Composer Conversations

Lecture

Composer Conversations Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World” and the Creation of an American Sound 

Tom Cimarusti, Ph.D., Program Coordinator and Professor of Music History, Florida Gulf Coast University

In 1892, the Czech-born composer Antonín Dvořák traveled to New York at the request of the fabulously wealthy Jeanette Thurber, who needed a music director for her newly established National Conservatory of Music. His mission — to facilitate the creation of an "American sound," a musical voice distinct from the "European sound." Come join Tom Cimarusti in exploring Dvořák’s creative process as he composed one of the great symphonies in the Western canon, the New World Symphony, and just in time for a performance of the work by the Naples Philharmonic.

This presentation is part of Tom Cimarusti's Composer Conversations series.

Tom Cimarusti

Tom Cimarusti

A native of Los Angeles, Tom Cimarusti received his Ph.D. at Florida State University and is currently a professor of music history at Florida Gulf Coast University. Although his primary research interests include 18th- and 19th-century Italian opera and song, chamber music and the music of communal utopias, he also lectures on world music and is an avid accordionist. He has presented his research at conferences in Europe, Asia and the United States. He is currently working on an edition of hymns associated with the late 19th-century religious cult, the Koreshan Unity. He has been the recipient of numerous research grants and excellence-in-teaching awards. In 2016, he founded the Center for Public Musicology, an organization that provides lectures, demonstrations and performances at venues throughout Southwest Florida. He lives in Naples with his wife, Christy, and two boys, Paul and Christopher.