On November 24, 1963, two days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Leonard Bernstein conducted Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony with the New York Philharmonic on a nationally televised memorial to the slain president. Three days later, Bernstein spoke before an audience of 18,000 at Madison Square Garden, where he delivered his famous words: “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” Bernstein affirmed that in the face of tragedy, we are not helpless: we have art, the utmost expression of our humanity, with which to chase out the dark.
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