Rodrick Dixon, Tenor
Rodrick Dixon is a leading American dramatic tenor, whose range, musicianship and dramatic intensity have seen him engaged by prominent theatres and orchestras throughout the United States. Notable operatic engagements include: Der Zwerg at Los Angeles Opera; Walther von der Vogelweide (Tannhauser) at Michigan Opera Theater; Otello with Opera Southwest; Erik (Die fliegender Holländer) with RAI Torino and the St Louis Symphony; Duca di Mantova for Cincinnati Opera; Hoffmann at Portland Opera; the Prince (Vanqui) for Opera Columbus (world première), and Sportin’ Life (Porgy & Bess) at Virginia Opera. Notable concert engagements include: Orff Carmina Burana, Stravinsky Oedipus Rex, Janacek Glagolitic Mass, Mahler Das klagende Lied, Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Rachmaninoff The Bells, Rossini Stabat Mater and Nathaniel Dett The Ordering of Moses at the Cincinnati May Festival; Oedipus Rex (cond. Esa-Pekka Salonen, dir. Peter Sellars) with the LA Philharmonic, The Bells and Mahler Das klagende Lied at the Ravinnia Festival; Sportin’ Life with the Cleveland Orchestra; Bernstein Mass! for the Choral Arts Society of Music at the Kennedy Center; Beethoven Symphony No.9 and Lokumbe Healing Tones and One Land, One River, One People with the Philadelphia Orchestra (cond. Yannick Nézet Séguin); and The Ordering of Moses at the Cincinnati May Festival, and Beethoven Symphony No.9 (American Symphony Orchestra) at Carnegie Hall. 2021-2022 highlights include: Beethoven Missa Solemnis with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet Séguin, The Ordering of Moses with the City of Birmingham Symphony and his first contract with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. 2022-2023 highlights include: the Missa solemnis with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Yannick Nézet Séguin, Hannibal Lokumbe The Jonah People with the Nashville Symphony (world premiere), The Ordering of Moses at the Cincinnati May Festival with Marin Alsop, The Death of Klinghoffer (Molqi) at the Concertgebouw, under the baton of John Adams, To Awaken the Sleeper with the Baltimore Symphony and Das Lied von der Erde at the Aspen Festival, both with James Conlon. Season 2023-2024 highlight include: Froh (Das Rheingold) at Covent Garden and Der Zwerg at Los Angeles Opera.
Mr. Dixon’s extensive television credits include: Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party VH1 (2017); Freedom Awards National Civil Rights Museum (2017); Noel, Noel Christmas Show Fox 13 (2017); Variety Children’s Charity TV show honoring CEO Julia Morley of Miss World in London (2016); Miss World Pageant in Washington, D.C. at the MGM (2016); Ordos, China (2012); An Evening with Vernon Jordan/HistoryMakers WETA, PBS (2014); the Variety Children’s Charity telethon in Des Moines, Iowa (2012 – present); The US Air Force 60th Anniversary Musical Celebration (2007); Cook, Dixon & Young Vol. 1 PBS Great Performances (2005); Washington Opera Gala at Constitution Hall (2003); The Mark Twain Awards Honoring Whoopi Goldberg at Kennedy Center (2002); Three Mo’ Tenors PBS Great Performances (2001) and My Favorite Broadway: The Love Songs at City Center (2000). Other TV appearances include: The Tavis Smiley Show on PBS/NPR (2006); The Jerry Lewis Telethon (2002-2003); Marshall Field’s Christmas Commercials (2002); TV One’s Christmas Specials (2006/07); WGN’s A Christmas Glory (2003 and 2006); The Tony Awards (1998); NBC’s Today Show; Good Morning America; The Rosie O’Donnell Show (2002); and The Wayne Brady Show.
Rodrick Dixon’s musical theater and other theatrical concert credits include the original cast of Ragtime on Broadway/Chicago/Toronto, Show Boat at the Auditorium Theatre, Pops Concerts at Grant Park Music Festival, Chicagoland Pops Orchestra at the Rosemont Theater with Michael Feinstein, The Cincinnati Pops with Erich Kunzel and annual Christmas concerts of Too Hot To Handel at the Detroit Opera House and the Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre. The show made its Memphis Orpheum Theatre debut April 21st and 22nd in 2018.
Recordings include (Sony/BMG), PBS Great Performances Cook, Dixon & Young Volume One released in (2005), Follow That Star Christmas CD (2003), Liam Lawton’s Sacred Land (2006) and Rodrick Dixon Live in Concert (2008) and a Christmas album with the Cincinnati Pops.
For 2021 – 2022 Schedule, see News!
- Rodrick Dixon YouTube classical audio video materials
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaBr5nVLA8aefcG6ABV41r-eXCOaPGhmN
Review:
“At times it was almost too much. This was also a Zwerg in which the titular dwarf was sung by a singer of color (the rest of the cast was white), and hearing the Infanta’s retinue sing ‘monster!’ and ‘how grim’ as a black man first entered the stage was impossible to watch without thinking of last year’s Central Park bird-watching incident. At the same time, tenor Rodrick Dixon is no stranger to the opera (his performance in the LA Opera’s production is available on DVD) and he clearly loves to inhabit the vocally demanding role of the Dwarf, which he performs to mesmerizing effect. His ‘song of the blood orange’ was sung with heartfelt sincerity and his declaration of love for the Infanta with intense infatuation, while the way he formed a mirror with his hand and recoiled in horror at his dwarfish appearance was as agonized as the scream and anguished monologue that followed. What’s more, his brightly lyrical voice didn’t come under strain even as the tessitura crept ever higher……..Dixon’s performance was the most in character, and the best sung.”
