreciate it. Our church has a twelve rank pipe organ that has been upgraded with a three manual Allen digital console and forty digital stops blended to match the pipes. Even though it was Joans first experience with such an instrument, she quickly mastered it and made it sound like 50 pipe ranks. An added delight to her concert was that she brought along The Laurel Brass which is a fine group of musicians of Symphony Hall quality. When the evening concert ended, we all left wanting more.

Virgil Cannarsa, Evangelical Lutheran Church, Duncansville, Pennsylvania

Dr. Joan DeVee Dixon gave a very original and exciting program as a part of her Concert Tour of England. It was just magical! The program started with her arrangements from The Sound of Music. This suite demonstrated not only the wonderful sounds of this instrument (and how versatile it is) but also the wonderful feeling and dexterity of her style of playing. This was followed by several psalm settings by American composer Emma Lou Diemer. Dr. Dixon has made it one her aims to commission and record the Psalms of Dr. Diemer. All were played with a true feeling for the music and also used the registration of the organ to its best advantage. The program ended with a splendid assortment of spirituals by various American composers. Again, these were extremely well done, both with dutiful reflection and occasional humour. The recital finished with a very lively rendition of the Toccata from the 5th Symphony of Widor.
The audience thoroughly enjoyed the program and Dr. Dixon was immediately reengaged for next season.

Dougie Fairhurst, Director, Oxford Town Hall Concert Series, England

EXCITING ORGAN CONCERT. At first glance at the program, the concert-goers could not help but notice the almost complete absence of famous organ composers. The exception was Felix Mendelssohn, in whose Sonata No. 3 the chorus AUS TIEFER NOT moved from a soft beginning to a powerful conclusion. Sonata No. 17 by Josef Rheinberger was readily appreciated by the audience. Rheinberger wrote pleasing music and the church choir of Appenzell has one of his Masses in its repertoire. Then came several contemporary works by American composers. Eight movements were heard from the Partita on St. Anne by Paul Manz in which every conceivable capability of the organ was called forth, from soft to magnificent, from playful to pompous. Meditation on the Spirit by Stephen Paulus meditated with great clarity upon the Triumph. It was really exciting. Next came five liturgical psalms by Emma Lou Diemer, beginning with Psalm Sunday and ending with Trinity Sunday. It was fascinating how the composer creatively combined the ancient text with appropriate music. Through the compositional handling of Emma Lou Diemer, the psalms rose to a new character in modern idiom to win new acceptance from and relevance to the contemporary audience. At the conclusion of the concert, the organist played some American Spirituals, in which themes were skillfully and beautifully interwoven. The concert-goers in the Parish Church of Appenzell responded with hearty applause for the masterful playing of the internationally famous interpreter of music, Joan DeVee Dixon.

Louise Doerig, Appenzeller Volksfreund, Appenzell, Switzerland

Emma Lou Diemers Psalms for organ are melodically inventive, rhythmically diverse and beautifully expressive of the lyrical poetry in the psalms. Joan DeVee Dixon uses the resources of the 39-rank Reuter Great Hosanna organ at the University of the Ozarks to great advantage. Her registrations are wonderfully varied, and her technique is superior. She plays comfortably with this particular organ. Diemers collaboration with Dixon in this first volume, of what is hoped will be a complete series of psalm settings, is a welcome contribution to the recorded liturgical organ literature.

Jeanne Ellison Shaffer, IAWM Journal, 2001

This is no ordinary service music! From the predominantly meditative tone of the Psalms for Organ to the thrilling and dramatic close of Psalm 121 for Organ, Brass, and Percussion, Dr. Diemer has provided a wide array of moods to accompany our progress through the liturgical seasons. Organist Joan DeVee Dixon and the Emmanuel Brass are likewise inspired to eloquence, and the recording engineer, architect, and organ-builder have combined forces to provide a most admirable blend of brilliance, clarity, and resonance. The composers presence at the recording sessions and assistance with interpretation and organ registrations is acknowledged in the program notes, giving these discs an air of authenticity in addition the their many other fine qualities. Strongly recommended for church musicians looking for something a little different, as well as for the general listener.

