Antonín Dvořák

Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, September 9, 2023

1. Antonín Dvořák Marker

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In 1892, Dvořák moved to the United States and became the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City. The President of the National Conservatory of Music in America, Jeannette Thurber, offered Dvořák an annual salary of $15,000 – an incredibly lavish sum for the era (equivalent to $488,556 in 2022), twenty-five times what he was paid at the Prague Conservatory. While in the United States, Dvořák wrote his two most successful orchestral works: the Symphony From the New World, which spread his reputation worldwide, and his Cello Concerto, one of the most highly regarded of all cello concerti.
In the summer of 1893, Dvořák moved from New York City to Spillville, Iowa, following the advice of his secretary, J.J. Kovarík. Dvořák had originally planned to come back to Bohemia, but Spillville was made up of mostly Czech immigrants, and thus he felt

Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, September 9, 2023

2. Antonín Dvořák Memorial (east side)

E Major Quintette     Humoresque
The New World Symphony

less homesick; Dvořák referred to it as his "summer Vysoka." This is where he wrote his most famous piece of chamber music, his String Quartet in F major, Op. 96, which was later nicknamed the American Quartet. Shortly after his time in Iowa, Dvořák extended his contract at the National Conservatory for another two years. However, the economic crisis of April 1893 resulted in Thurber's husband's loss of income, and directly influenced the National Conservatory's funding. Shortfalls in payment of his salary, along with increasing recognition in Europe and an onset of homesickness, led him to leave the United States and return to Bohemia in 1895.

Dvořák spent a total of about twenty-four months in America: three school years in New York from September 1892 through April 1895 plus one long summer vacation period in 1893 in the Czech village of Spillville, Iowa – birthplace of his constant companion throughout the American sojourn, the violinist Josef Kovařík (1870-1951) whom he had met in Prague where he was studying at the conservatory. According to Kovařík’s (perhaps slightly biased) testimony,

Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, September 9, 2023

3. Antonín Dvořák Memorial (north side)

The New World Symphony     American Quartette
Rusalka Opera

Dvořák was so enamored of Spillville that he considered settling there permanently, dissuaded only by his wife’s objections (for family reasons) plus concern that his Czech compatriots would regard him as having betrayed his nation.

Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, September 9, 2023

4. Antonín Dvořák Memorial (west side)

Rusalka Opera     Songs My Mother Taught Me
Slavic Dances

Photographed By Cosmos Mariner, September 9, 2023

5. Antonín Dvořák Memorial (south side)

Slavic Dances     Stabat Mater
E Major Quintette