Dvorak Symphony no. 9, Tchaikovsky Romeo – and Juliet

Jeanette Thurber, the wife of a rich grocery wholesaler, was a woman with a mission: the promotion of a national American style of composition. To this end she founded a conservatoire in New York in 1885. However, it appeared that her dream was not to come true, as the school did not manage to attract any talented musicians. But she refused to give up and asked the famous Czech composer Antonín Dvo?ák if he was interested in becoming the principal of her National Conservatory of Music. The salary she offered him was very generous – no less than 25 times the amount he had earned in Prague. Dvo?ák accepted and in September 1892 he crossed the ocean with his wife and two children and arrived in the New World.