NEH-Funded Education Project “DVOrÁK AND AMERICA” Gives Students Understanding of Composer and Symphony

Thanks to a generous and rare grant from the National Endowment of Humanities (NEH), Pacific Symphony is about to dive into a new education initiative-"Dvorák and America"-led by Music Director Carl St.Clair and developed by New York-based author/scholar and Pacific Symphony artistic advisor, Joseph Horowitz.

The project links symphonic performance with humanities content to provide in-depth exploration to deepen students' understanding and connection to Dvorák's "New World Symphony." The project is also an extension of the Symphony's innovative "Music Unwound" series, which endeavors to contextualize music to provide deeper emotional and intellectual engagement of the audience. While "Music Unwound," now in its third year, has previously targeted adults, this latest incarnation targets for the first time a younger segment and includes Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra (PSYO), plus hundreds of Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) students and faculty.

"It's an honor to be one of the few orchestras to receive funding from the NEH," St.Clair said. "To our knowledge, this is a nationally unprecedented initiative, combining a multi-media thematic youth orchestra concert with an educational exercise, not only for the audience and for area schools, but for the youth orchestra musicians themselves. Through the series of activities the students will participate in prior to the concert, we hope they will gain a broader understanding of Dvorák and, we hope, a strong appreciation and bond to this special piece of music.

The project looks at how Dvorák, in coming to America, became an "American composer"; that his American accent in such works as the "New World Symphony" and American Suite is not a superficial overlay, but a distinct American style different from the more chromatic and texturally dense style of his European works. The Dvorák story exemplifies the importance of the arts in pedagogy and in human life, as well as how culture can help individuals or communities better understand themselves. "Dvorák and America" focuses on issues of race and national identity catalyzed by urbanization and immigration a century ago.

These topics of culture and society are illuminated through exploration of the composer via a scripted presentation and music. PSYO students and IUSD teachers received in advance Horowitz's young readers' book, Dvorák in America, and the Robert Winter/Peter Bogdanoff companion interactive DVD, and PSYO students participated in a pre-concert retreat led by Horowitz. In addition to visits to the high schools, on Thursday, March 1, Horowitz and world-class baritone/actor Terry Cook, a frequent performer at the New York Metropolitan Opera, will visit Alderwood elementary school to present two performances for assemblies comprised of fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students. As part of the presentation, Cook sings the spirituals "Goin' Home" by Harry Burleigh, and "Deep River," with Dvorák's melody from the "New World Symphony," accompanied by Alderwood singers. The presentation sets the stage for a concert taking place on Sunday, March 4, at 4 p.m., in the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. 

The concert's program, presented in a unique format, is adapted from the New York Philharmonic's "Inside the Music," a concert created by Horowitz with visuals by Bogdanoff. The concert begins with a multi-media exegesis of "Dvorák and America" narrated by KUSC radio host Alan Chapman, with PSYO, led by Assistant Conductor Maxim Eshkenazy, and actor/bass Cook. This is followed by a melodrama based on "Hiawatha," comprised of a series of fragments from Longfellow's poem accompanied on tape by fragments from Dvorák's symphony. Featuring the orchestra and Cook, the melodrama provides context for the performance exploring Dvorák's influence and desire to answer the controversial and timeless questions: What is Americar And who is an Americanr 

The second half of the concert features Dvorák's Symphony No. 9, nicknamed "From the New World," which artfully melds the rich folk melodies of America with classical techniques. "From the New World" represents both the triumph and tragedy the Czech composer saw in American music when he visited in 1892, as well as his music's impact on Americans. The performance by PSYO is followed by a post-concert conversation with Horowitz and others. Tickets are general admission (without reserved seating). To purchase reserved seat tickets in the Box Circle, call (714) 755-5799.

"Embracing the myth of the noble savage, the 'New World' is by far the best of the many musical settings of Hiawatha. Embracing the myth of the virgin West, it is the most eloquent musical equivalent of the canvases of George Catlin, Frederic Remington and Albert Bierstadt," Horowitz said. "Obviously, crucially, Dvorák's sadness of the prairie and sadness of the Indian resonate, as well, with homeward longings (and with who knows what other personal sadness). More than a Bohemian symphony with an American accent, 'From the New World' is a reading of America drawn taut, emotionally, by the pull of the Czech fatherland."

"'Music Unwound' is conceived in the conviction that if orchestras are to regain impact as agents of cultural identity, a broader humanities mandate can vitally enhance both their mission and their capacity," said Horowitz.

"Music Unwound," at its core, is a concerted effort to correlate language, literature, culture, philosophy and visual arts with music, while forging new alliances between and among orchestras, museums and universities in each host city. A consortium of four orchestras led by Pacific Symphony, including the Buffalo Philharmonic, North Carolina Symphony and Louisville Orchestra, became the joint recipient of a $300,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)-a multi-year commitment to "Music Unwound," integrating humanities content with live concert performances. This is the first NEH public programs grant to go to an orchestra in a decade. The NEH National Education Project supported the creation of Horowitz' young readers book, Dvorák in America, and the Robert Winter/Peter Bogdanoff companion interactive DVD. 

The term "Music Unwound" originated with a series of concerts developed by St.Clair within the organization's classical series, specifically designed to experiment with new forms of audience engagement. The 2011-12 season is the third of a multi-year initiative funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in which three symphony concerts per season use new concert formats and thematic programming to contextualize music and enrich the concert music experience. The Symphony pioneered this new way of presenting an important piece of music or composer (or both) with multimedia and other enhancements to allow the audience deeper insights, understanding and a richer enjoyment of these concerts.

St.Clair has devoted his tenure at Pacific Symphony to designing festivals and concert series that enable audiences to engage more deeply with both new music and standard orchestral repertoire. In addition to "Music Unwound," such efforts include the series Classical Connections, launched in 1995, and the annual American Composers Festival, which began in 2000. 

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