1 10 3 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/176fa901efd36853e6140169777cbd2f.jpg?Expires=1792627200&Signature=Pcaxulcbs6u4J6WJ8N2-G5P462qj6FQDvNuFSSYkx%7Epxm-cRXq6xcPCmQiBr63JJbWHXDmlJM%7EESgOaoihjsVTbuyx5UR6ouEJPBZvLn5KwTq2QPAC8p3KY-AVOz8YyvSUFSqizT369tNYIogVzg%7ELXM0lqF5Uyl81oqB5ExZQsBGqg-KUR58q9rQQgZC%7EOw7-V10QE1fA3wcmvIBJOLdf5Mm6UGHKLO9SX6fTQgFVlBhZXdP59289vAMZLfLmDGrLSvn7Nf8YdurqBtdeX1sqf5lEBqqeCcE6sKzF8byTHPGx3TzlttXekFu2gtr1u4FHgHoSWYR4bWPPV1-lu33g__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM ee9f484b7ffe750468ca36f1a48ad9d8 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/762cffe7692d754fcac3aaa08f8dfa22.jpg?Expires=1792627200&Signature=GL5pDmvnOav7EPIkKRt6s93G3Ty8xquZlcNfZaCjWKZ7Ue-QG0vN1BQIUIj5ei4msuDl18yjlCEYMFuSZX60Sal5ONePs5LOuyQI0zDyqMVo%7Eb%7EIVLoJwCaC1DwXkPcFRSEb1gBK4Lrg9Xt0CYUi4pbQcEFARLVJ4tN3a4ICTxkpDy5O0wyJTelMq5Z9UXjO2lCroLNZodzMkPN7PTlISKoIooUxxJ9cjp%7EkhSQTZvk49LEOjiYCtuzD5mYf6Peue%7EYKaN5Qx1hAH8Q5B7i2%7EZ-DXw9afTn4Vgdh%7EIG%7EG8B7O443FgIBRSM6fbMpUFUZTKUSx8XzortFNX6Dk-lFXg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM ce6c71fd52ca3cd6ae0da9880b3a51bd https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/9bb958b496e471e047403215596a4562.jpg?Expires=1792627200&Signature=VImlEQerjcE6sGGb9s-mxz1SwgUskUOdRXfa0FxcUA4ugJ9TrsydOUjlX2m5dpKS%7E2l8KGxxT7kLOftzB5Y5hD-mhaOVovUHAZpdnIQCW2VmZar8Hb-N703kJIZSN2WSfGQTeGVeefyIyJAR8tpKpEa-6ZYlmjtFqLXkAQHuQKkmmswoOOXWXjVPhzCOTqgEGGo40w2B2Ac0ioFIznzaZJDAKVqCMiSsriwSTTt5P5xrt3bsRBsSauSu%7ETwprKZThQXN-qhNxY77tVLmJyT-9Wgirb6fwOjPVVrGeCILbN1faQsDAfvE8Th4Xwuzm2W5dZfLDMUKAO8U2bKUt2Ahug__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 593b7c33dd069da41933ba683c127635 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/89a4ce87897678ec660986e26ad92a7f.jpg?Expires=1792627200&Signature=LvaM7UwO3IkENGyvglPq74rcTdKQt0ck-D-PDmHVbly9B7r2Xn4H3nObMAmTuMT62LxPO2%7EiEezd6H2aqCxHQiCjqOu%7ET47uLBAlAhOlAhWSW4nd-fzkH4lJHBKftEUSzgV2FnwS8ogSo37FNMWA1KrIV%7EpdiKIqsqr24BX-xVDFpW3vCPxM1tTZsQSKflI-YRVQx%7EGrey-wf3PvZ5EA8WUoG9hx5hMlSi%7E1g372x0YM%7EbYZ-Faq0z8uJKGaDoYTvKoYOx-LONqA53-H3Xg2kFaliT7dcj55IVrACOtmdmgVT%7ENVoEKG0NBCR85alfVLYnirOlRXiOEYX7NBchV9KQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 1859dedf6d5e1bf957995ea2d73f46a0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans Subject The topic of the resource Recording Voices &amp; Documenting Memories of Czech &amp; Slovak Americans was an oral history project launched by the National Czech &amp; Slovak Museum &amp; Library in 2009. The project captured and preserved the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who left their homeland during the Cold War and settled in New York City, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the second phase of the project, the NCSML recorded the stories of immigrants who came to the United States after the fall of communism in 1989 as well. By the conclusion of the project in August 2013, the NCSML had collected more than 300 oral histories. <br /><br />Both phases of the project were made possible by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. <br /><br />On the project’s website, you can read biographies of Czechs and Slovaks who began a new life in the United States, watch video clips from their interviews, and view photos and other archival materials they shared with us. <br /><br />Full length interviews are available for further research at the National Czech &amp; Slovak Museum &amp; Library. For more information, contact Dave Muhlena, Library Director, at dmuhlena@ncsml.org. Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound <h4>Father</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gtfcz6qzxTw?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" id="undefined"></iframe><p>“My father, when he was a conductor of the Northern Czech Symphony Orchestra, he had to be present at the Communist meetings that were held in, let’s say, Teplice, and these Communist meetings were very long and in the beginning of the meetings, the orchestra that father conducted played the Czechoslovak national anthem, the Russian national anthem, and then the song ‘Internationale’, and those pieces of music were played at the beginning of those meetings and they were played at the end of the meetings and so the orchestra had to sit there for hours and hours and listen to these discussions that were endless. After some time, my father suggested that perhaps they could get a recording instead of the orchestra being there for so many hours, and what they told my father was that if he did not like doing that, then he may as well pack up and then go and work in coal mines. So he obviously retracted that and continued to sit at these meetings.</p><p>“Then there were things that happened in the school where he was a director where people were advanced based upon not their abilities necessarily, but based upon whether they belonged to the Communist Party and so on. So he always felt that in music, one cannot advance people based upon their participation in a party, and so there were certain frustrations that I think that he experienced because he was always interested in having a good quality school and good quality music teachers, and that wasn’t always possible. So I remember him speaking about that.”