To tenor Ryan Townsend Strand, in 2020, the thousands of deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic and the events of the horrific September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks seemed too recent, and the wounds too raw, to confront directly through his musical art. So he turned to another shocking moment in the nation’s history as a proxy to begin to come to terms with the grief the two incidents provoked—the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

In collaboration with pianist Karina Kontorovitch, Strand oversaw the creation of Letters to Jackie, a program consisting of 14 song settings of letters of condolence and support written to Jacqueline Kennedy following her husband’s death. The two musicians premiered Letters to Jackie in November 2023 at Chicago’s Epiphany Center for the Arts, marking the 60th anniversary of the assassination. Ravinia will host the second Chicago-area performance November 16 as part of the Fall Series in Bennett Gordon Hall.