Akua Dixon
AKUA DIXON, cellist-composer-conductor, is a native of New York City. A graduate of the famed High School of Performing Arts, she studied cello with Benar Heifetz and composition with Rudolf Schramm. Akua studied bass concepts with Reggie Workman and Jazz Practice Techniques with Jimmy Owens, at the Collective Black Artists Institution of Education. Her first professional job was as a member of the famed Apollo Theatre Orchestra. The many noted artists she has performed with include: Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Max Roach, Betty Carter, Ray Charles, Israel “Cachao” Lopez, Eubie Blake, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr., Diana Ross, Bob Hope, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, and Liza Minnelli. She has recorded with Tim Robbins, Don Cherry, Henry Threadgill, James Blood Ulmer, and Joseph Jarman. She has been worked on many Broadway shows, including Doonesbury, Barnum, La Cage aux Faux, Evita, Cats, and Dreamgirls. Akua has appeared on New York Undercover with James Brown, Mary J. Blige, and B. B. King. In 1978, she founded the Akua Dixon String Ensemble, which has supplied string sections for Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Carmen McRae, Woody Shaw, Frank Foster, Jimmy Heath, Pharaoh Saunders, Buster Williams, and Antonio Hart. In 1974, she was the Director of New Music for “The String Reunion,” a New York-based string orchestra formed by Noel Pointer.
She supplied original compositions and arrangements of jazz classics for this 30 piece string ensemble. In 1973, she founded her own string quartet, Quartette Indigo. Critics have called it “jazz’s leading string quartet.” The quartet’s repertoire features original works and arrangements of jazz classics by Akua. The band’s first release, Quartette
Indigo, on Landmark Records, received four stars in Downbeat. Her new CD is entitled AFRIKA! AFRIKA!, and was released on Savant Records.
To open the 1996 season of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre at City Center, she notated and conducted the premiere of a new ballet,” Riverside” by Judith Jamison, with music by Kimati Dinizule. She also conducted their classic ballet “Revelations.” She composed “The Opera of Marie Laveau” which was performed at the Henry Street New Federal Theatre in New York. Akua has always been involved with inspiring children to pursue their musical talents. This is her second season doing concerts for the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert Series. Akua can be seen on videos with Wyclef Jean, conducting the “Urban Youth Symphony.” During the summer of 1967 and 1968, she taught string students at Skidmore College in a special program entitled Project PEP (Programs to Excite Potential). She has given clinics to string players at the Cleveland School of the Arts and the Kamehameha School in Hawaii.
Indigo, on Landmark Records, received four stars in Downbeat. Her new CD is entitled AFRIKA! AFRIKA!, and was released on Savant Records.
To open the 1996 season of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre at City Center, she notated and conducted the premiere of a new ballet,” Riverside” by Judith Jamison, with music by Kimati Dinizule. She also conducted their classic ballet “Revelations.” She composed “The Opera of Marie Laveau” which was performed at the Henry Street New Federal Theatre in New York. Akua has always been involved with inspiring children to pursue their musical talents. This is her second season doing concerts for the Carnegie Hall Neighborhood Concert Series. Akua can be seen on videos with Wyclef Jean, conducting the “Urban Youth Symphony.” During the summer of 1967 and 1968, she taught string students at Skidmore College in a special program entitled Project PEP (Programs to Excite Potential). She has given clinics to string players at the Cleveland School of the Arts and the Kamehameha School in Hawaii.