Celebrating the renewal of nature in spring as well as the promise of young musical talent during this Year of Czech Music. Featuring students from The Juilliard School as well as seasoned New York players.
The gala concert was the opening event of the Year of Czech Music abroad. It featured songs by Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček and Bohuslav Martinů, offering a special performance of Janáček's extraordinary cycle “The Diary of One Who Disappeared.” Introductory remarks by Michael Beckerman.
The acclaimed Sullivan Quartet returned for the latest installment in DAHA’s unprecedented series exploring the entire chamber music repertoire of Antonín Dvořák. For this occasion they shared with the audience three gems from the Dvořák canon.
The works of Bedřich Smetana and Josef Suk were featured in a musically revealing piano program that anticipates the upcoming Year of Czech Music 2024, when musicians will commemorate the 200th anniversary of Smetana's birth and the 150th anniversary of Suk's birth.
Czech music is extraordinarily rich and varied, many would agree. But who actually gets to be called Czech? Professor Michael Beckerman hosted a panel discussion about how to conceive of questions of Czech nationality/ethnicity in music from the early Renaissance to the 20th century. Invited panelists included scholars and musicians Erika Supria Honisch, David Hoose, and Carl C. Bettendorf.
We celebrated spring and the “New World” Symphony in a special tribute to Antonín Dvořák and his symphonic masterpiece, marking its 130th anniversary year. The program featured music, a world premiere of contemporary dance, and poetry reading.
Filharmonie Brno Chamber Concert’s outstanding musicians performed the music of Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, Bohuslav Martinů and Jan Novák, among others.
Organized by violinist Laura Jean Goldberg and featuring the Sullivan String Quartet, the program was drawn from Dvořák’s prolific output of chamber works.
From the streets of Brno to the plains of southern Spain, this international program featuring the acclaimed soloist Jonathan Ferrucci wa an exploration of grief and joy with special meaning for our times.
Musicologist and author Michael Beckerman presented a talk about the remarkable Czech composer, phenomenal pianist and elemental musician Jaroslav Ježek and his last years in New York where he lived in exile after fleeing the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939.
On Sunday, October 17th, DAHA presented the acclaimed Quartet 131 and guest artists in the fifth edition of Dvořák: The Chamber Music Survey, the multi-year series in which all of Dvorák’s chamber music will be heard by New York audiences.
DAHA celebrated Antonín Dvořák’s 180th birthday with a walking tour and concert in Stuyvesant Square Park and neighborhood. It was the first in-person event in over 18 months.
International violin sensation Iskandar Widjaja presented a mix of classical and non-traditional music in his New York debut at the historic Bohemian National Hall.
From DAHA’s archive: Composer Carl Bettendorf and the Momenta Quartet presented a virtual program of string quartets focusing on two great Czech modernists, Leoš Janáček and Alois Hába, plus a contemporary work by Bettendorf. Microtonal music and Moravian musical heritage were parallel themes in the pathbreaking concert.
Original performance: February 28th, 2019. Momenta Quartet: Emilie-Anne Gendron & Alex Shiozaki, violins; Stephanie Griffin, viola; Michael Haas, cello. Composer: Carl C. Bettendorf
Watch the recording of this event on our YouTube Channel!
On January 18th, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, DAHA presented a virtual panel discussion with Marcus Pyle, NYU/Davidson University, Douglas Shadle, Vanderbilt University, and Michael Beckerman, New York University. This broad exploration of musical and cultural issues raised pressing contemporary questions.
DAHA’s virtual holiday program, introduced by Professor Michael Beckerman of NYU, included two popular events from DAHA’s archive. Viewers first enjoyed a film about the American premiere of Georgius Zrunek's tri-lingual Christmas Mass of 1766 featuring the Czech early music group Ritornello and NYU collegiate choristers as they prepared the delightful Zrunek work for concert in 2010.
From DAHA’s archive, viewers watched the brilliant Martinů Quartet from Prague performing Antonín Dvořák’s “American” String Quartet, composed during his idyllic midwestern sojourn in the summer of 1893.
DAHA commenced a series of virtual events for the 2020-21 Season on Sunday, October 18th, with an archival recording of Dvořák’s world famous Cello Concerto originally performed March 26, 2017 by renowned cellist Marcy Rosen and the Aaron Copland School of Music Orchestra under the baton of the late conductor Maurice Peress, founding DAHA Board Member and Music Advisor. Originally broadcast March 26, 2017, the American period masterwork - the most celebrated of cello concertos to this day - was played before a capacity audience in the historic Bohemian National Hall, “Národní Budova,” built in 1896 for the New York Czech and Slovak community.
On Sunday, February 2nd, the award-winning Aeolus Quartet returned to perform a program of Czech masterworks, including Antonín Dvořák's Piano Quintet in A Major, Opus 81, one of the jewels of chamber music repertory. The program also included a selection of Dvořák's love songs from The Cypresses cycle as well as a colorful set of international dance pieces by Erwin Schulhoff.
From Bach to Dvořák to contemporary living composers, Indonesian-German violin virtuoso Iskandar Widjaja explored a range of classical and non-traditional music on Friday evening, November 1st, in the historic Ballroom of Bohemian National Hall.