Antonín Dvořák

Dvořák composed his Symphony No. 9 in E minor, 'From the New World,' while serving as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City from 1892 to 1895. The symphony premiered at Carnegie Hall on December 16, 1893, performed by the New York Philharmonic under Anton Seidl.

Yes, Dvořák controversially argued in interviews that the future of American music lay in African American spirituals and Native American melodies rather than European models. He was influenced by Harry Burleigh, an African American singer and student at the National Conservatory who sang spirituals for him.

The famous English horn solo in the second movement, the Largo, is one of the most beloved passages in all of orchestral music and was later adapted into the spiritual-like song 'Goin' Home.' The movement was partly inspired by Longfellow's epic poem 'The Song of Hiawatha.'

His Cello Concerto in B minor is widely considered the greatest concerto ever written for the instrument, and his 'Slavonic Dances' brought him international fame in 1878. He also composed the beloved opera 'Rusalka,' which includes the famous aria 'Song to the Moon.'