Fostina Dixon & Winds of Change
Bear, DE
Grant amount: $8,334
- Rutgers University Institute of Jazz Studies. November 9, 2019. Newark NJ
- Ssam (Episcopal Church of Saints Andrew & Matthew). November 10, 2019. Wilmington DE
- Pilgrim Church. November 11, 2019. Washington DC
- Harlem Jazz Series- Greater Calvary Baptist Church. November 12, 2019. Harlem, NY
Fostina Dixon is a composer, vocalist and jazz soloist who plays soprano, alto and baritone saxes; flute; and clarinet. Ms. Dixon has been guest soloist with Abbey Lincoln, Barry Harris, Earl May and the Big Apple Jazzwomen. She has also played with Gil Evans, Roy Ayers, Tom Browne, Charlie Persip, Melba Liston, Cab Calloway, Slide Hampton, Frank Foster, Joe Williams, Nancy Wilson, Bobby Vinton, Sammy Davis, Jr., Prince, and Marvin Gaye, with whom she toured for four years. She was a member of the Gerald Wilson, Jimmy Cleveland and Leslie Drayton big bands.
Fostina Dixon is a native of Wilmington, Delaware where she studied with the late Robert “Boysie” Lowery. As a young woodwind instrumentalist she played for the Delaware All-State Band and was selected for the American Young Symphonic Orchestra which toured Europe. She went on to study with such great musicians as Frank Foster, Buddy Colltet, Vic Morosco, Joe Viola, Andy McGhee and William Bowie.
As a professional musician, she has performed at numerous clubs, colleges, libraries, churches, community art centers, New York’s Jazzmobile concert series, theaters and toured abroad. Some of the festivals which her band “Winds of Change” has appeared at are New York’s Annual Afrikan Street Carnival, the Annual New York Women’s Jazz Festival, the Annual Black Women’s History Conference, the Kool Jazz Festival, Greenwich Village Jazz Festival, and the Annual Jackie Robinson Festival in Norwalk, CT. She has also toured Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium, France and the Netherlands several times.