An evening dedicated to Antonín Dvořák and his legacy in composing, teaching, and inspiring music in all its diverse forms, in celebration of 20 years of DAHA concerts at Bohemian National Hall. This special program ranges from chamber music to jazz, highlighted by selections from the beloved Cypresses cycle by Dvořák and a new composition by Daniel Strong Godfrey performed by the acclaimed Cassatt Quartet and renowned guitarist Eliot Fisk.
In addition, we are pleased to feature the outstanding jazz saxophonist James Brandon Lewis’ Red Lilly in an exclusive performance of selections from his new album “Calling Antonín,” dedicated to Antonín Dvořák.
DAHA’s signature programming of concerts, lectures, tours and more was launched in December 2006 while Bohemian National Hall (1896) was still under restoration, and thus contributed to the building’s growing reputation and ultimate success as a center of Czech culture in New York City. This evening’s performance draws inspiration from that milestone concert of chamber music and jazz some 20 years ago.
DAHA President and founding member Susan Lucak will offer introductory remarks.
Program
Selections from Dvořák's "Cypresses" by Cassatt Quartet
Toward Light, Quintet for String Quartet and Guitar (2023), by Daniel Strong Godfrey, composer
Cassatt Quartet with guitarist Eliot Fisk
—intermission—
Selections from “Calling Antonín” by James Brandon Lewis, composer and saxophonist
James Brandon Lewis’ Red Lily
General admission: $30; seniors, students: $20. Tickets may be purchased online through Eventbrite or at the door at the time of the event (cash only).
Program notes
Selections from Dvořák's "Cypresses"
The "Cypresses" for string quartet are twelve short pieces arranged by Dvořák, based on his collection of love songs for tenor and piano, with the same title. The original texts for the vocal work were written by Gustav Pfleger Moravský. Dvořák inscribed these words on the first edition from 1888: "These little compositions were originally songs (18), four of which were published as Op. 2 by Stary... I wrote them in 1865 and now, after 22 years, I have arranged them for quartet under the title 'The Echo of Songs'." The pieces were given their present title by Josef Suk.
Toward Light, Quintet for String Quartet and Guitar (2023), by Daniel Strong Godfrey, composer
Eliot Fisk, guitar, and Cassatt Quartet
Daniel Strong Godfrey's program notes: “As I wrote this music, I found the work taking on the arc of a journey from faltering light and prayerful expression (first movement); to a minuet-like dream music (second movement); a cadenza for the guitar in which reflections on the opening theme are interleaved with more rhapsodic figuration (third movement), followed by a finale that runs toward the light of a brighter day (fourth movement). The quintet was privately commissioned for, and is dedicated to, guitarist Eliot Fisk and the Cassatt String Quartet.”
“Calling Antonín” by James Brandon Lewis, Dedicated to Antonín Dvořák
In Calling Antonín, Lewis focuses on Dvořák's American period from 1892 to 1895. The album features original Lewis songs that are either variations of or inspired by Dvořák pieces from his American period. The idea for Calling Antonín first originated a decade ago when bassist William Parker called Lewis about a Dvořák-themed project for the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater Company. Lewis went on to become the musical director and began delving into Dvořák's story.
