With the Vietnam War at its height and serious civil unrest sweeping the country, one of the 20th century’s most respected composers sought to produce a work that would both challenge and unify a deeply divided America. After his decade-spanning tenure leading the New York Philharmonic concluded in 1969, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis asked Leonard Bernstein to compose a work to commemorate the inauguration of the Kennedy Center in 1971. The son of Russian-Jewish parents took inspiration from the Roman Catholic Mass, pulling elements from a centuries-old tradition and fusing them with decidedly modern music and lyrics.
Bernstein’s Mass
Fri & Sun, $20
Hammer Theatre Center
