Cello
“One of New York’s leading jazz musicians”…NYTimes
Cellist-Composer-Conductor-Educator, Akua Dixon has been at the forefront of improvising string players since 1973. She is the first cellist to win the Downbeatr Critics Poll. A multi laureate of the National Endowment for the Arts in composition and performance. Akua is considered “amongst the treasures of contemporary jazz”…NJ Star Ledger.
She has toured the world performing with the award winning string quartet, Quartette Indigo. Akua’s string arrangements and string quartet can be heard on the five-time Grammy award winning CD, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and Aretha Franklin’s Grammy nominated, A Rose is Still a Rose.
Akua has performed with Duke Ellington, Max Roach, Itzhak Perlman, Sammy Davis Jr., Betty Carter, Liza Minelli, etc…a native New Yorker, Akua attended its infamous High School of the Performing Arts and studied with Benar Heifetz. Akua notated and conducted the music to the ballet Riverside by Judith Jameson, with music by Kimati Dinizulu for Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Theater. In 2005 she developed her Hip Hop Blues Project for NYC school children while working with Carnegie Hall Education. Akua’s new project for 2022 is WE THE PEOPLE, dedicated to “All The People.” It speaks to the themes of Justice, Equality and Hope.