Amy Dickson
“Music always needs great communicators, and here’s one whose captivating instrumental voice could open up a whole new world”
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Amy Dickson (born 1982) is the only female and youngest musician included on BBC Music Magazine's best classical saxophonists, in the company of such greats as Marcel Mule (1901-2001), Sigurd Raschèr (1907-2001), Eugene Rousseau (born 1932), John Harle (born 1956) and Arno Bornkamp (born 1959).
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Having received permission for the transcription from Philip Glass, the Violin Concerto No. 1 has become a signature piece for Amy, showcasing both her boundary-pushing technique and her deep musicality. Her recording of the work has won several awards and has created many opportunities to collaborate with a diverse group of artists. Indeed, the piece has also been choreographed for ballet by Adam Houghland (titled Cold Virtues) and in 2016 Amy performed the Glass concerto arrangement live with the Louisville Orchestra and Louisville Ballet to great acclaim.
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Amy's “Take a Breath” program teaches children relaxed breathing techniques to help them learn to lower stress and anxiety and to increase wellbeing. The goal is that the children will be able to utilize the breathing tools (called Elephant Breaths) to reduce anxiety as they face increasingly stressful situations as they grow up. In addition, during the program Amy is able to introduce classical music to the children, who naturally delight in both aspects of the program.
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Amy's diverse repertoire ranges from the works of composers such as Glazunov, Debussy, Schulhoff, and Villa Lobos to contemporary pieces by Williams, Turnage, Tavener, and Adams - to name just a few. She has premiered many new pieces in recent years including a concerto by Sir James MacMillan with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in 2018 and a concerto by Matthew Hindson with the Tasmania Symphony Orchestra in 2019. She has a passion for new music and is deeply committed to the development of new repertoire for the saxophone. In 2020, during the various periods of lockdown around the world, some of Amy's composer friends wrote solo pieces for her to perform online, from home. The Solo Sessions project blossomed and many new pieces were added to the solo saxophone repertoire. During the year, Amy filmed her performances of these new works, and the composers shared their thoughts about the music and how they related to the Covid crisis, in video interviews. The Solo Sessions can be found on Amy's YouTube channel.
As a classical saxophone soloist Amy Dickson is internationally recognized for her remarkable, distinctive tone and exceptional musicality.
Gramophone Magazine writes: “She has an individual and unusual tone, luscious, silky smooth, sultry and voluptuous by turns; her phrasing is beautifully finished, her control of dynamic infinitely subtle.”
She has been an exclusive Sony Music recording artist since 2007 and has since recorded eight solo albums and many singles. As a soloist, she has performed with orchestras worldwide and recorded with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Amy Dickson appears regularly in international chamber music festivals, is invited to give masterclasses and talks throughout the world and has appeared on ABC TV, BBC TV and the BBC World Service, ITV, PBS and NHK.
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Amy Dickson was born in Sydney, Australia. She studied at the Royal College of Music and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and has resided in London ever since. She made history by becoming the first saxophonist ever to win the following prizes: the Prince’s Prize, the Royal Overseas League Gold Medal, the Australian Young Performer of the Year Award, and a Classical BRIT award. She has been nominated for two Grammy awards, and in 2016 she was named Young Australian of the Year at Australia House, London. In April 2022, Amy was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Music receiving her honor from King Charles III. Amy Dickson has been acknowledged by BBC Music Magazine as one of the world’s best classical saxophonists of all time.
Amy Dickson is a brilliant interpreter of contemporary music and is devoted to the development of new repertoire for the classical saxophone. She has made a substantial contribution to the legacy of the instrument’s concerto, chamber and solo repertoire, working closely with many living composers, including Peter Sculthorpe, Huw Watkins, Steve Martland, Nigel Hess, Ross Edwards, Richard Blackford, Kenneth Fuchs, Stuart Greenbaum, Elena Kats-Chernin, Ivan Moody, Tarik O'Regan, Chris Rogerson, Toby Young, Alexis Ffrench, Jessica Wells, Carl Davis, Graham Fitkin, Graham Koehne, Martin Butler and Brett Dean. In 2020, 29 new solo works were dedicated to her, as part of the ‘Solo Sessions’ project.
Amy’s raison d'être is her Take a Breath wellbeing program. As well as introducing children to classical music, sometimes for the first time, Take a Breath equips young children with the tools they need to recognize stress and anxiety, and to build resilience to help combat it, using a simple and discreet relaxed breathing technique.
Amy is a proud ambassador of the Australian Children’s Music Foundation and The Prince’s Trust.
August 2024 – Please do not edit without permission.
