A Dvořák Family Album

Dvořák and his wife Anna originally came to America with two of their children, Otilie and Antonin. They had planned to return to Bohemia for the summer after Dvořák's duties at the National Conservatory in New York were finished for the term (he taught three hours a day and conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in eight concerts). Instead, upon learning of the town of Spillville, home to many Czech immigrants, Dvořák sent for his other four children to travel to the U.S. in the care of his wife's sister and the family housemaid. Above is Dvořák with his six children about to depart from New York to Iowa on a two-day train ride.


Here is Dvořák and Anna, six years before their journey to America. She had been one of his piano students and was the daughter of a wealthy goldsmith. It was only after her father died that the prohibition against her marrying a poor musician (which Dvořák was at the time) was lifted. At the time of their marriage Anna was also five months pregnant with their first child Otakar.


This is Dvořák and his youngest child Magda in 1901, three years before the Great Composer's death. The photo was taken on the occasion of Magda's first public performance when she sang songs by her father and an aria from Dvořák's opera Rusalka during the jubilee celebrations of Dvořák's sixtieth year.