Free Friday in Vienna: Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ to honor JFK

By Kenric Ward

Friday is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Requiem” will be performed as a fitting tribute.

Mozart’s masterpiece will be presented at 8 p.m. at St. Mark Catholic Church, 9970 Vale Road, in Vienna. There is no charge for admission; seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

John F. Kennedy was the first Catholic president of the United States.

The Schiller Institute, which is producing and hosting the program, notes the legendary composer’s final work “expresses Mozart’s passion for the concept of Man, which he saw, in his time, as forming the basis for the establishment of the American republic, that Kennedy would come to promote and defend.

“It is fitting to commemorate the spirit of cultural and economic progress with which Kennedy confronted, and sought to overcome — the terrifying prospects of global war, poverty and human degradation that faced our nation and the world during his time.”

Speaking of Mozart, the Institute notes: “An honest performance of (his) work communicates the same optimism and belief in man’s infinite progress to which Kennedy, following in Franklin Roosevelt’s footsteps, dedicated his life.”

The Schiller Institute was founded in 1984 on the initiative of Helga Zepp-LaRouche, wife of former Democratic presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche, for the purpose of reviving classical culture. The organization is named after Friedrich Schiller, the “Poet of Freedom” whose ”Ode to Joy” is immortalized by Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

For more information about Friday night’s performance, call (703) 771-8390, or email requiemconcert@schillerinstitute.org.

(This article was republished with permission from the author, Kenric Ward.)