At the Hungarian National Philharmonic's 'American concert', Zsolt Hamar will conduct nothing but music that is magically beautiful and thrilling to hear. One of the reasons Antonín Dvořák was invited to head the newly founded National Conservatory in New York in 1892 was to teach North American composers how to compose music in a national style similar to the way he was writing based on Slavic songs and dances. Dvořák found this 'pure source' in African-American music: 'America can have her own music, a fine music emerging from her own soil with its own character — the natural voice of a free and great nation,' he wrote. Dvořák was also certain that this great challenge could best be achieved by talented composers born and socialised on the American continent.
Of all the working artists of the 20th century, this was achieved most successfully by George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein, both of whom were descended from immigrants to the United States from Eastern Europe: Gershwin's family came from St. Petersburg in Russia, and Bernstein's from Ukraine.

Presented by: Hungarian National Philharmonic