This concert celebrates the intrepid American spirit by featuring two pairs of composers that shaped the course of American music. Harry T. Burleigh was Dvořák’s star student at the National Conservatory in New York. A talented African-American composer and singer, he exposed the Czech composer to American spirituals and was in turn encouraged by Dvořák to perform African-American folk music. Two generations later, Copland and Bernstein conceived an American sound that conveys the wonder and awe of open spaces and endless possibilities. This concert is performed by 13 members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.