Just days before making his Ravinia debut on November 16 with a solo concert in Bennett Gordon Hall, the 2021 American Prize–winning tenor Ryan Townsend Strand makes his solo recording debut with music from his signature song project Letters to Jackie. The specially commissioned songs from composers across generations—Augusta Read Thomas, Jen Shyu, Will Liverman, Tom Cipullo, Libby Larsen, Nicholas Cline, Adore Alexander, Skyler Butenshon, Matthew Recio, Timothy C. Takach, and Erik Pearson—set to letters to Jacqueline Kennedy after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. The album, Dear Mrs. Kennedy, is being released by Sono Luminus on November 8; the Ravinia concert performance also features songs by B.E. Boykin, Aaron Helgeson, and LJ White written for Letters to Jackie.
Tenor Ryan Townsend Strand and pianist Karina Kontorovitch premiered Letters to Jackie at the Epiphany Center for the Arts in Chicago in November 2023 and bring an encore to Ravinia on November 16 following further performances around the US and in celebration of Dear Mrs. Kennedy, their recording of many of the song cycle’s original works. (Photo: Atlas Arts Media)
Currently the executive director of the Chicago-based Constellation Men’s Ensemble, Strand began conversations with the composers during the COVID-19 quarantines, building on a concept from his master’s recital at Northwestern University a decade earlier, where he worked with Letters to Jackie collaborator pianist Karina Kontorovitch. That program, combining songs from across the Romantic and contemporary classical canon with several original works, was developed on the heels of the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination and the releases of a book and a documentary highlighting the then-forgotten letters that had poured in to Jackie Kennedy in the months and years after the president’s death. Strand’s Letters to Jackie was premiered in 2023 in commemoration of the 60th anniversary, at the Epiphany Center for the Arts in Chicago.
Letters to Jackie shares the spirit that produced those original productions and research, providing a medium through which to safely explore grief and spark conversation on the importance of human connection. Strand says, “This project gives voice to these important letters. When words are important enough to write, they gain the power of history. When words are important enough to sing, they gain the power of humanity.” Rather than President Kennedy or First Lady Jackie explicitly, Strand conceived the central character in this cycle as grief itself—the grief of a nation. Under the guidance and principles of equal representation, the cycle includes voices of differing sex, gender, race, creed, and citizenship to offer hope, community, and access.
Dear Mrs. Kennedy is produced by Grammy-winning music producer Elaine Martone; engineered, edited, mixed, and mastered by Daniel Shores; and executive produced by Collin J. Rae of Sono Luminus, with album artwork by Désirée Kelly, from a commissioned painting of Jacqueline Kennedy. Letters to Jackie concert tickets are available at Ravinia.org. ◼