From Carnegie Hall in New York to the global stage of the Super Bowl, this reflection considers how American cultural identity continues to evolve. In the wake of Bad Bunny’s historic 2026 halftime performance, where Puerto Rican culture and Spanish-language music reached an unprecedented mass audience, this essay asks what it means to inherit, transform, and reimagine identity in the United States, just as George Frederick Bristow and his contemporaries did more than a centu

Qualiton occupies a distinctive place in the history of recorded music as a cultural endeavor. Founded in Buenos Aires in the mid-twentieth century, the label emerged at a moment when recording technology, artistic ambition, and questions of cultural memory converged. Qualiton was conceived not merely as a commercial venture, but as a platform for documenting and disseminating music of substance—classical, folkloric, contemporary, and experimental—often at a time when such re

As I complete work on a documentary film about George Frederick Bristow, nearing its release, last Friday marked a remarkable moment in New York: the long-awaited premiere of Bristow’s Fifth Symphony, The Niagara, finally heard at Carnegie Hall. The concert, presented by the American Symphony Orchestra under Leon Botstein, crowned a week-long Bristow celebration that included conferences and conversations at Lincoln Center, The Century Association, and the CUNY Graduate Cente