September 8 marks the 185th birth anniversary of Antonin Dvořák who was born in Bohemia. A nationalist at heart, he embraced Czech folk idioms that were infused within a late romantic harmonic vocabulary. Yet, during a three-year hiatus in the US, he paved a way for succeeding American composers by introducing native and African American idioms in his compositions and some of his most profound works such as his Symphony "From the New World" and his Cello Concerto were conceived in America. An accomplished violist, he possessed a phenomenal gift for melodic motives which are immediately communicative through his rhythmic vitality. This is one reason his music can sound simultaneously spontaneous and meticulously constructed. This characteristic places him in an interesting lineage with Schubert, Brahms, and later Bartók, but Dvořák’s particular combination of rhythmic sophistication and natural dance impulse is truly unique and inimitable.