Events

September 08, 2011, 6:00 PM

The Embassy of the Czech Republic, the Czech Center in NY, and the Dvořák's American Heritage Association (DAHA) celebrate the 170^th birthday of Antonín Dvořák by laying flowers at the statue of Dvořák in Stuyvesant Square - Manhattan, to honor a Czech-born legend. During the event, the Copland Brass Quintet will play selections from Dvořák's Slavonic Dances, Largo from the New World Symphony, as well as Smetana's Dance of the Comedians from the Bartered Bride. Lay flowers at Dvořák's statue and listen to the beautiful melodies that this great composer gave to the world.

September 09, 2011, 10:00 AM

From September 9-30, 2011, the Embassy of the Czech Republic has on view Czech traveler Jaroslav Charfreitag’s photographs entitled Trip to the “New World” 1902–1903, which gives a glimpse of New York during the time of Antonín Dvořák, as well as Jiří Grossmann's exhibition From the New World, inspired by Dvořák's renowned masterpieces: New World Symphony and Te Deum.

September 11, 2011, 11:00 AM

Jiří Grossmann, Czech artist, illustrator, and art conservator, presents a collection of paintings called, “From the New World,” inspired by Dvorak’s New World Symphony and Te Deum at the Embassy of the Czech Republic from September 9-30.

September 11, 2011, 5:00 PM

Tre Mezzi, comprised of mezzo sopranos Sylvia Twine, Shawnee Ball, and Kehembe V. Eichelberger, accompanied by pianist Everett Williams, will present a program of music by Antonín Dvořak, Harry Burleigh, and Duke Ellington, as well as other traditional African American selections. Ambassador Petr Gandalovič will open the event dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the victims of September 11.

September 14, 2011, 8:00 PM

The Avalon Theater will screen Miloš Forman's film A Walk Worthwhile for one night only. The film, based on the jazz opera of the legendary writing duo Jiří Suchý and Jiří Šlitr, was shot during five theatrical shows. Songs from this musical play became renowned in the Czech Republic. The film follows a couple on the brink of divorce until they are bequeathed money for their future child, leading to various escapades to achieve the fortune.

September 15, 2011, 7:30 PM

Directed by pianist Carl Banner, Washington Musica Viva will perform Dvořák’s 13 Moravian Duets and Martinů’s Piano Quartet at the Embassy of the Czech Republic. In addition to Carl Banner on piano, performers include Elizabeth Kluegel (soprano), Karyn Friedman (mezzo soprano), Elizabeth Field (violin), Uri Wassertzug (viola) and Steven Honigberg (cello) .

September 17, 2011, 7:00 PM

Renowned conductor Murry Sidlin leads The Catholic University of America Orchestra in a concert of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, “From the New World” at the National Museum of the American Indian. Distinguished guests: Czech Ambassador Petr Gandalovič and Dr. Grayson Wagstaff, Dean of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at The Catholic University of America, will open the event. Listen to an interview with Maestro Sidlin who spoke about Dvořák and the New World Symphony on WETA by clicking here.

September 18, 2011, 6:30 PM

The Rome Trio—the official faculty trio of the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at The Catholic University of America, featuring Jody Gatwood (violin), Ivo Kaltchev (piano) and Michael Mermagen (cello)—will present an evening of Dvořák’s Dumky Trio and works by Dvořák’s student Josef Suk in the West Building, West Garden Court of the National Gallery of Art. In connection with the concert, Stephen Ackert, head of the National Gallery of Art music department, will present a pre-concert lecture beginning at 6 p.m. on Art in America at the time of Dvořák’s American sojourn (1892–1895).

September 21, 2011, 7:30 PM

Washington Musica Viva presents the world premiere of Dvořák Jazz Dances by contemporary composer Charley Gerard at the Embassy of the Czech Republic. The 5-member band includes Carl Banner (piano), James King (bass), Lenny Robinson (drums), Syberen van Munster (guitar) and Charley Gerard (alto saxophone).

September 22, 2011, 6:00 PM

Distinguished Czech pianist Radoslav Kvapil recorded the complete piano works of Dvořák over 30 years ago. International critics continue to praise him as one of the finest exponents of Czech piano music. Witness Kvapil’s mastery of Dvořák’s piano music in an all-Dvořák program, including Silhouettes op.8, Dumka and Furiant op.12, Humoresques, and Poetic Tone Pictures op.85 at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

September 23, 2011, 7:00 PM

Internationally acclaimed Czech pianist Radoslav Kvapil brings an intimate performance of Czech composers Dvořák, Janáček, Smetana, and Novák to the Embassy of the Czech Republic in collaboration with the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU).

