JFK Remarks Before White House Youth Concert

Apr. 16, 1962 - President Kennedy and his wife entertained nearly 600 young people today at a musicale on the south lawn of the White House. The sun was shining as the 104-piece Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra opened the concert with Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man.” Within a few minutes, as an ensemble of the Breckenridge Boys Choir of Breckenridge, Tex., performed “The First Swallow,” the sun went behind a cloud and stayed there. However, the orchestra, the choir, and the audience of junior and senior high school students got a warm welcome from the President and Mrs. Kennedy. In a brief speech, the President said that music “is a part of American life which I think is somewhat unheralded around the world.” “But,” he said, “this emphasis on artistic achievement in music, I think, is a source of satisfaction and pride to us all.”