Enescu Live Excerpt from Zemlinsky’s ‘Der Zwerg’ (Infanta-Zwerg Scene) 2021
Rodrick Dixon, Tenor
Short Crossover Biography
Rodrick Dixon is a classical crossover artist that possesses a tenor voice of extraordinary range and versatility. His body of work covers 25 years of television, recordings, live theater and concerts, including PBS Specials with tenors Victor Cook and Thomas Young; Hallelujah Broadway starring his wife, Alfreda Burke; the Miss World Pageant broadcast from China and Washington, D.C. on the “E” channel in 126 countries. Dixon recently appeared in the annual Freedom Awards filmed at the Orpheum Theater in Memphis, Noel Noel Christmas concert at Mississippi Blvd Church for Fox 13 broadcast on Christmas Day and Martha & Snoop’s Potluck Dinner Party VH1. His eclectic discography with Sony BMG, EMI Records & Naxos has delighted fans all over the world.
2. Rodrick Dixon YouTube PBS/TV videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaBr5nVLA8ac5PNP2X4Xv0wrP4E16JusE
History
Rodrick Dixon commands an amazing ability to interpret a song, tell a story and bring a tremendous amount of emotion to a TV camera! Born and raised in his father’s church, he learned to imitate his parent’s ability to sing and began piano studies under his father’s guidance. At the age of 12, he was accepted into the Brooklyn Boys Choir, he attended the High School of Music & Arts in Harlem, matriculated into Mannes College of Music to receive BM and MM degrees. In the summers during his college years, Dixon
studied in Assisi, Italy and Fontainebleau, France. He began his operatic training at the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists. After the program, he was casted in the Hal Prince Production of Show Boat at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. The producers of Show Boat casted Mr. Dixon in Ragtime which opened in Toronto, Canada in 1996 and made its Broadway debut on January 18, 1998. Mr. Dixon joined the Chicago production of Ragtime in September of 1998. In 1998, boy choir and high school friend Victor Cook recommended Mr. Dixon to the production of Three Mo’ Tenors. As a member of the PBS group starring Victor Trent Cook and Thomas Young, he has appeared with Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Barry Manilow, The Three Irish Tenors and Whoopi Goldberg.
As a partner of Cook, Dixon and Young, he produced the PBS special Cook, Dixon and Young Volume 1, toured extensively throughout the US, appeared on CBS, ABC, NBC, “E” entertainment, PBS/Great Performances nationally and WGN. As a programming consultant to the Cincinnati Symphony for its Classical Roots series in 2011-12, Mr. Dixon secured iconic orchestrations from Quincy Jones and Marvin Winans. This series sold over 5,000 tickets at the Box Office.
Rodrick Dixon and his wife/business partner, Alfreda Burke, have appeared in the PBS Special Hallelujah Broadway filmed in Prague with Linda Eder and Anthony Kearns with the Prague Filharmonia. The two appeared with Michael Feinstein at the Rosemont Theater in Chicago; produced Songs of A Dream with the Auditorium Theatre; toured Italy; South Africa with Miss World/ Mandela delegation in 2017; performed Too Hot To Handel at the Detroit Opera house for 18 years; Auditorium Theatre in Chicago for 15 years; and a Memphis debut in 2018.
Discography:
1. Der Zwerg DVD ArtHaus Musik (James Conlon conducting, LA Opera)
2. The Ordering of Moses CD Bridge Records (James Conlon conducting, Live at Carnegie Hall)
3. Recorded Music of the African Diaspora CD Albany Records
4. Can You Hear God Crying DVD Naxos (Dirk Brosse Conducting Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Hannibal Lokumbe composer)
5. Three Mo’ Tenors DVD/CD Sony/BMG PBS Great Performances
6. Cook, Dixon & Young DVD/CD Sony/BMG PBS Great Performances
7. Hallelujah Broadway EMI DVD/CD PBS (Starring Rodrick Dixon, Alfreda Burke Linda Eder and Anthony Kearns)
8. Home for the Holidays CD Cincinnati Pops Orchestra
9. The Right Frame of Mind CD Blue Griffin records
10. Follow That Star Christmas CD EMI records
11. Sacred Land CD Liam Lawton’s
12. Triptych…A celebration of the Negro spiritual CD
13. The Praise + Worship Experience CD (Marvin L. Winans)
14. An Evening with Vernon Jordan, PBS, produced by The HistoryMakers
15. A Musical Celebration, PBS, The United States Air Force 60th Anniversary
16. Can You Hear God Crying (DVD) Naxos-Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra 2014
17. “Oh What Fun! Jingle, Jingle’ Jingle Marshall Field’s Commercials- Tenors 2002
