WHITE LAKE & MONTICELLO – The Sullivan County Chamber Orchestra will perform, “Immigrant voices: Music of Dvořák and Weinberg on Saturday, November 21, at 2:00 PM at the Reformed Presbyterian Church of White Lake, 6 Mattison Road, White Lake, NY, and on Sunday, November 22, at 3:00 PM at Landfield Avenue Synagogue, 18 Landfield Avenue, Monticello, NY. You'll hear a brilliant quintet: Akiko Hosoi and Sasha Margolis, violin; Noah Fields and Chiu-Chen Liu, viola; and Luke Krafka, cello.

Tickets are a $25 suggested donation; all are welcome, and students are always free. Pay at the door or reserve online at Linktr.ee/nesinculturalarts. For more information, follow us on Facebook at @SCCOPlayers.

The immigrant story is one of the most important in American history. Many composers found new inspiration in America, and Antonín Dvořák was one of them. He never settled here for good, but from 1892 to 1895 he directed the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York. Early in 1893 he finished his Symphony No. 9, "From the New World," which is arguably one of the best-known symphonies ever written. That summer he went to Spillville, Iowa, a village of Czech immigrants where he felt at home. There, in just a few weeks, he wrote the beloved "American" String Quartet. Right after it came the less familiar but equally radiant String Quintet in E-flat, Op. 97, also nicknamed "American." It is scored for two violins, two violas, and cello, a fitting choice for a composer who spent nearly a decade as a violist in Prague's Provisional Theatre orchestra.

In the twentieth century, many more composers fled persecution, political upheaval, and hardship to build culturally rich lives in America. Jacob Weinberg (1879–1956) was one of them. Born in Odessa, he trained at the Moscow Conservatory and with the famed pianist Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna. He left Soviet Russia in 1921, spent five years in Palestine, and arrived in the United States in 1926.

In New York he thrived as a composer, pianist, and teacher. His String Quartet, Op. 55 (1950) pays heartfelt homage to his Jewish roots: its three movements evoke Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur (built on the haunting Kol Nidrei melody), and the joyous dancing of Simhat Torah, the festival that closes Sukkot. Weinberg's music has since slipped into obscurity, and we are honored to bring this beautiful work back to life.

Follow SCCO online @SCCOPlayers.org. or email nesinculturalarts@gmail.com for a downloadable pdf.