Beating Time: A Musician's Memoir

Harry Ellis Dickson is one of Boston's most popular, beloved, and energetic musicians. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1908 to Russian immigrant parents, Dickson was a violinist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for nearly fifty years and Assistant Conductor for Arthur Fiedler's Boston Pops. He continues to conduct more than fifty concerts each year in the United States and abroad.
In this charming memoir, Dickson recollects his long and illustrious life and career. With humor and warmth, he shares reminiscences and anecdotes about his family and friends, colleagues, travels, and the Boston Symphony. An entertaining raconteur, Dickson relates his experiences, some amusing, some serious, in working with such renowned conductors and performers as Danny Kaye, Arthur Fiedler, Serge Koussevitzky, Seiji Ozawa, John Williams, and Igor Stravinsky. The memoir also includes Dickson's touching reflections on his wife, his daughters, and the failed presidential campaign of his son-in-law Michael Dukakis.

Although the author of this delightful memoir is now an octogenarian, his stories and writing style are as fresh as if he'd just begun his extraordinary career. As it is, he has a storehouse of tales about his 49 years as a violinist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and as assistant conductor for the Boston Pops. Dickson (Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops, LJ 4/15/81) chronicles a fair amount of BSO history?the union movement, the introduction of young people's concerts, the road tours?without making this memoir sound like a dry textbook. Interspersed are many cameo appearances by world-famous figures, including conductors Serge Koussevitsky, Seiji Ozawa, and Arthur Fiedler and even Danny Kaye. His anecdotes are told with wit, charm, and impeccable timing. Dickson also tells of the trials of his Russian immigrant parents as well as the ups and downs of son-in-law Michael Dukakis's presidential campaign and its heartrending effects on his daughter, Kitty. Recommended for popular music collections and larger academic libraries.?Carol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, N.J.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.