Jennifer Kolmes, The American Organist, August 2000

Here in these miniatures, Diemer shows herself a master of many styles from mellow romantic to jagged contemporary; particularly engaging are the dancing Psalm 108, the slightly jazzy Psalm 26, and the toccata-like Psalm 2. All are sensitively interpreted by Dixon on the Great Hosanna organ at the University of the Ozarks in Arkansas, and the recording as a whole is a nice introduction to a versatile mainstream composer who has contributed much interesting and worthwhile literature to both the organ recitalist and the average church organist.

Barbara Owen, The American Organist, November 2001

From Spillville to New Orleans

As a concertgoer, I truly appreciate imaginative programming. On Sunday October 19 Resurrection Parish in Santa Rosa was privileged to hear some extraordinary playing of an imaginative and lively program of organ music by guest artist Joan DeVee Dixon. Although the program was not especially intended as one of recent music, in fact the oldest music dated from 1878, and most of the rest was less than twenty years old.

The occasion for the concert was the celebration of the 2008-2009 International Year of the Organ, as designated by the American Guild of Organists. On October 19, hundreds of organ recitals were presented around the world, with the goal of entertaining, informing, and engaging new audiences for organ music, while giving seasoned listeners a fresh perspective on the organ’s expansive repertoire. For the event, two new works were commissioned, and these two were duly featured early in the Santa Rosa recital, which was presented by the Creative Arts Series, based in Sebastopol, California.

Any new organ deserves to be put through its paces. The Allen Quantum three-manual instrument at Resurrection Parish was installed hardly more than a year ago, and its scores of voices/stops cry out for imaginative registrations. Joan DeVee Dixon certainly realized the need and met it with an array of coloristic effects throughout the recital.

Dr. Dixon, who is currently Professor of Music at Frostburg State University in Maryland, opened her program with some remarks about her love of all things Czech, and in particular, of the music of Antonín Dvorák. Because Dvorák was known to have played this particular Czech hymn tune on the organ during his sojourn in America, Dr. Dixon asked the audience to open the program with the singing of the hymn before settling down to the meat of her program. The first organ piece was a charming and colorful set of variations on “Three Blind Mice” by John Thompson, which appropriately employed the Chimes of the organ for the chiming of the clock between the variations. This was followed by Emma Lou Diemer’s “Fantasy and Faith at Oxford”, interweaving themes from Parry’s “Jerusalem” and the Harry Potter film music. This was the most demanding music on the program, both technically and in terms of its demands on the listener. Dr. Dixon is a protégé and frequent collaborator of Dr. Diemer, having premiered many of Diemer’s works.

The two commissioned works appeared next, and Dr. Dixon was joined by oboist Daniel Celidore for the serene “Ornament of Grace” by Bernard Sanders. Fingers and feet certainly did have to stay true to the title of Stephen Paulus’ piece: “Blithely Breezing Along”, which alternated furious toccata figuration with staccato chords in the manuals, while the pedals carried the angular melody.

Dr. Dixon next told of her annual tours to the Czech Republic, as she introduced the three Czech works that followed. Ilja Havlicek’s “Preludio Cromatico” (1995) started life as a dazzling accordion solo, and it continued to dazzle in Dr. Dixon’s organ transcription. Bedrich Wiedermann’s “Nocturne” (1942) was by turns dark, anxious, and airily rapturous. For me the point of repose of the whole recital was here at its midpoint: in the Nocturne’s middle section on distant, light flutes high on the keyboard were the most beautiful and uplifted moments of the day. Next, Jirí Strejc’s “Concert Etude” revealed an overwhelming toccata, with pedal melody, described by Dr. Dixon as the Czech answer to the ubiquitous Widor “Toccata”. By the sound of it, it is a good deal more difficult to play than the Widor!

Audience participation is a good thing for raising enthusiasm, so before intermission we all got to our feet to stamp or clap out the regular beats for Scott Joplin’s “Stoptime Rag”, and then we opened the second half of the program by singing a polka-like “Congregational Psalm” from Dr. Dixon’s own “Mass for Spillville”. Spillville! Some of us had heard the name of this little Czech community in northeastern Iowa, but we were quickly reminded that this was where Antonín Dvorák had come with his family to live for a time in 1893, and it was from his American experiences that he drew inspiration for his “American” Quartet and his “From the New World” Symphony. We heard Dr. Dixon’s transcriptions of five Dvorák works, including the Largo “From the New World” and the jolly Slavonic Dance No. 1. With her kaleidoscopic organ registrations through these pieces, we traversed remarkable combinations of organ sounds, including more percussion voices.

