Antonín Leopold Dvořák  8.9.1841 – 1.5. 1904) was a Czech composer. After Bedřich Smetana, he was the next Czech Romantic-era composer to achieve worldwide recognition. Following Smetana's nationalist example, Dvořák frequently employed aspects, specifically rhythms, of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák's own style has been described as "the fullest recreation of a national idiom with that of the symphonic tradition, absorbing folk influences and finding effective ways of using them".

He displayed his musical gifts at an early age, being an apt violin student from age six. The first public performances of his works were in Prague in 1872 and, with special success, in 1873, when he was aged 31. Seeking recognition beyond the Prague area, he submitted a score of his First Symphony to a prize competition in Germany, but did not win, and the unreturned manuscript was lost until rediscovered many decades later.

 In 1892, Dvořák moved to the United States and became the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City. While in the United States, Dvořák wrote his two most successful orchestral works: the Symphony From the New World, which spread his reputation worldwide, and his Cello Concerto, one of the most highly regarded of all cello concerti.

In this show we are featuring Rusalka's Song to the Moon from his opera Rusalka (1900). Arranged by Gordon Langford as a cornet solo our performer is Kirsty Abbotts accompanied by the Sellers International Band with MD: Major Peter Parkes