Humanities
Infused
Programming
‘Joe Horowitz’s DVORAK AND AMERICA production was the hit of our Buffalo season. Many concertgoers told us that it was their favorite concert of the year, and found it illuminating, surprising and deeply moving. What was truly astonishing was the fact that many said that the New World symphony was completely changed for them — revealed as a work with deep literary roots and steeped in Dvorak’s empathy for the cultural world of African Americans and Native Americans. The composer himself emerged not only as a consummate artist but as a great humanitarian and visionary. ’
JoAnn Falletta, Music Director, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
Some of our Ongoing Projects
CHARLES IVES’S AMERICA: Though regarded by many as America’s pre-eminent concert composer, Charles Ives (1874-1954) remains little-known to the concert-going public. His music retains an esoteric taint. In part, this results from its belated discovery (ca. 1940-1960, long after Ives had ceased composing) by modernists who cherished complexity. Today, in post-modern times, the opportunity is ripe to rediscover Ives as a turn-of-the-century Connecticut Yankee rooted in Transcendentalism and Progressivism – a product (however idiosyncratic) of his own time and place. Ives’s vivid personality, and a plethora of vivid writings (essays and letters), reinforce this opportunity to better acquaint American audiences with the cranky Ives idiom – for penetrating its assaultive exterior and connecting to its warm heart and soul.
The “FROM THE NEW WORLD” VISUAL PRESENTATION was created to accompany a live performance of the second and third movements of Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World.” It was created by Peter Bogdanoff and Joseph Horowitz. The presentation was commissioned by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and has since been used by the New York Philharmonic, the Nashville Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, and Berlin’s Komische Oper orchestra, among others.
During his visit to America in the 1890s, Antonín Dvorák told the New York press that both middle movements of the New World Symphony — the Largo and Scherzo — were inspired by passages from Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha.. Dvorak’s Scherzo, the third movement of the symphony, feeds on the whirling, stomping wedding dance of the idler and dandy Pau-Puk-Keewis: “He the merry mischief-maker whom the people called the Storm-Fool.”
To the sound of flutes and singing,
To the sound of drums and voices,
Rose the handsome Pau-Puk Keewis.
-The Song of Hiawatha
What we do
MUSIC UNWRAPPED is a new iteration of “Music Unwound,” a national consortium of orchestras, festivals, and schools that was funded three times by the National Endowment of the Humanities through 2019. The director was Joseph Horowitz and Peter Bogdanoff was the participating video artist. Horowitz and Bogdanoff have now re-started the project without NEH support.
The many Music Unwound consortium members included the Brevard Music Festival, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Las Vegas Philharmonic, the North Carolina Symphony, and the Pacific Symphony.
These topics linked orchestras to schools and communities:
Dvorak and America
Copland and Mexico
Charles Ives’ America
Kurt Weill’s America
The pertinent scripts and video materials remain available. New projects include:
“The Souls of Black Folk” and Black Classical Music [featuring music by William Dawson and Florence Price]
New World Encounters [the impact of jazz abroad]
Music Unwrapped festivals typically include a symphonic program with a script and visual track plus extensive ancillary activity. The programs are adaptable according to venue. Topics are chosen with regard to impact and outreach. The Dvorak program links to African-American and Native American audiences. The Copland/Mexico program links to Hispanic audiences. The Weill programs links to the theme of immigration. The Ives program stresses the relationship to Emerson, Thoreau, and the Civil War.
We welcome the opportunity to enhance your programming!
Who We Are
Joseph Horowitz
author, concert Producer
Kevin Deas
singer