A common enough criticism of organ music is that it lacks sufficient rhythmic drive. How many times have I heard intelligent listeners complain of organ playing: “It’s got no rhythm!” This judgment could not be further from the truth in the program’s final pieces. Inspired by the memory of a “jazzman’s funeral” in New Orleans, Dr. Dixon composed sets of virtuosic organ variations on some of the melodies she heard played by the Dixieland bands on that memorable occasion. The variations turned out to be some of the most convincing jazz-like settings I have ever heard of such melodies for the organ. “Down By the Riverside” and “I’ve Got Shoes” led to an astonishing pedal solo on “Over in the Glory Land”, and then more jazzy variations on “Just a Closer Walk With Thee” and finally “When the Saints Go Marching In”, where the tune was combined with quotations from Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus”. It was a suite of spirituals both astonishing and invigorating, and most certainly rhythmic.

Joan DeVee Dixon has toured the USA, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Israel, Palestine, Japan and the Czech Republic, and her recordings featuring the pipe organ and piano are available through her website. If her splendid performance on Sunday is anything to go by, we should expect to see and hear a lot more of this talented artist. In these days of organ department closures and dwindling organ student enrollment, her playing and her enthusiasm restored some of my confidence in the state of organ playing in America. It was a treat for Sonoma County to have her here.

David Parsons, Sebastopol, California, October 19, 2008

Joan DeVee Dixon pulls extraordinary sounds from an organ. On Saturday night, concertgoers heard bees, a polka, Variations on Three Blind Mice, and all sorts of nautical sound effects. We heard truly virtuosic organ playing on the marvelously renovated Bedford United Methodist Church organ.

The concert began with a surprisingly peppy Great Offertory by Donizetti. It sounded almost like carousel music, and Dr. Dixons program notes explained that a theatrical air permeated many early 19th century pieces. The concert continued with a lovely organ arrangement of the familiar Largo section of Dvoraks New World Symphony. It was followed by an extremely buzzy Flight of the Bumbleebee that sounded unnervingly like a swarm had arrived, as well as a polka in tribute to Dvoraks summer in Spillville, Iowa. Three Blind Mice included many clever musical variations that had us all chuckling, especially since each variation was introduced by a chime (variation number one had one chime, variation number two had two chimes, and so on).

The first half of the program ended with a major concert piece called Fantasy and Faith at Oxford, commissioned by Oxford, dedicated to Dr. Dixon, and composed by Emma Lou Diemer. It is a challenging, dramatic, and beautiful piece based on the classic hymn Jerusalem (remember Chariots of Fire?) and weaving in a tunes from the Harry Potter films, shot in part at Oxford. Dr. Dixon performed it with great skill and dramatic sensitivity.

The second half of the program began with five hymns and spirituals, the last two arranged in the style of New Orleans jazz. All of these familiar songs sounded fresh and energized, but at the same time reverent. I enjoyed particularly Just a Closer Walk with Thee, which Dr. Dixon arranged after she attended the jazz funeral of a longtime member of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band in New Orleans. We could almost see the band members dancing down the street celebrating the joy of going to heaven.

The very unusual Stoptime Rag of Scott Joplin was next, different because we the audience were urged to stomp our feet and clap our hands along with the music as was done at the time the piece was written. It was certainly a noisy, fun organ version.

The concert ended with the very dramatic Toccata from Widors famous Symphony No.5. It is a piece that is deservedly famous, because it is such a pleasure to hear the power and sweep of this wonderful instrument performed by a superbly talented musician such as Joan DeVee Dixon.

But she was not done. She played two encores that were arrangements of familiar sea songs; both were chock full of sly, amusing, and totally unrelated themes such as Here Comes the Bride. We laughed our way out of the sanctuary.

Nancy MacRae, Schellsburg, Pennsylvania