Damien was born on February 27, 1976 in Princeton. His father, Fredrick Dixon, worked for the Sarnoff Corporation for over 27 years, retiring as the Director of Contract Acquisitions. Damien’s mother, Marthaliese Dixon, was a secretary, retiring as a Main Office Secretary at Lawrence High School. As the oldest of the three Dixon children, Damien took pleasure in being a big brother to his younger sisters, Liese (“Nicki”) and Danielle (“Dee Dee”), as the three grew up in Lawrence Township.

 Damien’s parents recognized his prodigious musical talents and abilities at an early age and he began piano lessons at age 5. He soon began to compete, winning numerous piano competitions and awards. At age 15, he won the prestigious Music Teachers National Association Baldwin Piano Competition. To this date, he remains the only pianist from New Jersey to win this national competition.

Damien was also talented academically. He received exemplary marks throughout his education and graduated from Lawrence High School in 1994 near the top of his class. Damien then attended Carnegie Mellon University, earning a Bachelors Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering with minors in Math and Music. After his undergraduate work, Damien began to pursue his doctorate in Electrical Engineering at Princeton University.

In 1998, Damien’s mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor and after a year-long struggle with cancer, Marty passed away in 1999. Damien then opted to leave Princeton University to get some hands-on experience in the field of engineering. He sought employment at Sarnoff Corporation developing new computer programs, work that he was familiar with from summer internships during college. He soon realized that while engineering was a great use of his intellectual abilities, his heart still longed to return to teaching and music. Damien left Sarnoff and began substitute teaching at Lawrence High School and teaching piano lessons.

In July 2002, Damien became an uncle to his adorable niece, Leila. Damien was constantly amused with Leila’s development into a “miniature human being” and took joy in teaching her about music, numbers, and letters. Damien’s piano teacher, Ingrid Clarfield, then recommended that he begin accompanying at Westminster Choir College in Princeton. In the fall of 2002, Damien took her advice and became an accompanist for Westminster vocal students, who he affectionately called his "divas.” Damien also continued to teach piano lessons. He had a special gift for recognizing his students’ individual needs and a quick wit that kept his teaching optimistic and upbeat.

In September 2003, Damien’s father passed away after a twelve-year battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). Shortly after his father’s death, Damien was diagnosed with desmoplastic small round cell tumor, a rare and highly-aggressive form of cancer.

While accompanying at Westminster, Damien had the good fortune to meet a beautiful and clever soprano, Rebecca Holden. Becca and Damien soon began dating and fell in love. Over the next year, Becca was instrumental in seeing him through his struggles and brought unsurpassed joy into his life.

This Thanksgiving, Damien enjoyed a beautiful dinner with his sisters, his niece, and his girlfriend. The next morning, he died holding his girlfriend’s hand. He was 29 years-old. He is now with his father and his mother. In the last entry on his webblog, Damien said that, “It's been a great fight! Anyone who watched the whole battle would probably applaud.” Despite the physically demanding treatments that he endured, Damien continued to have passion for music and an inspiring love of life. Damien is survived by his grandmother, Anneliese Slater; his two sisters, Liese and Dee Dee Dixon; his niece, Leila Dixon; and his loving and devoted girlfriend, Rebecca Holden.

“The Damien Dixon Memorial Scholarship is given to a pianist for whom the piano is more than just a major. The pianist worthy of this award plays with imagination and personality and uses the piano to stir up the emotions of the listener.”

Jaeyeon Chung
THE WINNER OF THE 2020 DAMIEN DIXON MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP

Jaeyeon Chung, Student of Professor Clarfield, is currently a graduate student at Westminster Choir College majoring in Piano Pedagogy and Performance. She graduated from Dankook Graduate School in Korea. She served as Lecturer in Accompanying at Seoul Arts High Shool and University in Korea where she acoompanied choirs, soloists and numerous ballet performances.

Now 50 Years old, Jaeyeon’s daughter and husband encouraged her to continue her studies at WCC where she accompanies the Westminster Chapel Choir, does vocal coaching,and accompanies students at the Westminster Conservatory of Music. Jaeyeon is also an organist a the Grace Church in New Brunswick, New Jersey

Her dream is to praise the Lord with her daughter because she is a talent given by the Lord. She wants music to comfort the poor and the sick. All the glory shall be given to the Lord.

“My best luck is to meet Professor Clairfield. She changed my life and raised my life with music. The Dixon Memorial Scholarship is a great help to my family.”

Eulogy for Damien Dixon
By Ingrid Clarfield
December 3, 2005

We never know the impact one phone call can have on our lives. I certainly had no idea in the Fall of 1988, when I received a call from a tearful woman saying she was teaching an unbelievably gifted young boy and she knew she was not the right teacher for him. She asked if I would consider accepting him. I told her I was flattered, but that I had absolutely no room for any more students, but I would be happy to listen to him and make some teacher recommendations.