Lewis learned that Dvořák had befriended African-American composer Harry Burleigh, who attended the National Conservatory of Music of America and became Dvořák's assistant. Burleigh introduced him to spirituals including "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," which influenced Dvořák's New World Symphony. "It's a beautiful premise on this lineage of building the American sound," Lewis says. "Dvořák makes a bold assertion in the late 1800s: he's telling America where their source material is from. (Excerpted from Downbeat Magazine, October 2026)
About
DANIEL STRONG GODFREY (b. 1949) has earned awards and commissions from the J. S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Fromm Music Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bogliasco Foundation, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, and the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, among many others. He is founder and co-director of the Seal Bay Festival of American Chamber Music (on the Maine coast) and is coauthor of Music Since 1945, published by Schirmer Books. Godfrey’s works can be heard on the Albany, Bridge, New World, GM, Innova, Klavier, Koch, and Mark recording labels, in addition to an upcoming release on New Focus Recordings. His music is available through publishers Carl Fischer, G. Schirmer, and Opus Imprints. Godfrey is Professor Emeritus of Music at Northeastern University. Prior to his appointment at Northeastern, he was Professor of Music Composition, Theory, and History at Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music. He has also held guest teaching appointments at The Indiana University School of Music and Eastman School of Music. Godfrey has a direct connection to Dvorak, in fact a double connection, as his teacher Mario Davidovsky studied with two composers, each of whom was directly connected to Dvorak. Godfrey studied with Mario Davidovsky, who studied with both Milton Babbitt and Aaron Copland. Milton Babbitt studied with Philip James, who studied with Rubin Goldmark, who studied with Dvorak. Aaron Copland studied with Rubin Goldmark, as well.
ELIOT FISK, guitar virtuoso. “Eliot Fisk is one of the most brilliant, intelligent, and gifted musical artists of our times, not only among guitarists but in the entire field of instrumentalists. He belongs at the top line of our artistic world…” so wrote Andrés Segovia in London in 1981. In the four decades since, Eliot Fisk has become a legend in his own right. Through his masterful transcriptions of works by J.S. Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, Paganini, Albéniz, and Granados, together with major new works written especially for him by composers including Luciano Berio, Leonardo Balada, Nicholas Maw, Cristóbal Halffter, George Rochberg, and Daniel Strong Godfrey, Eliot Fisk has transformed the repertoire of the classical guitar. His artistry has captivated audiences worldwide, and his acclaimed TED Talks have expanded his influence far beyond the concert stage. Fisk is equally renowned for his collaborations across musical genres, performing with flamenco guitarist Paco Peña, jazz legends Joe Pass and Bill Frisell, cabaret artist Ute Lemper, and Turkish master musician Burhan Öçal. He has appeared on more than 40 recordings, earning international critical acclaim. His most recent releases include a landmark double-CD recording of his own transcriptions of J.S. Bach's Six Cello Suites (IBS Records), as well as recordings of Daniel Strong Godfrey's Toward Light for guitar and string quartet with the Cassatt String Quartet, and Giovanni Piacentini's Guitar Concerto.
In recognition of his extraordinary career, Fisk received Spain's Cruz de Isabel la Católica from King Juan Carlos in 2006 and was inducted into the Guitar Foundation of America Hall of Fame in 2022. A child prodigy, Fisk gave his first solo recital at age thirteen. After graduating summa cum laude from Yale University in 1976, he was invited to found the guitar department at the Yale School of Music at just twenty-two years old. An internationally celebrated teacher, Fisk is Professor Emeritus at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and continues teaching at the New England Conservatory, where he received the Krasner Prize for Teacher of the Year. He is also the founder and president of the Eliot Fisk Guitar Academy, presenter of the annual Boston GuitarFest.
JAMES BRANDON LEWIS is a saxophonist, composer, and writer whose creative practice spans music, poetry, visual art, and scholarly inquiry. Born in Buffalo, New York, and based in New York City, he is a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow. In 2025, DownBeat's Critics Poll named him both Artist of the Year and Tenor Saxophonist of the Year. Lewis leads ensembles including his trio, quartet, and Red Lily Quintet. His recordings include Molecular (2020), Jesup Wagon (2021), For Mahalia with Love (2023), Eye of I (2023), Apple Cores (2025), and Abstraction is Deliverance (2025). His 2026 releases include Deface the Currency with the Messthetics, These Are Soulful Days with the Lutoslawski Quartet, and Omni by the James Brandon Lewis Quartet. His forthcoming Red Lily album Calling Antonín pays tribute to composer Antonín Dvořák.