September 25, 2011, 10:00 AM

Archbishop Dominik Duka will celebrate Mass in the Crypt Church of the Basilica of the National Shrine in honor of Dvořák’s 170^th Birthday and the 200th anniversary of the birth of John Nepomucene Neumann, Archbishop of Philadelphia. A special highlight of the event will include the performance of Dvořák’s Mass in D Major, “Lužanská" by the Choir of the Basilica.

September 30, 2011, 7:30 PM

The Chris Johnston Trio, with special guests Herb Smith (saxophone) and Michael Thomas (trumpet), will perform a salute to Czech composing giant Antonin Dvorak. The program will feature the works of Harry T. Burleigh, Will Marion Cook and Rubin Goldmark, American composers who were students of Dvorak. The program will also feature works by George Gershwin, a student of Goldmark, and Duke Ellington, a student of Cook. The trio includes Chris Johnston (piano), Wes Biles (Bass), and Clai Richardson (Drums).
 
The ensemble, led by Chris Johnston, will provide the audience with an entertaining evening of music, exploring the special lineage of quintessentially American folk songs accompanied by the legacy of Dvorak in the United States and the development of the art and its artist that ultimately became that most American of creations – jazz!

October 01, 2011, 1:00 PM

Musicologist Michael Beckerman has organized a symposium and lecture-recital featuring presentations about Dvořák’s American years. Beckerman will speak on the role of African American sources in the composer’s conception of an American music, and Eva Velická, Director of the Dvořák Museum in Prague, will be part of a discussion on the subject of "The Stories That Manuscripts Tell." The event concludes with a lecture-recital, "Dvořák and Black Music" featuring tenor Reginald Bouknight singing arrangements of Henry “Harry” Burleigh spirituals, as well as other fragments of African American music that Dvořák encountered during his American years.

October 02, 2011, 3:00 PM

The Embassy presents an eclectic afternoon of history, music, and fashion dedicated to Dvořák. The event features the American premiere of several duets for piano, four-hands, by one of Dvořák's first teachers, Antonín Leihmann of Zlonice. American pianist Joan DeVee Dixon teams up with Czech pianist Alice Fiedlerová to present works by Liehmann, along with Dvořák's much-beloved Slavonic Dances. Following the event, soprano Kathy Kessler Price, accompanied on the piano by Catherine French, will present arias from the opera Rusalka. A fashion show in the style of famous Czech Art Nouveau artist Alfons Mucha, highlighting the designs of Daniela Cermanova and Michaela Schwartz of Green and Blue, completes the event.

October 03, 2011, 10:00 AM

From October 3-31, 2011, the Embassy of the Czech Republic presents the exhibition Great Czechs by Little Czechs, created by children of the Czech Republic through an art education project. A look inside this ingenious collection reveals drawings and short descriptions by the children of such notables as Antonín Dvořák, former President Václav Havel, and film director Miloš Forman. The Embassy will also have on view Czech artist Gabriela Kopecká’s four Mucha-style posters representing characters in Dvořák’s opera Rusalka.

October 03, 2011, 11:00 AM

From October 3-31, 2011, the Embassy of the Czech Republic will display Czech artist Gabriela Kopecká's four Mucha-style posters representing characters in Dvořák's opera Rusalka. In the posters, Kopecká uses images of Czech sopranos in the opera's roles: Ema Destinnová as Rusalka (Water Nymph), Jarmila Novotná as the Wood Sprite, Eva Urbanová as the Foreign Princess, and Dagmar Pecková as the Witch.

October 05, 2011, 6:00 PM

Washington Musica Viva presents Dvořák Jazz Dances by contemporary composer Charley Gerard at the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. The 5-member band includes Carl Banner (piano), James King (bass), Lenny Robinson (drums), Syberen van Munster (guitar) and Charley Gerard (alto saxophone).

October 07, 2011, 7:30 PM

Talented, young artists Mary Victoria Voutsas, Ronny Thammasathiti, and Solomia Gorokhivska bring a program devoted to Dvořák to the Czech Embassy. They will perform Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances for four hands. Violinist Solomia Gorokhivska will also play selections by the composer on violin, accompanied by Ilya Sinaisky.

October 09, 2011, 5:15 PM

Unfortunately, due to the Washington National Cathedral being closed due to repairs that resulted from the earthquake, the concert of international concert organist Pavel Kohout has been cancelled.

October 11, 2011, 7:00 PM

Charles University scholar, affiliated with Brown University, Richard Müller will give a lecture-recital about Škvorecký and Dvořák. Prof. Müller will cover several topics, including Škvorecký’s novel Dvorak In Love about the composer’s stay in the US, ‘mutual inspirations’ of music and literature in Škvorecký’s work, and biography and novelistic form. The lecture will be followed by a recital, with Emily Arai, a Brown University violin graduate, on the violin, and Richard Müller on the piano.

