In 2015, the Millennium Chamber Symphony celebrated the life and legacy of President John F. Kennedy at The New York Public Library for Performing Arts. On May 20, Millennium Chamber Symphony will perform there once again.  This time they will celebrate Kennedy’s centennial and pay tribute to the artistic leadership of the Kennedy White House in the concert,  A JFK Centennial, Return to the Human Spirit and The Kennedy White House Concerts 1961-1963.

I spoke with Alexander Wu, Millennium Chamber Symphony co-founder and pianist and co-founder and fellow pianist Anna Maria Manalo about their vision of creating an interactive experience.

In preparing for the concert, Wu grew to admire Kennedy’s record of achievement. “He had done so much in such a short time,” said Wu.

“I started to do some research and  I discovered that Kennedy  and his wife Jacqueline were great supporters of the arts and had these programs at the White House called the White House Concerts and invited over 200 artists in that short time span of his administration,” said Wu.  “The concerts encouraged Americans to explore and enjoy music in its many forms on a scale larger than any presidency had done before.”

MCS strives to make the concert experience interactive. The event will feature poetry, multi-media screen images. and a short documentary about Kennedy. “We give them (the audience) information about the music or the composer’s background on the times he or she lived in, what inspired the composer to write the music,” said Wu. “When we speak about the music, it changes the listener’s awareness and they listen differently,” he added.

The concert will also feature young artists who will be performing with the musicians. “We want to give young people real life experience as to what it’s like to be a musician and also what it’s like to be working in an adult environment,” said Wu. “It gives them a chance to see why they are doing this as well,”

The event will feature music that was performed at the White House Concerts including that of artists who performed there, such as Leonard Bernstein,  Aaron Copeland, and Duke Ellington, among others. "We want to recreate some of the music that was heard," said Wu. "It stemmed from everything from the classical music of Pablo Cassas to the first jazz musicians who went to the White House such as Dave Brubeck and Tony Bennett to African American opera singer, Grace Bumbry and the great spiritual singer Mahalia Jackson."

“For this upcoming program we wanted a program that would bring people together, to celebrate the moment in the presidency where they made a concerted effort to bring the arts to the White House and American people” said co-founder and fellow pianist Anna Maria Manalo.

"He was trying to bring humanity into everyone's life and that why people gravitated toward him," said Wu. "This is a tribute to what Kennedy left with us and continues to pass on to others. It does affect the next generation."

The Kennedy White House : family life and pictures, 1961-1963 / Carl Sferrazza Anthony

An intimate scrapbook of more than three hundred full-color and black-and-white photographs featuring America's most famous presidential family offers a realistic portrait of the Kennedys in the White House, from 1961 to 1963.

Kennedy through the lens : how photography and television revealed and shaped an extraordinary leader / Martin W. Sandler.

Provides insight into how John F. Kennedy used the new medium of television and the advances in color photography to further his ambitious agenda, providing an intimate portrait of a great American leader.

Camelot's court : inside the Kennedy White House / Robert Dallek.

Presents an authoritative portrait of John F. Kennedy and his inner circle of advisors who, despite being the best and the brightest, ignited fiery debates behind closed doors due to their personal ambitions and clashing beliefs.

The Soviet Cuban Missile Crisis : Castro, Mikoyan, Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the missiles of November / Sergo Mikoyan ; edited by Svetlana Savranskaya.

Explores the origins of the Soviet-Cuban diplomatic relationship and reveals how misunderstandings between these two nations exacerbated the Cuban Missile Crisis.

American tragedy : Kennedy, Johnson, and the origins of the Vietnam War / David Kaiser.

Documents the origin of American involvement in the Vietnam War and how the policies in the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations led to war.

The Kennedy assassination [videorecording] : 24 hours after / produced by Time Travel Unlimited, LLC for History ; producer/writer/director, Anthony Giacchino.

Follows the events immediately of the Kennedy assassination in Fort Worth, Tex., Nov. 21, 1963, including Lyndon Johnson's assumption of the presidency.