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[drumming]

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Kevin Newbury: 
"This is my church.

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This is where I go to ask 
questions and to find healing, 
and to find common ground."

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Leslie Stifelman: "I love 
walking around the grounds 
when people are watching 
other concerts. And

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seeing their intensity, intense 
listening, intense back and 
forth between the artists

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even if they're at the very 
very back of the lawn. There is 
something very personal here.

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It feels like our essence 
and our core as artists 
is just in the trees."

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Marin Alsop: "This piece, the 
'Mass' by Leonard Bernstein, is 
one of the most avant-gardes,

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it's a piece filled with risk. 
It's a piece that challenges 
us. It's a piece that

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comes at us with arms 
wide open and also says

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I'm gonna make you think 
about the world you live in."

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JFK: "We have a special 
responsibility to the arts,

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for art is the great Democrat,

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calling forth creative genius 
from every sector of society.

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Disregarding race or 
religion or wealth or color."

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Alsop: "When 
Bernstein was asked by

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JFK's widow, Jackie 
Kennedy Onassis,

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to write a piece for the 
opening of the Kennedy 
Center. He thought okay

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what is singular to JFK? And 
the fact that Kennedy was the 
only Roman Catholic president,

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came up into his mind and 
he said okay. I'm gonna 
use the mass, you know, 
the really the iconic

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representation of Catholicism, 
to hang all of these ideas on 
and use it as a structure, a

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framework, and a journey. 
So it's not really a mass 
per se but he uses all the

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sections of the mass. All 
the sort of implications 
of the offertory, the 
communion, the confession.

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He uses all those in a 
way to tell his story."

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Alexander Bernstein: "My father 
always, of course, has been a

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champion of social justice, 
of peace. He put all of that

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into 'Mass.' Also, he 
was a man of faith. He 
was very spiritual."

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Jamie Bernstein: 
"It's about something 
complicated. It's about a

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crisis of faith, my father's 
crisis of faith, but also

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America's crisis of faith. And 
it was you know the early 1970s

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we were still very much in 
the turbulence of the 1960s.

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And this is what the 
piece was born out of."

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Alsop: "It was such a 
critical moment in the 
history of the United States

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particularly because of 
the situation in Vietnam, 
because of the transition to

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Civil rights and 
that whole movement.

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It was a hot moment 
in our history."

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A. Bernstein: "And the 
opening, of course, was nuts

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so much publicity 
and excitement."

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J. Bernstein: "It's 
hard to convey how

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crazy the whole thing was.

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It was the opening of 
the Kennedy Center and 
it was in Washington D.C. 
and all the dignitaries

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were there and then the 
government brass. And so the 
whole thing was already mega.

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And you know, everybody 
was so gussied up, and the 
building was opening, and 
the piece was premiering.

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It was all very uncomfortable 
and nervous-making."

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Alsop: "'Mass' I think is 
the ultimate moralistic 
story for Bernstein.

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This is the story about 
tolerance, about questioning, 
about belief, about love,

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about unity, about brotherhood, 
about humankind. I think it's 
one of the most beautiful

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stories ever told and it feels 
more relevant today than in 
1971 when it was premiered.

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And people really didn't 
know what to make of it."

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J. Bernstein: "So there is a 
part in 'Mass' where they read 
from letters it's a normal

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part of Catholic liturgy 
and Kevin Newbury, the 
director, came up with 
this fantastic idea,

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in which he invited members 
of the street chorus to 
contribute their own letters,

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that speak to issues that 
we feel passionate about 
today or that make us feel 
in some way in prison.

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And so that lends this 
production an extra 
quality of immediacy that 
I think is very powerful."