</p><h4>Warsaw Pact</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E49DrkNUPHU?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“Approximately a week after the invasion, my father and I walked from Nusle to Václavské Náměstí [Wenceslas Square] and things had sort of somehow calmed down a little bit. There was less shooting and we were speaking with the Russian soldiers. People spoke Russian pretty well because it was a language everybody had to learn in school. All of the sudden, the soldiers started to shoot at us, so my father and I hit the ground and we crawled to a nearby street and all the doors to the buildings were closed because people were frightened, so my father and I, we crawled about a block and a half and made a turn and kind of disappeared from the scene on Václavské Náměstí. Then we walked quickly and ran back home. So it was a very, very scary time.”</p><p><em>Those were warning shots?</em></p><p>“They were warning shots. Nobody, to my knowledge, was killed during that time. But they were just sort of very arbitrary about shooting, and it was frightening.”</p><h4>Plans to Leave</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QZYK2KHoBns?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“The way this kind of worked out was that my father had a student that wanted to perform at the Salzburg Music Festival. So he said that he wanted to go to negotiate the details of the concert, and we wanted to go on vacation, as a family, to Yugoslavia. He applied for permission to go through Austria and stay there for four days, and we didn’t necessarily expect that we were going to get permission as a family to leave and do that, because we could have been told ‘Oh, don’t go through Austria. As a family, go through Hungary,’ and then for my father to go alone and negotiate the concert in Austria. But somehow, for reasons that we still do not understand until today, we got the permission to go for four days to Austria. So on April 17, 1969, we drove down to the southern border and we couldn’t see the signs because the snow was sticking to the signs and so we got lost and I think my father was a little nervous. Then we got through to the Czech-Austrian border and the officials at the border, they kind of had a sense that we were escaping and they made us come out of the car. They searched through, even under the hood of the car, and they searched through everything, and the only thing that we had that would have been suspicious were English textbooks. Because we knew we wanted to come to the United States or go to an English-speaking country and we were not sure that we would be able to find textbooks. So somehow, my father took these textbooks, and we were nervous about that. Why would we have been taking English textbooks to Austria? But they didn’t find the textbooks. My father had sort of hidden them, so they didn’t find the textbooks.</p><p>“Then finally when we drove through, which was around 5:00 in the morning on April 18, we then went through the Austrian part of the border, and there the Austrians just basically saluted us, they looked at our papers and then they allowed us to come in, and once we got across the border, we just stopped the car and we just sat and couldn’t believe that we had gotten across the Iron Curtain and that we were in a free country and that we escaped the oppressive communist country. And yet at the same time, I think that there was also a sense of sadness of leaving your homeland, with the idea that we would never be able to return. We thought that this was a step where we would never return to Czechoslovakia because we never thought that communism would ever not be there.”</p><h4>Vienna</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LhWYH5aoPMs?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I did not go to school. I told my parents that I didn’t want to go to school because we came in April and I felt it was towards the end of the school year and I did not want to start learning German, and so I started studying English on my own using these textbooks that we brought from Czechoslovakia. So I used them during the day and then in the evening when my parents and sister came home, I would give them the textbooks so they would learn them and then I was sort of taking care of other things. So my job in a way – they were working as gardeners – and my job was to kind of take care of the paperwork that was necessary to immigrate to the United States. So my father would write down for me where to go and what to say, and then I would go and actually take care of the paperwork that was required for us to immigrate to the United States.”</p><h4>New York</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/D46eUGy76D0?