New York City, January 29, 2026 --- I’m honored to be joining an extraordinary group of scholars and musicians at the Forging an American Identity conference this January in New York City. The conference opens Wednesday, January 28, at Geffen Hall, Sidewalk Studio, Lincoln Center, and my participation will take place the following day, Thursday, January 29, at the Elebash Recital Hall at the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

On this Friday afternoon in Morrisania, the neighborhood that was once home to 19th-century American composer George Bristow, I walk in search of traces of a life we know so little about. Camera around my neck, notebook in hand, I begin to ask a question for which I know there may be no answer. This is not the Morrisania Bristow once knew, and that’s fine by me.

When I first started researching George Frederick Bristow, I expected the usual: a 19th-century American composer influenced mostly by European traditions. And sure enough, Bristow fits that mold—born in Brooklyn in 1825, the son of an English-born violinist, passionate about creating a national musical identity.