A lesson in JFK tribute by Bernstein

Several Oct. 14 anniversaries are reminders of the memorial's meaning.

- MARK SWED

Luque Photography / Martha Graham Dance Company

MARTHA Graham Dance Company in the world premiere of "En Masse" at the Soraya on Oct. 4.

Tuesday, Oct. 14, would have been the 32nd birthday of Charlie Kirk, the right-wing political influencer slain last summer.

It is a birthday shared by George Floyd Jr., asphyxiated by arresting police in 2020 and who would have been 52. The horror of these tragedies has roiled a divisive society, but must they now demand a political battleground of opposing memorials?

The concept of a civic memorial has long and often been, in Western culture, the privilege of classical music. Music may be permitted to speak not of specifics but the essence of grief, a collective cherishing of existence.

There happens to be another anniversary, Tuesday, to acknowledge. Leonard Bernstein, a great gatherer of differences in his music, died Oct. 14, 1990, at 72. And all around us, as we approach the 35th anniversary of his death, are reminders of Bernstein as the megastar memorializer of the 35th president of the United States, and what those tributes to John F. Kennedy might mean for us today.

The must-see Los Angeles Opera production of “West Side Story,” which closed Sunday, is by Francesca Zambello, who heads Washington National Opera at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and where she is slated to mount her production of Bernstein's classic musical in May. Recently at the So-raya in Northridge, Martha Graham Dance Company gave the world premiere of “En Masse,” which is based on Bernstein's “MASS,” written to open the Kennedy Center, where “En Masse,” too, is headed in the spring.