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I remember the very first Sunday we went to Central Park thinking that we were going to a park the way one would go in Europe, and we were dressed in our best clothes. I remember I was wearing this white blouse with a navy blue skirt and matching shoes, and expecting that we will be strolling in Central Park. And what we were seeing was this wild scene that you kind of see in the movie <em>Hair</em>, by Milos Forman, where people were barely dressed. Men were topless and wearing no shirts and wearing minimal clothing and jeans with bell-bottoms, and women were not wearing bras and they were very open with one another in terms of expressing their affection publicly. And I was 14 years old and I just didn’t even know where to look, and it was all very embarrassing.”</p><h4>First Christmas</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zYOozEX1-dQ?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“It was very hard that first Christmas. We were happy to be in the United States, certainly, but there was a certain harsh reality where my parents had no job. So we bought a Christmas tree for one dollar and we bought very simple decorations. We obviously had no money to buy any presents, but that was kind of not really that important to, and we sat around the Christmas tree. I have to say that we were happy to be in the United States, we were happy to be in a country which was democratic and we had freedoms, but there was also a certain harshness about being in a country and not having a job and having somewhat of an uncertain future.”</p><h4>Learning English</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q7nneKYRKAk?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I kind of felt that when I came here at the age of 13 that I, in a sense, lost my childhood because of the responsibility of learning English and trying to make it here. I kind of felt a certain responsibility to my parents for making this step, and I felt that I obviously wanted to succeed in the United States and so I felt that I needed to take advantage of opportunities that were presenting here that I would not have had in Czechoslovakia. So there was a certain kind of heaviness that I felt even at the age of 13 and 14, and I felt that I really needed to succeed in a way for my family, as well as for myself. I worked pretty hard and I have to say that I was a little disappointed in myself after six months of working pretty hard and studying and feeling that I wasn’t speaking the language fluently. It took about two years before I felt comfortable with the language.”</p><h4>Dvořák</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8frGQmTza_c?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I became a Dvořák lover when I came to the United States in 1969 and everything was very unfamiliar and the only thing that reminded me of home and Czechoslovakia was Dvořák’s music. I knew it rather well because music was always around my house and, also, I always went with my father, with my parents, to concerts in Czechoslovakia. So when we came here, the only thing that I heard that reminded me of home was Dvořák’s music, and it always sort of warmed my heart. So when his house, where Dvořák lived, on East 17th Street was threatened to be destroyed, I felt that I wanted to get involved and see if we could save the house or somehow honor Antonín Dvořák here in New York City in a way that made it very special for me. I felt a special connection that he was somebody who came from my homeland who had lived here in New York City, and I felt that he deserved to be honored here and so that’s how I got involved in the Dvorak American Heritage Association here in New York.”</p> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Susan Lucak Description An account of the resource <p>Susan Lucak was born in Teplice in northwestern Bohemia in 1955. Her parents, who were originally from the eastern part of Czechoslovakia, had moved to Teplice when her father Mirolslav became the conductor of the Northern Czech Symphony Orchestra. When Susan and her older sister were in school, Susan’s mother Jiřina went to work as an after-school teacher. Susan says that her parents had decided to leave Czechoslovakia shortly after the Communist coup in February 1948, but that they had to remain in the country when their plans fell through. In 1967, Susan’s family moved to Prague when her father got a job as the director of a music school there. She says that the Warsaw Pact invasion of August 21, 1968, once again led her parents to the decision to leave the country. In 1969, Susan’s family applied for travel permits to Yugoslavia; she says they were lucky to receive permission to travel through Austria, as one of Susan’s father’s students was performing at the Salzburg Music Festival. They left Czechoslovakia on April 17, 1969, and made their way to Vienna where they lived for over three months while awaiting permission to immigrate to the United States.