The afternoon I was to hear him, I was on the phone with my colleague Phyllis Lehrer telling her what I was doing, and she asked me the name of the kid. When I told her, Damien Dixon, she said there was no way I wouldn’t take him. I argued I had no openings, and she said once you hear this kid, trust me, you won’t be able to say no. Well, within a few minutes I knew Phyllis was right. I was mesmerized by Damien, as an individual and a musician. In later years, Damien and I often discussed this incredibly sloppy audition and he said he was amazed his talent managed to come through all the slop. At this age, Damien had only one tempo-prestissimo-as fast as possible. When I asked him if he had played any Beethoven Sonatas, he looked at me with a big smile and proudly said, I’ve sight read through all 32 of them.

The first few months were painful for both of us, as Damien discovered some new concepts----discipline, slow practice, and paying attention to details. I wondered if I would be able to tame this wild and wonderful talent and still maintain his magical and unique personality. Within a short time, Damien started winning numerous awards and competitions for piano and composition sponsored by Music Teachers National Association, New Jersey Music Teachers Association, Piano Teachers Congress of New York, Young Keyboard Artists Association, just to name a few. One of his favorite awards was winning 1 st place in the International Piano Competition featuring Chinese Music in Washington, DC, which needless to say attracted primarily (like 98%) Asians. He loved the photo of himself with the other winners that was used for the next year’s competition publicity. But undoubtedly, his proudest moment was being named the 1 st prize winner in the 1991 Music Teachers National Association Baldwin Piano Competition. This entailed him 1 st winning on the State level, then competing against the 12 other state winners in the Eastern Division, before competing in the National Finals in Miami. We relived that experience many times. The whole family was there to celebrate his success. There are several pictures of this happy event on the website. Before the winners concert, in front of hundreds of people, I asked him if he wanted to warm up or perhaps run through the piece with me. He said “Relax, I’ll be fine!” He started the last movement of Prokofiev 6 th Sonata at a tempo I had never heard before, or since. Needless to say he tore the house down with his performance. Years later people still talk about that performance.

To this day, he is the only pianist from New Jersey to ever win this competition, a title he cherished.

Damien went on to win many more awards and perform concerti with the Plainfield Symphony, Greater Trenton Symphony, Monmouth Symphony, and the Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra.

The second phase of my relationship came several years later, while Damien was in graduate school. But I must tell you, that while he was in college, he never missed calling me on my birthday. When he realized that he really didn’t want to be an engineer and wanted to get back to his real love, music, I welcomed him back to my private studio, inviting him to accompany many of my students on Concerti. He also was a welcomed participant in studio classes with all my young students loving him for his playful childlike side and wonderful sense of humor, but knowing that his comments on their playing was always insightful and as picky or even pickier than mine.

Then, I asked him to accompany a Westminster student on a concerto. When everyone heard him play in performance class they were truly amazed. After that class, another student asked Damien to play one of his compositions in a composition recital, and from there his second life as a musician was reborn and he became known as Damien and his Divas. Damien became one of the most sought after accompanists at Westminster.

I loved watching Damien sit on the bench outside of Bristol Chapel, as he delighted in being surrounded by his Divas. During this time we also would go out for dinner occasionally, and he often would bemoan his inability to find the perfect woman, or one who even came close. He started to worry she just didn’t exist, and then alas one of his divas, who told me she found him a little “creepy” at first, became a good friend, and then the love of his life, Becca. He was so smitten, but always anxious that it might not last that 1 st month to make it through her recital (because you can’t break up with someone before their recital). Needless to say, it lasted for two years, and we are all grateful to Becca for all the love and support she gave him these last two years. We should all be so lucky to have a Becca in our lives.

The third and final phase of my relationship with Damien was these past few months when he was in the hospital. During this difficult period this remarkable man never lost his sense of humor, strong convictions or compassion. We often laughed about memories of lessons and performances, but I’ll never forget one day when I just started crying. As Damien gently tried comforting me, he suddenly started laughing saying, “What’s wrong with this picture? I’m dying and I have to comfort you!” and then he compassionately said, “I worry most about you and Ommie.”

On November 20, I had a wonderful final visit with Damien where I told him one of his favorite students of mine, Emiko was the New Jersey winner of the MTNA Competition and I thought had a good chance to win Eastern Division and go on to the National Finals. While I had other students who had accomplished this feat, in the past Damien always made it clear he wanted to keep his title, but it would be okay if they came in 3 rd. At this time I expected him to finally be able to relinquish his title. He looked at me, and said with a slow but heartfelt conviction, I really hope she _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ comes in second!!

I’d like to close by sharing some of Damien’s own words with you. Two months ago I told him I planned to endow a scholarship in his name. He was thrilled that his name would be part of a scholarship. I asked him to describe the person who would receive this award. He said: “The Damien Dixon Memorial Piano Scholarship is to be given to an undergraduate pianist for whom the piano is more than just a major. The pianist worthy of this award plays with imagination and personality and uses the piano to stir up the emotions of the listener.”

So many of you here today, I’m sure had your emotions stirred up by Damien’s imaginative playing that was full of his personality. He hopes to continue encouraging this in other young musicians.

As his teacher and friend, I feel I learned so much from Damien about living and dying and for that I will always be grateful. May we all be able to think of Damien and smile and remember the incredible joy he gave to so many people.

Ryan's thoughts on winning this award