AHS grad to take his musical talents to the Ivy League after overcoming stage 4 cancer his senior year 

By Holly Dillemuth, Ashland.news

Senior year of high school can be hard enough without navigating a cancer diagnosis, chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, but Ashland High School graduate and Ashland City Band bassoonist James Dyson navigated all these things and more before turning his tassel and graduating with high marks on June 6. 

Now the 18-year-old is looking forward to attending Princeton University this fall after going into remission earlier this year. But first he will return to play in three Ashland City Band performances, starting Thursday, July 25.

“Oh my goodness, he is a kid who just never gives up,” his mom, Rebecca Dyson, said in an interview. “He has goals and he will never, never let go.”

Over the past year, James has indeed held on tight to his goals and to his love of music throughout it all.

“It still feels a bit unreal,” he said of plans to attend the prestigious Ivy League school in New Jersey this fall.

Sitting outside his Ashland home on a breezy July day recently, with a Princeton water bottle in hand, James paused when asked to describe the past year.

“It was definitely very challenging and quite an adventure,” he told Ashland.news.

James, the third of four children to Dyson (Ashland School Board chair) and her husband, Peter Halt, is accomplished at bassoon, string bass and classical piano. The 18-year-old was accepted to both Princeton and Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He chose Princeton, where he plans to major in music and minor in mathematics, so he could focus on piano and bassoon.

Prior to graduation, he took second place for bassoon at the state competition this year, compared to two previous fifth-place placements.

He has also performed with the Rogue Valley Symphonic Band and the Youth Symphony of Southern Oregon (YSSO), as well as with the Ashland City Band.  

Currently recovering at his home in Ashland from an unrelated recent spinal surgery at Shriners’ Children’s Hospital in Portland, James plans to rejoin the ranks of the Ashland City Band on Thursday, July 26, for the children’s concert. He also plans to play with the band on Thursday, Aug. 1, and Thursday, Aug. 15, before heading off to Princeton.

Schubert Impromptu No. 2 

James was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in March 2023. 

“It was, unfortunately, all over the place,” Dyson said. “It was in his spleen and in his lymph nodes and in his bones.”

“We found this out, luckily, because he has scoliosis,” a spinal condition, she added, but otherwise he did not present visible symptoms at the time.

Six months of chemotherapy followed, but James wasn’t responding well to his first round of chemo. That’s when it was discovered that James had a rare subtype of Hodgkin lymphoma that needed aggressive treatment.

In early December 2023, things started to turn a corner for the better for James as he finally started responding to a second round of chemo.

“That was the first good news we got,” Rebecca said.

Throughout the time that James and his family navigated cancer treatments, performing his music and having the support of like-minded physicians were instrumental in encouraging him to keep moving forward.

James would be in bed for three days after a chemo treatment.

“The first thing I would do when I was finally feeling well enough to get out of bed was go play this one piece,” he said.

The piece was Schubert Impromptu No. 2, written by Franz Schubert. It starts out peacefully and calm, builds dramatic tension and then calms down again, with a “very satisfying ending,” much like the past year he has experienced.

“Obviously, before all this happened, life was mostly peaceful — and then I was diagnosed and then went through chemo,” James said. 

Khatchaturian Toccata for Piano 

Following his chemo treatments, his family drove him to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland on Christmas Day to have his stem cells harvested, in preparation for a bone marrow transplant.

Then he underwent what he described as an even greater challenge in his senior year: a bone marrow transplant at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland.

“The hardest thing about it was being away from all my friends and school and everyone, because I was literally stuck in a room for 23 days,” James said. “I could talk to people online, but that’s just not the same.”

The last few days he was there, he felt well enough to play a full-size electric piano brought in from back home.

“It definitely helped,” James said.

James’ doctor, a musician himself, saw the piano in James’ room and at one point played a piece for him: Khatchaturian Toccata for Piano. 

“He played it and I liked it,” James said. “Then a few days later, he stopped by and dropped off his copy of the music that he had first used when he was first learning the piece … It was a really special gift.”

“Toccata In E-Flat Minor,” written by Aram Khachaturian and arranged by Alfio Ladisa, is now among James’ favorite pieces.

“I spent all of my time learning that piece,” James said, “and on my last day there before I was discharged, (the doctor) came back and I played the piece for him … that was a pretty special thing.”

Later, James also performed the piece at the Rogue Valley Manor in Medford the day after returning from the bone marrow transplant. (To see a video of his performance, click here.)

Ewazen Concerto for Bassoon 

Another piece close to James’ heart is Eric Ewazen’s “Concerto for Bassoon and Wind Orchestra.” He performed it with the Rogue Valley Symphonic Band. He also played an excerpt of the piece at his oncologist’s celebration of life service.

“I get emotional every time I listen to it,” James said. “I feel like it fit with the journey of my life.”

James’ oncologist, who practiced in the Rogue Valley, had planned to attend his concert but passed away a week prior.

“So I decided to dedicate the piece to him,” James said. “He really did have a huge impact on my life.

“I feel like it’s really rare to find a doctor that is not only trying to give you a future, but also give you the best future possible.

