The Ice­land Sym­phony Youth Or­ches­tra plays Dvorák

The concerts of the ISO Youth Orchestra are an annual highlight, showcasing a brilliant group of young musicians who have participated in the Orchestra's courses, performing one of the great masterpieces of music history. This year, they will play the powerful and captivating 9th Symphony by Antonín Dvorák, The New World Symphony, along with Fanfare by Aaron Copland, under the direction of Nathanaël Iselin.

In 1891, the composer Antonín Dvorák was fifty years old and had already enjoyed a distinguished career in composition. He had recently accepted a professorship in Prague and preferred his home in the Bohemian countryside. He then received an offer he couldn't refuse: To become the director of a new conservatory of music in New York. Eventually, he accepted and sailed across the Atlantic. A truly new world opened up to him and Dvorák was deeply impressed by the music of the locals, particularly that of African Americans, which he eagerly studied. These influences are evident in The New World Symphony, which was premiered in the newly built Carnegie Hall in 1893. With its numerous memorable melodies, uplifting as well as wistful, the symphony captures the spirit and optimisim of the new world while harnessing the full power of the orchestra with captivating results.