John Dickson

John Dickson is the Stephanie Landry Barineau Professor of Choral Music and Chair of the Division of Ensembles and Conducting in the School of Music at Louisiana State University. As Director of Choral Studies he conducts the internationally acclaimed A Cappella Choir and supervises the masters and doctoral programs in choral conducting. He recently assumed the LSU choral post after a four-year tenure as Dean of the Townsend School of Music at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, where he also served as Professor of Conducting in the graduate program. He continues as the founding artistic director and conductor of Coro Vocati, one of Atlanta’s newest and most accomplished professional chamber choirs.

Internationally known as a conducting pedagogue, Dr. Dickson has presented master-classes before the Association of British Choral Directors and the Russian State Music Conservatories of St. Petersburg and Moscow, served as adjudicator for international choral festivals, and conducted workshops throughout England, Wales, Scotland, Finland, France, and Canada. He has served as conductor and guest clinician for numerous state, regional, and national ACDA conventions, All-State choruses, and choral festivals around the world.

As the former Director of Choral Studies and Chair of the Conducting Division at Texas Tech University, his University Choir gave invitational performances before divisional and national ACDA conferences, the Association of British Choral Directors, and various international workshops and conferences.

Appointed as a Visiting Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge University, Dr. Dickson sang with Sir David Willcocks and The Bach Choir in London. A second post-doctoral fellowship allowed him to serve as David Hill’s assistant conductor for The Bach Choir. Dr. Dickson’s work as chorus-master with The Bach Choir chamber ensemble resulted in a recording of Handel’s L’Allegro, il Pensieroso ed il Moderato with John Nelson and his Ensemble Orchestral de Paris on EMI’s Virgin Classics. As chorus-master, Dr. Dickson has prepared choirs for other distinguished conductors including Sir David Willcocks, Michael Tilson Thomas, Lawrence Leighton Smith, Max Bragado-Darman, and David Hill.

He was the founder and Artistic Director for the Cambridge University, St. John’s College /Texas Tech University Summer Choral Institute. Dr. Dickson is also the Founding Director of the C. S. Lewis Foundation’s Oxbridge Choral Institute, a professional chorus serving the triennial symposium in Oxford and Cambridge. He served on the Editorial Board of The Choral Journal as editor of the sacred music column, “Hallelujah.” The Choral Journal and The Mastersinger have published several of his articles on conducting and church music. His most recent article, “The Crossroads of our Calling,” appeared in the April 2009 issue of The Choral Journal. He was a past Vice-President for the Texas Choral Directors Association.

A strong advocate for church music, he championed artistic, graduate church music education for fifteen years as the Director of Choral Studies at the former graduate school of church music at Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY. He holds the D.M.A. degree in choral conducting from The University of Texas at Austin, the M.M. degree in musicology from Baylor University, and has done post-doctoral study at Cambridge University, Cambridge, England.