Photograph of James Dixon with friends Bill Hibbard and Charles Wuorinen in Maine, 1973. (Left to right: Bill Hibbard, Charles Wuorinen, James Dixon.) James Dixon Papers [UA10028], University Archives, University of Iowa Libraries.
James Dixon’s colleagues were many, but perhaps his closest friend and collaborator was William (Bill) Hibbard, the composer and violist who led the University of Iowa’s Center for New Music from 1966 to 1988. Hibbard shared a pragmatic view of art with James Dixon, stating once that the Center existed “to serve composition through performance. It’s that simple.” Hibbard was principal violist with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra, and, like Dixon, his work was honored when the American Composer’s Alliance Laurel Leaf was awarded to the Center for New Music in 1990. Dixon and Hibbard travelled together often, like in this photo in Maine with composer Charles Wuorinen. Hibbard’s death in 1989 from AIDS at age 49 left Dixon bereft of a colleague and friend of over twenty years—perhaps a grief only surpassed by that for his mentor, Dimitri Mitropoulos.
Charles Wuorinen’s music featured prominently on Dixon concert programs at the UI from the 1960s to the 1980s. His First Piano Concerto premiered at Iowa in 1966 as part of a three-day symposium on contemporary music. Wuorinen spoke fondly of the maestro and his “many fruitful years of association with the U. of I.” His contribution to the 1972 Hancher dedication concert was a “salute” to the “profound musicianship of James Dixon” and “the excellence it has led to in his orchestra.”
When, in 1968, Wuorinen secured an opportunity to record his First Piano Concerto as piano soloist with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (London) for a CRI release, Dixon was recruited to direct the performance. Titled Weber/Wuorinen Piano Concertos, the record was named one of the year’s best records by Saturday Review magazine.