Biography
In 1994, the modern composer Caroline Bosanquet created a cello piece entitled Elegy in Memoriam Joan Dickson. It may have been the first musical composition written with Dickson's name as part of the title, but it was not the first time a new work had been created with her in mind. And it was certainly not the first time this great British cellist had been the subject of an honor or some other form of acknowledgement for her untiring dedication to chamber music. The difference was, now she was no longer around to be part of it all.Dickson considered playing in a chamber group to be the ultimate form of musical experience, embodying all the best aspects of the musical arts. She studied with Enrico Mainardi, an Italian performer and composer who was a cello pedagogue in England and France following the end of World War II. Mainardi's cello students also included Siegfried Palm. It was his contention that an instrumentalist in a chamber group had to study the entire score, not just his part. This philosophy was something Dickson embraced wholeheartedly. In her own activities as a performer she was often heavily involved in the creation of contemporary works for cello. Composer Iain Hamilton wrote his First Cello Sonata in 1958 specifically for Dickson. This work was commissioned by the University Court of the University of Glasgow and was premiered by the cellist accompanied by the composer at the piano. In the late '60s David Dorward wrote his Cello Concerto for Dickson, who gave the first performance with the Pro Arte Orchestra of Edinburgh under Eric Roberts. In the '60s she also performed the premiere of David Barlow's Variations for Cello and Strings. As a member of the Scottish Piano Trio she performed the Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano by Martin Dalby at the University of Glasgow in 1967. She has also performed as a guest soloist with the Scottish Sinfonia and the London Chamber Orchestra.
Her activities in education included serving as a professor at Britain's University of Durham since 1981, an illustrious faculty that also included Dame Margot Fonteyn in the dance department. She was also an instructor at the London's Royal College of Music and Purcell School of Music and closer to her home, Glasgow's Royal Scottish Academy of Music. She was the frequent host of master classes at the Oxford Cello School and the Gathering of the Clans, something of an extended cello focus group. She also created an educational video on bowing principles. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi
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