Epiphany Center for the Arts

Letters To Jackie

November 19, 2023

Description

Letters to Jackie is a body of collected works based on the letters in the national archives representing the collective grief of people over the tragedy of the assassination of JFK.  It is a touchstone for turning inward and experiencing grief through the lens of a national tragedy. LTJ invites listeners on a communal journey to safely explore grief and spark conversation on the importance of human connection.

Letters to Jackie offers a glimpse into a touchstone moment in American history, representing the audience in which it serves and for which it is performed.  Under the guidance and principles of equal representation, the cycle includes voices of differing sex, gender, race, creed, and citizenship to offer hope, community, and access.

There is power in the written word. The words we say often go unremembered, spilling out into our world and often never reaching another’s ear. When words are important enough to write, they gain the power of history. On November 22, 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, TX while sitting next to his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy. For years to come after this infamous day, letters were written to Jackie, expressing condolences and confusion, the spectrum of grief memorialized in the written word. This project seeks to give voice to those letters, providing community for an audience, and sharing in that collective grief. As opposed to an expose about who JFK was, Letters To Jackie seeks to centralize Grief as the main character of this experience, allowing people to resonate with the universal idea of loss through music, media, and community.

The world-premiere performance of Letters to Jackie will take place on November 19, 2023 in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy performed by Ryan Townsend Strand, tenor and Karina Kontorovitch, piano.

Letters to Jackie is an expansion of an earlier composition “Bethesda, Maryland: Nov 23, 1963" by composer, Erik Pearson.  Ryan Townsend Strand and Erik Pearson won first prize in the 2019 Chicago SongSlam Competition for their performance of this work. Click here for more information.