“He was constantly asking me about my life, my music,” he added. “He made sure that my treatment schedule worked around my life.”

Hummel Grand Concerto for Bassoon 

Something that sets James apart from other musicians is that he enjoys playing solo on stage.

He performed a full concerto of Hummel Grand Concerto for Bassoon with Youth Symphony of Southern Oregon in May. This was also a piece he played for the state solo championship, where he placed second in bassoon.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for my whole life,” James said, “do a full-length, three-movement, 25-minute concerto.”

He noted that, unlike some, he doesn’t get nervous on stage, except at state-level competitions where the stakes are high.

“When I’m performing a solo … I lose myself,” James said.

Rebecca remembers that, even as a young child, James had a special aptitude for music. Siblings Charlie, 21, Clara, 20, and Jack, 16, are all musicians (Charlie and Clara Dyson both attend Oberlin Conservatory of Music). Jack will be a senior this fall at AHS, where he plays trumpet.

“They all started piano lessons really young,” Rebecca said. 

Rebecca and her husband, Peter, are both musicians as well. She plays oboe and he plays drums.

Charlie plays cello and Clara plays oboe. All siblings played with a marimba group in the Ashland Plaza in downtown at one point growing up in the Dyson-Halt household.

Even before James’ lessons started, at around 3 or 4 years old, Rebecca said James would climb up on the piano bench and start playing scales.

“It wasn’t like a little kid banging at the keys,” she said. “He was really playing out little scales and things. He started lessons on piano when he was 5.” 

He also didn’t mind playing piano in front of a crowd. She recalled one such occasion where he played a piano at Costco.

“He would just sit down and start playing,” Rebecca said. “He seemed to thrive on that.”

In December, older siblings Charlie and Clara had just flown in for the holidays when Ashland.news met up with the family before they headed to Portland. 

The talented foursome posed for a photo with their brother at the ivory keys.

James and his mom showed Ashland.news the family’s soundproof music studio, which Dad Peter built in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There, a string bass, a contrabassoon and his regular bassoon are stored.

Make-A-Wish surprises James at Ashland City Band concert

The Make-A-Wish Program gave James a contrabassoon at an Ashland City Band concert last summer.

“He’d been wanting for years and years,” James’ mom Rebecca told Ashland.news.

Ashland City Band conductor Christi Lundahl told Ashland.news she received a call from Make-A-Wish program last year asking for her help in surprising him with the contrabassoon at the city band concert.

Lundahl said she was “tickled” that James chose to ask for a new musical instrument, as many asks can be related to trips or new experiences.

“They’re rare to find in ensembles (contrabassoons), but when you have one … it adds just incredible richness of color to the ensemble,” Lundahl said, noting James has played it during city band concerts since last summer.

She made sure James was surprised by the gift.

“We definitely wanted to bring him to the front and have just a way that we could honor him, and I was able to talk about the kind of person that he was, and we were able to have (Make-A-Wish) come and present it to him,” Lundahl said. 

Rebecca recalled the moment in an email to Ashland.news.

“That was just the best, for James and for our whole family who all came out to watch (without spoiling the surprise!) — many tears were shed,” she said. “Christi Lundahl made it so special by first dedicating a song to him (Jupiter by Gustav Holst) and then introducing the Make-A- Wish granter. James was completely surprised and so thrilled. He has used it quite a bit in the Rogue Valley Symphonic Band as well as AHS and City Band.”

Lundahl first met James when he was a sophomore at Ashland High School, and also taught his siblings, Jack and Clara, while she directed the Wind Ensemble at Southern Oregon University.

She describes bassoon, a double-reed instrument, as one of the more difficult instruments in the band.

“It takes someone who practices quite a bit, whose very dedicated to it,” Lundahl said, noting James has such dedication. “The personality of the bassoon player is always really wonderful — It’s always a little quirky, but intelligent, and really adds a lot to the sound of the band. It’s a low reed instrument, so it adds a lot of depth to the color of the ensemble.”

Lundahl noted that, throughout her time working with James, she’s appreciated his reliability even through tough times.

One such instance, when one of his family pets had passed away two hours prior, Lundahl said he still showed up to play a concerto at Ashland High School.

“He is so incredibly reliable and resilient and all these absolutely terrible things have happened to him in the last year or two, and … in addition to his talent, the character he has as a human being … it’s such an honor to know him,” she said.

“Southern Oregon will definitely miss his presence for sure, but we are so proud of him,” she added. “We know he’s going to do amazing things wherever he goes after Princeton.”

New horizons 

James leaves for Princeton in late August. He told Ashland.news that fellow AHS classmate and friend Andy Eskenazi and Portland area friend Ishan Ghosh will also be attending Princeton University this fall. 

James said he’s excited to have a friend there as well who will also be studying music and math.

He plans to attend a semester at Royal College of Music in London in his junior year, and hopes to play professionally on an international level.

And as far as some advice for anyone else who might be facing adversity, James has some.

“Nothing’s permanent when you’re going through a hard time in your life,” he said.

“It will end eventually and … and as hard as it is, looking past that, knowing that it will eventually get better … just keep going.” 

Reach Ashland.news reporter Holly Dillemuth at [email protected].