His Red Lily Quintet album Jesup Wagon received DownBeat's 2022 Album of the Year honor, while For Mahalia with Love received an Academie Charles Cros Grand Prix in 2023. His other distinctions include a 2025 ASCAP Plus Award, DownBeat's 2024 Rising Star Composer and Rising Star Jazz Artist honors, the 2023 Deutscher Jazz Preis for International Band of the Year, and the 2019 ASCAP Foundation Fred Ho Award in Composition. Lewis has performed with musicians including William Parker, Dave Douglas, Chad Taylor, Marc Ribot, Nicole Mitchell, and Ravi Coltrane. His international appearances include the Newport and North Sea jazz festivals, Philharmonie de Paris, and the Village Vanguard.
Alongside his performing and recording career, Lewis has pursued scholarly research in creativity. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Creativity from Rowan University in 2025, completing the dissertation Symphony of Cells, The Creative Encounter and the path to Molecular Systematic Music. He also holds a Master of Fine Art in Jazz Studies from the California Institute of the Arts (2010) and a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from Howard University (2006). His interdisciplinary work extends into museum and gallery settings. Jesup Wagon was included in The World Without End: The George Washington Carver Project at the California African American Museum (2024-2025). His visual art appeared in the exhibition catalogue Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music (2023), a project that also included his live instrumental and poetry performance. He performed with his Dead Lecturers ensemble at Philharmonie de Paris that year. His collaborative performances connect music, poetry, and visual art. In 2022, he and poet Anne Waldman performed at Hauser & Wirth in response to the work of Pat Steir. He appeared with the Charles Gaines Ensemble at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in 2021. His work with Heroes Are Gang Leaders (HAGL) includes the recording Amiri Baraka Sessions (2019); the ensemble received the 2018 American Book Award for Oral Tradition.
His teaching includes a poetry-and-jazz workshop with Waldman at Brown University (2018), a poetry-and-jazz workshop at Howard University (2015), and presentations on compositional process at Pratt Institute and improvisation and collaboration at Hunter College. He has lectured on John Coltrane's legacy at New York University and participated in a Sonny Rollins panel at the Schomburg Center. Lewis has held residencies at Ragdale (2023), MacDowell (2022), and the Robert Rauschenberg Residency (2020). His earlier residencies include Music Action Lab (2017), Omi International Arts Center (2013), and the Atlantic Center for the Arts (2011).
Hailed for its “mighty rapport and relentless commitment,” the CASSATT STRING QUARTET has captivated audiences around the world for four decades. Founded in 1985, the Quartet has appeared at Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall in New York City, the Kennedy Center, the Tanglewood Music Center, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City, Maeda Hall in Tokyo, and the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Celebrating its 40th anniversary during the 2026–2027 season, the Quartet continues its distinguished tradition of performances, recordings, educational residencies, and the commissioning of new works. Recent highlights include Joan Tower’s For Jeff, with Love, premiered at Maverick Concerts; the fall 2026 New York premiere of Daniel Strong Godfrey’s Toward Light with internationally acclaimed guitarist Eliot Fisk; and the 2027 world premieres of Laura Kaminsky’s String Octet and Victoria Bond’s Piano Quintet New York Nocturne at Merkin Hall in New York City. Summer 2027 plans also include a collaboration with legendary flutist Carol Wincenc in Joan Tower’s Rising. The Quartet also maintains a long-standing residency with the Seal Bay Festival of American Chamber Music in Maine, where it combines performances, educational outreach, and mentorship of emerging composers through its annual Composer Institute.
The members of the Cassatt String Quartet are violinists Muneko Otani and Laura Jean Goldberg, violist Amy Galluzzo, and cellist Yi Qun Xu. Named for the pioneering American painter Mary Cassatt, the Quartet reflects her legacy through its enduring commitment to artistic excellence, contemporary American music, and the advancement of women in the arts.
This event is organized by the Dvořák American Heritage Association with the support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association.