Composer Antonin Dvorak was born on September 8, 1841, in Nerahozeves, Austria (now the Czech Republic), and died on May 1, 1904. Born into a family that ran a butcher and an inn, Dvorak learned to play the violin as an elementary school student and gradually showed musical talent. Due to financial difficulties, his parents wanted Dvorak to take over the family business. However, persuaded by his uncle and others, he enrolled in the Prague Organ School in 1957. After graduating, he began his musical career as a viola player in the local Karel Komzák orchestra. In 1962, he joined the orchestra conducted by Bedrich Smetana, a pioneer of the national school of music, and was deeply influenced by his compositions. However, while working as a violist, Dvorak gradually became interested in composition. As a result, he left the orchestra in 1971. He began his career as a composer in earnest, releasing "Heirs of the Mountains" in 1973, a work strongly influenced by nationalist ideas. With the rise of the national music movement at the time, this work brought Dvorak great acclaim domestically. The following year, he was selected for an Austrian government scholarship, receiving a sum far exceeding his annual salary at the time.
Dvorak then submitted compositions for scholarship examinations over the next five years. His talent caught the eye of Johannes Brahms, who was serving as a judge at the time. With Brahms's help, the publication of "Slavonic Dances" became popular throughout Europe, and Dvorak became a well-known composer. After Smetana's death in 1984, Dvorak became the Czech Republic's leading composer in both name and reality, and he began conducting orchestras himself when visiting the UK and the US.
In 1991, he moved to the US to become director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York. There, Dvorak released what would later become his signature work, Symphony No. 9, "From the New World." The premiere at Carnegie Hall in 1993 was a huge success, and in part due to these activities, the New York Philharmonic elected him an honorary member, solidifying Dvorak's presence in America.
After eventually returning to the Czech Republic, Dvorak began teaching at the Prague Conservatory, and in 2001 he became its director. He released operas such as "Rusalka" and "Armida," but died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 2004. He was 62 years old at the time.
