Antonín Dvořák
Composer | Czech | 1841–1904
About Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvořák (1841–1905) was a Czech composer born in Nelahozeves, Bohemia, the eldest of nine children in a butcher's family. His early talent was recognised by his teacher Josef Spitz, and from the age of twelve he studied harmony and keyboard under Antonín Liehmann in Zlonice, before enrolling at Prague's organ school in 1857 and completing his studies there in 1859.
To support himself, Dvořák spent nearly nine years as a violist in Karel Komzák's orchestra, the resident opera orchestra when Prague's Provisional Theatre opened in 1862, playing under conductors including Bedřich Smetana. His breakthrough came with the 1873 premiere of the choral work Hymnus, the same year he married Anna Čermáková. An Austrian state stipend from 1875 brought him to the attention of Johannes Brahms, who became a lifelong advocate, while publisher Fritz Simrock helped establish his reputation across Europe.
His music found particular favour in England, which he visited nine times; his Seventh Symphony, the oratorio Saint Ludmila and his Requiem all received their premieres there, and Cambridge University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1891. Between 1892 and 1895 he directed the National Conservatory of Music in New York, composing the Ninth Symphony 'From the New World', the 'American' String Quartet and his Cello Concerto in B minor. He later returned to Prague, conducted the Czech Philharmonic's inaugural concert in 1896, and completed his opera Rusalka in 1901.