October 13, 2011, 6:00 PM

Czech composer Miroslav Srnka brings to Washington the US premiere of his composition Engrams for string quartet played by the Czech contemporary music ensemble Fama Quartet, comprised of David Danel (first violin), Aki Kuroshima (second violin), Ondřej Martinovský (viola) and Balázs Adorján (cello).

October 16, 2011, 4:00 PM

The Czech Republic’s premiere contemporary music ensemble Fama Quartet, featuring David Danel (first violin), Aki Kuroshima(second violin), Ondřej Martinovský (viola) and Balázs Adorján (cello), will perform a program of Dvořák, Martinů, and Husa at The Phillips Collection.

October 21, 2011, 7:30 PM

The Embassy Series presents violinist Josef Špaček who will perform a selection of work by Dvořák, Janáček, and Smetana. The program includes Dvořák's famous Sonatina in G major Op. 100, and Mazurek for Violin and Piano, Op. 49. Špaček ranks among the foremost representatives of today's young Czech violin generation. Špaček will be accompanied on piano by Kuok-Man Lio.

October 22, 2011, 11:00 AM

AFI Silver Theater and Cultural Center will screen Jan Svěrák's new film Kooky, an animated film that reveals the story of a six-year-old asthmatic boy whose parents force him to throw away his favorite toy, an old teddy bear named Kooky. The film received three Czech Lions for Best Film Editing, Sound, and Music, as well as the Crystal Globe at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The film is in English.

October 25, 2011, 7:00 PM

Czech soprano Alexandra Berti, accompanied by pianist Tomáš Víšek, will perform a recital of Antonín Dvořák´s songs and opera arias at the Czech Embassy. Berti and Visek's program at the Czech Embassy includes Love Songs Op. 83, Lullaby, Op. posth., Cypresses, Four Songs, Op. 2, Impromtu in D minor, Op. posth. and arias from the operas Rusalka.

October 27, 2011, 11:00 AM

The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage presents the American premiere of Miloš Orson Štědroň's Tony D., a Western musical showdown featuring “good guy” Tony D. and “bad guy” Zdeněk Nejedlý. The performance is the author’s reflection of the Czech genius Antonín Dvořák and his fate and journey to America. In the past, Communist politician and musicologist Zdeněk Nejedlý tried to smear Dvořák’s image in the public eye. The theatrical performance is accompanied by live music performed by actors and musicians with songs that were inspired by Western films. Antonín Dvořák is still connected to a lot of legends. His stay in America, his passion for trains, his attractive music—all of these are inspirational not only for musicologists but as well for nowadays artists and audiences. This Western showdown will prove to entertain and enlighten audiences about the story of a musical genius. (Photo coutesy of Jiří N. Jelínek)

October 27, 2011, 6:00 PM

Maestro Jesus Manuel Berard will conduct the DC Youth Orchestra in a performance of Dvořák’s acclaimed Symphony No. 9 in E minor, “From the New World” at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. The DC Youth Orchestra is comprised of gifted students from the Washington, DC community. The group has performed in the past at such prestigious venues as the White House. The event is part of the Kids Euro Festival.

October 28, 2011, 7:30 PM

Conductor J. Reilly Lewis leads the Cathedral Choral Society and special guest, soprano Alexandra Berti from the Czech Republic, in Dvořák’s Te Deum and Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass. Berti has performed with the Prague State Opera Orchestra, the Czech Chamber Philharmonic, and many others, in addition to her performances for Czech Television, German television ZDF, and French radio. Share an evening with the 150-voice chorus singing one of Dvořák’s most beloved choral masterpieces. ADVANCE TICKET SALES ONLY!

October 29, 2011, 11:00 AM

Sidney Harman Hall at the Harman Center for the Arts presents encore performances of Miloš Orson Štědroň's Tony D., a Western musical showdown featuring “good guy” Tony D. and “bad guy” Zdeněk Nejedlý on October 29 (11 am and 1 pm) and October 30 (10 am). To reserve tickets, click here! Admission is free, and the performances are for all ages.

October 30, 2011, 10:00 AM

Sidney Harman Hall at the Harman Center for the Arts presents the final encore performance of Miloš Orson Štědroň's Tony D., a Western musical showdown featuring “good guy” Tony D. and “bad guy” Zdeněk Nejedlý on October 30 (10 am). To reserve tickets, click here! Admission is free, and the performances is for all ages.