Dr June Nixon
One of Australia's best-known organists, choir trainers and composers, June Nixon
initially obtained Diploma in Music (Piano) and Bachelor of Music (Organ Performance)
from Melbourne University, Australia. Postgraduate scholarships enabled further study
in London, where she gained Associateship of the Royal College of Music, Fellowship
of the Royal College of Organists, and was the first woman to be granted the John
Brooke prize for the Choir Training Diploma. In 1968 she was winner of the Australian
National Organ Competition, and in 1973 was appointed Organist and Director of Music
at St. Paul's Cathedral Melbourne. She retired from this position in February 2013
and is now Organist Emerita. Her influence outside the Anglican Church was recognized
in 1995 by the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne awarding her the Percy Jones Award
for "outstanding dedication and service given to music for worship." She was made
a Member (AM) in the General Division of the Queenʼs Birthday Honours in 1998 for
services to church music. In 1999, the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred on her
the Lambeth Degree, Doctor of Music (Cantuar), and in 2013 she was awarded Associate
of the Royal School of Church Music (ARSCM). June is a widely published composer,
both in the USA and England, writing music which is accessible and enjoyable for
both musicians and listeners. Several cathedral choirs have recorded her works, and
her arrangement of the traditional carol “The Holly and the Ivy” was included in
the Nine Lessons and Carols from Kingʼs College Cambridge in 2010 and 2017.