on the horizon

The classic image is of The Statue of Liberty emerging from the fog as new Americans sail into New York Harbor.  Perhaps this was the view for the immigrant composers, Gustav Mahler and Béla Bartók.  Or, imagine a glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge from a Pan Am flight on approach to San Francisco International. Was this what Chinary Ung saw as he came to this country for the first time? And what about the idea of America? How do we understand the hope it inspires, the dreams it promises? To answer these questions, we look to recently arrived Americans and to established
(or very established) Americans and even to future Americans to understand the music of our shared continent.