Immerse yourself in the sounds that inspired Dvořák’s most beloved chamber music with Gold Coast Chamber Players concert, Cultural Crossroads. A pre-concert interview with Native American Flutist R. Carlos Nakai and John-Carlos Perea, Ph.D. begins at 7 pm. This live concert will be recorded and all ticket holders will also have the option to watch the concert virtually beginning on May 17. Please check the website for updated Health & Safety guidelines.
Cultural Crossroads explores the Black and Indigenous influences on Dvořák while in America and features the world's premier Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai, the Alexander String Quartet, soprano Michele Kennedy, and violist Pamela Freund-Striplen. Dvořák’s famous assertion that "in the Negro and Indian melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music" offers the springboard for the concert. Cultural Crossroads adds to the growing national conversation about race and offers relevant musical links to the past and hope for the future.
The program includes Dvořák’s String Quintet, op. 97 and the Lento from his String Quartet, op. 96, both nicknamed "American." Woven between these iconic chamber music pieces are original works by R. Carlos Nakai, Clan of the Mists, Butterflies Dancing, and Honoring Song, written for the Gold Coast Chamber Players, as well as Mr. Nakai's arrangement of Amazing Grace. Carrying forward Dvořák’s prophecy are two songs by African American composer Florence Price, Sunset and Night, as well as some Spirituals that influenced Dvořák, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, By an' By, and My Lord What a Morning. The pièce de résistance of the program is an arrangement for the entire ensemble of Going Home, taken from the Dvořák’s New World Symphony.