ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK - "AMERICA IS AN IDEA, NOT A PLACE”
This December 18th, "Dvorak" Carnegie Hall Concert, was attended by over 1700 people, over 2/3 of whom were students, parents and teachers. During the new year, we will continue to bring classical concert artists into the schools; explore the pre-existing relationship between music and science; and move toward our yearly music-science summer program. Join us!
On Tuesday, 12.18.2018, the Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture presented a Carnegie Hall Concert entitled "Antonín Dvořák—America is An Idea, Not A Place”, celebrating the 125th anniversary of "Dvorak at Carnegie Hall".
Antonín Dvořák, protégée, friend and collaborator of composer Johannes Brahms and musical heir to the tradition of Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Handel, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and many others, came to America in 1892. Dvorák was to initiate a revolution in America's thinking about its true artistic identity. Dvorák undertook this at the request of New York City's Jeanette Thurber, the creator of the National Conservatory of Music. This was the first American music school and one of the first institutions that brought together women, African-Americans, American Indians, and people of all colors, to create music at the highest level. His collaboration with the African-American singer/arranger Harry Burleigh and others proved that what Dvorák called a "great and noble school of music" could be created in America.
The original works Dvorák premiered at Carnegie Hall on Beethoven's birthday, December 16, 1893, at the very new Carnegie Hall, were his proof of that. That included his Symphony No. 9, "From The New World" at Carnegie Hall. Now, 125 years later, on December 18, 2018, the FFRCC will celebrate this epic moment in history, in Classical culture, and for America, on that very same Carnegie Hall stage.