Introduction

Biography

Dirksen re­ceived his mu­sic­al train­ing at the Pea­bo­dy Con­ser­va­to­ry, Bal­ti­more, Ma­ry­land (mag­na cum lau­de, 1942).

He served as as­sist­ant or­gan­ist and choir­mas­ter at the Pro­test­ant Epis­co­pal Ca­thed­ral, al­so known as the Na­tion­al Ca­thed­ral, in Was­hing­ton, DC (1942–64), or­gan­ist and choir­mas­ter there (1977–88), and pre­cen­tor, start­ing in 1969.

He al­so di­rect­ed the Ca­thed­ral Chor­al So­ci­ety and glee clubs of the St. Al­bans and Na­tion­al Ca­thed­ral Schools.

Dirksen com­posed ex­ten­sive­ly, most­ly cho­ral and or­gan works, and his mu­sic was re­gu­lar­ly fea­tured in broad­casts from the Ca­thed­ral.

He was award­ed an hon­or­ary doc­tor of fine arts de­gree in 1980 by George Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty, an hon­or­ary doc­tor of mu­sic by Ma­ry­mount Col­lege in 1986, and the Me­dal of Ex­cel­lence by the She­nan­do­ah Con­ser­va­to­ry of Mu­sic.