</p><p> </p><p>On July 25, 1969, Susan and her family arrived in New York City. They were given a room in a hotel in Manhattan and Susan’s parents both found work in a watch factory. Two months later, the family moved to an apartment in Queens and Susan began ninth grade. Susan’s parents lost their jobs two weeks before their first Christmas in the United States. Shortly thereafter, her mother began working on an assembly line for electrical switches (a job that she held for over 20 years) and her father found a job as a clerk on Wall Street. He later taught piano lessons and also wrote and published music compositions. Susan says that it took her a couple years to become comfortable with the English language – a length of time that was frustrating for her. When she was 16, she began selling coffee and lunches in an office on Wall Street in order to save money for college. She attended Barnard College and majored in biology, and then enrolled at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Susan has spent the majority of her professional career as a gastroenterologist with Columbia University. She received her American citizenship in 1975 and returned to Czechoslovakia for the first time in 1978.</p><p> </p><p>Shortly after arriving in the United States, Susan and her family began attending picnics and bazaars put on by the Czech community. She was a member of the Czech dance group, Klub Mládeže. Susan has been a member of the Dvorak American Heritage Association since the group was founded and is the current president of the organization. She also serves as a vice-president for the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA). Susan has two children and says that her daughter in particular has a great affinity for Czech culture. Although she loves returning to the Czech Republic for visits, Susan is very happy to be living in Manhattan.</p><p> </p><p> </p> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived NCSML Archive 1968 1968 emigrant/refugee Child emigre Community Life Dvorak Education Health care professionals Klub Mladeze Lebedova Warsaw Pact invasion https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/83b9c363d3f2c5798ca873740fdb589d.jpg?Expires=1792627200&Signature=BlTF3LpPI9uoXQZNKwpFbPkLdBnlo3rheNNY6x2SmmwzXnmOwNcKUWE61vhmUCIpzWfLE2L4Q64YxFMTllvZDnhdfz1Gy48v4ARSCcVO0-oYLNsQg6Duj%7Ek9hE6NQ3MRA3LTZ8jlBhMxPVJiocuU2F-RRCKukaHMQ2xeyZaOvTda56E7oKfJqiV6rFHO2auC4qAwVvq5H56vdmWwNXXp8qF2qMIDP4sVddTOnEMzzwYhwqP0eTVXE8WblCvDt3hv21YPevn7AH6WxCQSHmhUBKyiPUB7dr38VJ92%7E5ZDotJ43qrH16l4zk0zxuPzjve3ej5lUxNKUIhbMc4D4nPUIw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM e757c3479d717471749fc304ca355445 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans Subject The topic of the resource Recording Voices &amp; Documenting Memories of Czech &amp; Slovak Americans was an oral history project launched by the National Czech &amp; Slovak Museum &amp; Library in 2009. The project captured and preserved the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who left their homeland during the Cold War and settled in New York City, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the second phase of the project, the NCSML recorded the stories of immigrants who came to the United States after the fall of communism in 1989 as well. By the conclusion of the project in August 2013, the NCSML had collected more than 300 oral histories. <br /><br />Both phases of the project were made possible by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. <br /><br />On the project’s website, you can read biographies of Czechs and Slovaks who began a new life in the United States, watch video clips from their interviews, and view photos and other archival materials they shared with us. <br /><br />Full length interviews are available for further research at the National Czech &amp; Slovak Museum &amp; Library. For more information, contact Dave Muhlena, Library Director, at dmuhlena@ncsml.org. Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound <h4>Early Memories</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C8Y2PaCZYz8?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" id="undefined"></iframe><p>“I remember spending some enjoyable time, at four or five years old, at a music school in Slovakia with a particular teacher who, for some reason, decided that I am worth investing his time into. So I, on occasion – as I have been told – I even ran away from home to go to music school. So when they couldn’t find me they went ‘Oh, he’s probably at the music school again.’ That is a memory other people have; I don’t quite recall it. I just remember that particular teacher, Mr. Fecura, who was a very nice and friendly person and who was one of my first contacts with music-making.”</p><h4>Religious Confusion</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1ZM2qZsamBY?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“For obvious reasons my parents were too scared to be Jewish after what they’d been through. We lived with my paternal grandparents and they were very religious. They were almost Orthodox Jews, to an extent that was possible during communism, because there was no synagogue left in Humenné and not much kosher food available, if any. So they really tried and, on top of that, my parents maintained general Slovak cultural traditions, including [having] a Christmas tree and Easter, so it was quite confusing for me. Even when I went to school there was still religion taught – it was one of the last years – and so, Friday afternoon, a local Catholic priest arrived, looked at the grade one kids and saw me, and said ‘Oh, my son. You can go home.’ I was terribly upset because I wanted to take part in everything all the other kids did, but I wasn’t allowed to, and without any explanation. At home I wasn’t told why I was sent home, so I had no idea. Monday, again when we all got together, it was discussed: ‘Why was I sent home?’ Nobody knew; I didn’t know until one of my classmates came with an explanation and said ‘Oh, I know why it happened. Because his father is a communist.’</p><p>“So it was rather confusing and, the same way as I learned about the past of my parents, the same way I picked up information about our religious background, or whatever it was, and it was up to myself to figure out by reading and by putting things together that ‘Hey, it looks like we are Jewish, even with a Christmas tree and Easter eggs and everything. We probably are Jewish.’”</p><h4>Perks of a Child Musician</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kzwjnbS5pss?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“As a child you have many different interests, so there moments when it was quite difficult and overwhelming to cope with the fact that I had to spend four hours every day practicing piano at the age when all the other kids were running around outside and having fun. But somehow that fascination with music that I had since I can remember – plus the perks, in the form of skipping school once a week and being on my own for an entire day as at ten or eleven years old I was taking the train to Košice and going to the restaurant for lunch on my own – kept me going, because it was quite unusual and had a sense of adventure in it and a sense of being different and doing things other kids didn’t; and I was entering competitions and I was meeting great musicians who were on a very different level and I was competing with people that were much older. So that all played together to the extent that it wasn’t overly difficult to overcome that aversion that naturally developed after awhile when it became clear that there has to be time spent in order to get any further.</p><p>“I think my mother was quite ambitious for me and then I adopted that ambition as well, and once I entered the conservatory the fascination with all things musical I was able to do all the time was too strong to even think about a different career or a different direction in my life. It was just very straight and very clear to me that there is nothing else I want to do.”</p><h4>Oh, Canada</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u10H_lqat1o?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“Turned out that the best thing out of it was freedom to travel, which I used immediately, and I asked for permanent residency in seven different countries. I didn’t care where I would go, I just wanted where I didn’t want to be. Despite the fact that I was already a fairly prominent figure in Slovak music and had some success, it was so severely limited by people that would make an effort to consciously hurt me or my career, and I thought ‘This is not going to get any better.’ I was aware that at that time I had and exclusive contract with a recording label in Hong Kong [and] I knew that was taken care of for at least two years, financially, so I said to myself and my family ‘Let’s go somewhere. Whether it’s New Zealand or Australia or Holland or England or Germany or Canada or U.S.A…’ I applied to seven different countries, and Canada replied positively and first, so we went to Canada. I didn’t know anyone there; I just decided to go and be there, and it worked.”</p><h4>Lifelong Dream</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uNhzHhbAGDU?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“My grandmother’s cousin immigrated to the United States, I think, shortly after the War – or even during the War – I’m not sure, but they lived in Cleveland and, about once a year, she would send a package from America. The famous package from America: chewing gum, jeans, and, of course, being myself, I had special requests, which were scores. I wanted Gershwin’s scores because they were completely unattainable, like any American scores. So I was 14 when, in one of those famous packages, there were jeans made of stars and stripes – the American flag. Of course the first thing I did was wear it on the street. After ten minutes I was stopped by a policeman and sent home to change. I realized I can’t walk on the street, but I took it to school and I changed at school. So after ten minutes I was stopped by the director of the school and sent home too. That was my first American experience, and the other was West Side Story. When the movie arrived in Slovakia I went to see it eight times in one week. I was completed fascinated by it, and so on some unconscious level that was always my final destination, even if consciously I was aware that it’s just impossible.”