Videos
Programs & Repertoire
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*This is a short works list and is not all encompassing. A longer works list is available upon request.
Symphony Orchestra
Philip Glass (tr. Dickson): Violin Concerto No. 1
Matthew Hindson: Saxophone Concerto
John Williams: Escapades from Catch Me If You Can
John Adams: Saxophone Concerto
Mark Anthony Turnage: Your Rockaby
Graeme Koehne: Inflight Entertainment
Ross Edwards: Full Moon DancesChamber or String Orchestra
Toby Young: Breathlines
James Macmillan: Concerto for Soprano Saxophone
Peter Sculthorpe: Island Songs
Alexander Glazunov: Saxophone Concerto
Gerald Finzi (tr. Dickson): Songs for saxophone (various) (see album“Introit”)
Martin Butler: Concerto for Soprano Saxophone
Heitor Villa Lobos: Fantasia
Jacques Ibert: Concertino da camera
Giya Kancheli: Night Prayers Strings & TapeLarger Works
Richard Blackford: Pietà for Strings, Choirs, Solo Voices, and Solo SaxophoneLighter Works
Henry Mancini: Moon River
Gabriel Faure: Pavane
Jerome Kern: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
Nino Rota: La Strada
Vincenzo Bellini: Casta Diva
Darius Milhaud: Braziliera from Scaramouche
William Walton: Touch Her Soft Lips and Part
Michel Legrand: Windmills of Your MindFuture Commissions
Anne Lovett: Concerto for Saxophone & Piano / Mellotron
Chris Rogerson: Saxophone Concerto
Lachlan Skipworth: Saxophone Concerto -
SELECTION OF PIECES AMY LOVES TO PERFORM AND PRESENT LIVE
Ross Edwards: Crow Dance
Stuart Greenbaum: (Carry Me) Across the Water
Katia Beaugeais: Re-emerging
Ivan Moody: Bird in Space
Toby Young: Ralph
Mathew Hindon: Heroes
Elena Kats-Chernin: As if from a Distance
Eduardo Angulo: El Redención De Quirón
Ross Edwards: Bird in the Soul; Halcyon; Chirp; Reverie on a Mountain Bird Call
Kenneth Fuchs: Orion Indigo
Richard Blackford: A Season of StillnessSOLO SESSIONS RECITAL SAMPLE*
Traditional: She Moved Thro’ The Fair
James Macmillan: From Galloway
Claude Debussy: Syrinx
CPE Bach: Sonata
Ross Edwards: Crow Dance
Stuart Greenbaum: (Carry Me) Across the Water
Katia Beaugeais: Re-emerging
Ivan Moody: Bird in Space
Toby Young: Ralph
Matthew Hindon: Heroes*This program is a sample of what could be offered. The program may not consist of these exact pieces.
At the start of the pandemic, Amy Dickson spoke with a couple of composer friends and asked whether they would like to write a short piece for solo saxophone while they were stuck at home. Little did she know what an uplifting and necessary project this would become. By the end of 2020, Amy had recorded and published (for everyone via YouTube) 29 brand new works for the saxophone, alongside interviews with each of the international composers involved.
Amy Dickson is renowned for her award-winning performances & recordings of contemporary classical music and for working with living composers. Amy is highly praised for building this legacy for generations of saxophone players in the future. Through her education & wellbeing programme, Take a Breath, she makes sure she always performs music written by living composers to the primary school children whose mental health she supports.
The Solo Sessions was one of those incredibly positive outcomes from the pandemic. That extraordinary period gave Amy unprecedented access to a more traditional and instant process between composer and performer: no managers, no agents, no publishers, no labels were involved. Music commentating as it used to be perhaps? Many compositions were written, recorded and published within the space of a few days, a procedure that would be very rare to witness in today’s classical music industry.
All Solo Session interviews and performances can be viewed here on Amy’s YouTube channel.
During her unique and intimate Solo Sessions Recital, Amy tells audiences about the background behind each composer and then performs their personal response at that time.
Amy enjoys curating bespoke Solo Session Recital programmes for each audience and would love to present each recital differently, depending on the Venue. Recitals can be day time, late night, by candlelight or other. Amy can provide tightly edited video footage from the original lockdown interviews for relaying on a screen as part of the recital itself or for concert promotion. With label support, Amy will also have music videos of some of the Solo Session works which she will be performing.
Should there be any opportunity to do so, Amy enjoys giving her Take a Breath workshops to primary school children or her Breathing Masterclasses to older students, music students and adults or her Take a Breath Talks to adult audiences.
Projects
