Antonín Dvořák with his wife Anna in London, 1886

How far are you willing to go to find inspiration? Today’s Imagination Hat features composer Antonin Dvorak, born this day in 1841 in what is now the Czech Republic (formerly Bohemia). What can we learn from Antonin about creativity?

Dvorak had two problems common among many gifted individuals. For one, Dvorak was very critical of his own work, to the point of burning some of his earliest symphonic manuscripts. Secondly, his musical gift was slow to be recognized outside his homeland. Fortunately for Antonin, and unlike the experience of many other creative individuals, his gift was recognized during his lifetime. (Whew!)  In 1892, Dvorak moved to the US. (He even spent a little time in the Czech community of Spillville, Iowa, my home State!) His main goal was to find new sources of musical inspiration. He sought the traditional music of America primarily in African-American and Native American cultures. Dvorak was fond of weaving found musical heritage and folk melodies into his works. He predicted that through these genres, America would find her own musical voice. He couldn’t have been more correct!

In the spring of 1893, Dvorak was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic to write a symphony, resulting in his most well known score,  his Symphony no. 9, “From the New World.” Neil Armstrong chose this symphony to accompany him to the Moon on the historic Apollo 11 mission in 1969.

Antonin Dvorak went half-way around the world in search of new rhythms and melodies. If he could speak to you today, he would ask, “Why are you sitting around waiting for inspiration to come to you? Get up and go looking for it! You never know how what you will find, how far your inspiration will take you, or how far it will travel after you have let it go.”

That’s this week’s Imagination Hat!