</p> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Peter Breiner Description An account of the resource <p>Peter Breiner was born in Humenné, a city in eastern Slovakia, in 1957. His parents, Ernest and Edita, were both Holocaust survivors and his father also spent many years in a labor camp. His father managed several restaurants while his mother was a teacher. Peter and his younger brother and parents lived with his paternal grandparents, who attempted to maintain Orthodox Jewish traditions – a task which Peter says was not easy during the communist era. Peter began music lessons at a very young age and, by the time he was nine years old, he was taking the train to Košice once a week to study piano with a professor. Following his eighth grade year, Peter moved to Košice to study piano, composition and conducting at the conservatory. He continued his musical education at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. While at university, Peter worked as a train conductor and as a music producer for Czechoslovak Radio. Because he failed his Marxist-Leninist exam, says Peter, he was required to spend one extra year at university to repeat the class.</p><p> </p><p>Following his graduation, Peter began working as a freelance musician, performing, conducting and composing. He married and had a daughter. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, Peter took the opportunity to travel. He says that he applied to seven countries for permanent residency; as he received permission from Canada straightaway, he and his family moved to Toronto in 1992. He visited New York for the first time when the American Ballet Theatre put on a performance of his works; later Peter applied for and received a green card. He moved to New York City in 2007 and, today, lives in close proximity to the house where Antonín Dvořák lived while in New York.</p><p> </p><p>Peter is a prolific and renowned musician. He has conducted nearly every major orchestra, and his arrangements and recordings are especially popular. Peter is currently working on a multimedia program based on his orchestral piece called ‘Slovak Dances, Naughty and Nice’. He is also a writer, authoring a column for a popular Slovak newspaper. Since his childhood, Peter has been an avid soccer player and plays in the city four times a week. Today he lives in Manhattan.</p> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived NCSML Archive Arts Dvorak Education Humenne Jews Kosice Post-1989 emigrant Religion school Western/Pop culture https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/9e0e88a77c649ef78d7f8051e02ee595.pdf?Expires=1792627200&Signature=egAeRA8y9R6YV-MKpBD43nlApC0irRsofkHwgjFHZAWeEm3rjRC3zF%7E0F8g5yFPwXw3lhB9aTGOCci1m46dR8hl9dphNv%7EgQ0vks6roK6B9lLd4jqSSaScFEPH1Im8nQCaCXUMkykjhs8jdrDFPhAVeVyoFbpIHFb16mpKLRGwOUpNXGDftdpZClsGUrc8BWutCM0oemFLMr0nQ54HJ2IyrgTg%7EhqdPjrWaTJI0BkczGo69YDBswFAuIa3axXuxx96TaG6TtCW%7EGz2ADX4WW1kx8PO%7EKtZh-93fLP%7EK7lWenqwJ6b3qrR4su5evkH2Ul%7EV8388%7EJx8kMK4Q1awuSfw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM d9d184bf9d92dcfceaa0d349d2428f69 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Czech Village Businesses & Landmarks Subject The topic of the resource Czech-Americans--Cedar Rapids, IA. Description An account of the resource Photographs and ephemera of Czech Village business and landmarks, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived NCSML Archive SC 1.35.1 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1900-1980s Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Items are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf jpg Language A language of the resource en-us cs Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Still Image Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Cedar Rapids, IA Ely, IA Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data business card Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Frank Dvorak, Cedar Rapids, IA, business card, n.d. Subject The topic of the resource Czech-Americans--Cedar Rapids, IA. Description An account of the resource Business card advertisement for Frank Dvorak, a shoe seller in Cedar Rapids. Card has image of woman (Emma Abbott), Text: 'F. Dvorak, Agt. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Wear Burt Bros.' Fine Shoes.' Reverse side text: 'W.D. Robinson & Co., Wholesale Agents. 182 Jefferson Ave, Detroit-Mich.' Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource pdf Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource n.d. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived NCSML Archive SC 1.35.1 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Cedar Rapids, IA Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource W.D. Robinson & Co. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource No known restrictions on publication. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context SC1351DvorakBusnnd Language A language of the resource en-us business Cedar Rapids Czech Village Dvorak Iowa