Ailsa Dixon

Ailsa Mary Pauline Dixon (born Ailsa Harrison, 15 August 1932 – 8 August, 2017) was an English composer, teacher, singer and lutenist. Career Born in Bristol, Dixon grew up in Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire, where her mother Pat Harrison (who had studied music with Edward Bairstow) founded the music festival in 1960. A distant ancestor was the Polish-Lithuanian violinist and composer Felix Yaniewicz, who co-founded the first Edinburgh Festival. Ailsa studied music at Durham University in the 1950s under Arthur Hutchings, and later studied privately with Paul Patterson, Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music. She also studied lute with Diana Poulton. A student composition for string quartet was awarded the Eve Myra Kisch Prize at Durham. After graduating Dixon taught singing and music appreciation, while also singing and playing lute in recitals with her guitarist husband Brian Dixon. In 1976 she directed a production of Handel’s opera Theodora, and this inspired her to compose an opera of her own. Letter to Philemon was staged at Aston Rowant Church in 1984. She was most active as a composer in the 1980s and 1990s. Notable performances included the premiere of th