Antonin Dvorak - New York City, NY - Musician Statues on Waymarking.com

Dvorak was born in the village of Nelahozeves, north of Prague town (now the capital city of Czech Republic). He became a violist in the Czech National Theatre Orchestra when it was founded in 1862.

Early on, Dvorak was influenced by the musical compositions of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) and Franz Schubert (1797–1828), and later by Franz Liszt (1811–1886) and Richard Wagner (1813–1883); he drew equally from Czech and Slavonic folk traditions. In 1873 his cantata Hymnus was publicly performed, and in that year he married Anna Cermakova. An 1875 Austrian state grant brought Dvorak in contact with Johannes Brahms (1833–1897), who provided him with technical advice and found him the influential publisher Fritz Simrock. Over the next 15 years he was a prolific composer, exhibiting a flair for melody, often with a nationalist flavor. His works were performed across Europe, from England to Russia.

In 1892, Dvorak, already internationally renowned, was appointed director of the National Conservatory of Music in America, and settled for three years in New York City at 327 East 17th Street. During his stay in the United States, he was greatly influenced by African-American spirituals and Native American music. His most famous work in this period was the Symphony #9, in E Minor, better known as the New World Symphony (1893). Other notable compositions during his American tenure included the Cello Concerto (1894-95) and the Quartet in F for strings.

In the early 1990s Dvorak’s former house on East 17th Street was designated a city landmark, but rescinded shortly after. Efforts to save the house proved unsuccessful, and it was demolished in 1991. In 1963, this bronze portrait bust was given by the Czechoslovak National Council of America to the Philharmonic, but never put on public display. As part of the relocation project, the statue was repatined, and a new pedestal of green granite was designed by Czech-American architect Jan Hird Pokorny. On September 13, 1997, the effigy of Dvorak was unveiled here near the site of many of his greatest accomplishments.

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Plaque Inscription:
GIFT OF THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC AND THE DVORAK AMERICAN HERITAGE ASSOCIATION TO THE CITY OF NEW YORK 1997. THIS BRONZE STATUE BY IVAN MESTROVIC (1883-1962) WAS COMMISSIONED BY THE CZECHOSLOVAK NATIONAL COUNCIL OF AMERICA AND PRESENTED TO THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC IN 1963. IT WAS PLACED HERE BY THE DVORAK AMERICAN HERITAGE ASSOCIATION AND THE STUYVESANT PARK NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION TO HONOR THE GREAT CZECH COMPOSER ANTONIN DVORAK, WHO LIVED FROM 1892 TO 1895 IN A HOUSE THAT STOOD AT 327 EAST 17TH STREET. THERE HE COMPOSED THE SYMPHONY NO. 9 ("FROM THE NEW WORLD") AND OTHER MASTERPIECES, MANY OF WHICH WERE INSPIRED BY, IN HIS WORDS, THE "NEGRO MELODIES" AND "AMERICAN INDIAN MUSIC" THAT HE ADMIRED.
FUNDS TO ERECT THIS MONUMENT WERE RAISED BY PUBLIC SUBSCRIPTION.

Name of Musician: Antonín Leopold Dvorák

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