Profile

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 the Principal Tuba of the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sacramento Opera, the Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra, and 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 M.M. 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 such notable institutions 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 the Spring 2006. Mr. Dixon is also active in the Sacramento Philharmonic’s Outreach Educational programs as front man and narrator for “Peter and the Wolf”, “Carnival of The Animals”, “Meet the Harmonic Winds”, “Philharmonic Brass”, and “Musicians On The Move”.