Welcome to the RMSO Season Opener!

Saturday, September 30, 2023 – 7:30pm

This special opening concert (held on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation) showcases music written about the beauty of nature, and our shared connection to the Land. From the varied scenes along the Moldau’s route to the 5 exciting vistas in Horwood’s National Park Suite.

• Forillon National Park (Québec)
• Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah)
• Fathom Five Marine Park (Ontario)
• Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming)
• Jasper National Park (Alberta)

When Dvorak came to America in 1892, the Pledge of Allegiance was new. So were Carnegie Hall, the game of basketball and Edison’s wax cylinders. Classical music in America wasn’t new — but it needed a reboot. Already a celebrated composer in Europe, Dvorak was hired to run the National Conservatory of Music in New York to help American composers find their own voices and shake off the European sound.

Dvorak was surprised, in a way, to find that the roots of American music were not European, they were African-American.

“If the New World Symphony remains the most beloved symphony composed on American soil, I think that’s because in the sadness and poignance of this work we recognize, however subliminally, an act of empathy –- Dvorak’s empathy for the African-American, born in slavery, and for the Native American, facing extinction.”

Program

🇨🇿 SMETANA The Moldau
🇨🇦 HORWOOD National Parks Suite

🇨🇿 DVOŘÁK Symphony #9 (From the New World)