Musical remembrance of JFK’s final speech to premiere in Boulder

Boulder’s’ Neil Bicknell was there in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy gave his final speech at Amherst College in honor of Robert Frost.

It was Bicknell’s idea to turn the occasion into the concert “The Last Speech,“ which will have its world premiere performance on Sunday at the Colorado Music Festival, along with a new piece honoring the anniversary of Chautauqua. 

Oct. 26, 1963, was, Neil Bicknell recalls simply, “a memorable day.”

It was the day that he and his fellow seniors at Amherst College heard Kennedy deliver a speech at the convocation of the Robert Frost Library at the Massachusetts liberal arts college.

Frost, who’d been a friend of the president, had recently died, so it seemed fitting that JFK would be invited to speak of the great poet. No one realized that this would be his final speech. And what a remarkable speech it was.

Bicknell, now 80 and a Boulder resident, has done more than recall that unforgettable occasion, in which Kennedy wove the poetry of Frost with stirring words encouraging those Amherst graduates to make good use of their education. He told them, “Privilege is here, and with privilege goes responsibility.”

Years later, as an organizer of Amherst’s 50^th reunion committee, Bicknell began to think about the relevance of JFK’s words – and he worked to bring them back to life.

“I wanted to do a documentary,” he said. “We talked with filmmakers and then I decided to produce a book and a website.”

The film, “JFK: The Last Speech,” made by Bester Cram, premiered in 2018 at the Kennedy Library.

But there would be more. There would be music – a cantata, to be premiered on Sunday in Boulder’s Chautauqua Auditorium, when Peter Oundjian conducts the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra and soloists in Adolphus Hailstork’s “JFK: The Last Speech.”

The idea for this work came easily enough, though bringing it to life took a circuitous journey.

“I spoke with Robert Freeman, who’s head of the Eastman School (of Music),” Bicknell said. “He was the one who suggested a piece of music.”

As a longtime fan of the Chautauqua festival, the Boulder resident became an acquaintance of Oundjian, and had brought up the concept of turning “The Last Speech” into a symphonic work. Bicknell had attempted to convince another orchestra, with no success.

“I’d offered to commission the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the (D.C.-based) National Symphony. No takers. But Peter really liked the idea.”

Bicknell provided the text, blending the words of Frost and Kennedy.

“I wanted to have the poetry sung, as if from an oracle on high, commenting on JFK’s words. The president had referenced several poems in his speech. Most of all, I wanted to convey his message. I wanted to create a conversation between Frost and JFK. I worked on it for months and months.”

But then, who would compose the music? The search began. There were a few close calls: Jennifer Higdon was interested, but she had too much of a backlog, Bicknell said.

Oundjian proposed a name: Adolphus Hailstork, a Virginia-based composer and university professor, who had written a number of oratorio-style works, combining spoken and sung words with orchestral backdrops.

“Peter talked with the head of Carnegie Hall, who connected him with Dr. Hailstork,” Bicknell said.

It didn’t take long for the two men to strike a deal. “When I talked with him, he just said, ‘I can work with this,” Bicknell recalled. Simple as that.

“Yes, Peter recommended me – that’s how I got the job,” Hailstork said in a call from his Virginia home. “I skimmed through the (“Last Speech”) book. It came together. I did my job. That’s why I’m called a composer.”

He started work by imagining the scene on that crisp New England day in late October.

“That’s part of my craft – word painting. Generally, I’m detached when I write. I saw (the speech) as an event on a lovely autumn morning. I took a more delicate approach. This is not a boisterous piece, though it opens with a fanfare, giving an image of the president.”

Frost’s poetry will be sung by soprano Janice Chandler-Eteme, with excerpts from Kennedy’s Amherst speech read by Metropolitan Opera bass Eric Owens.

Incidentally, the work has been scheduled for future performances in Dallas, Washington D.C., Indianapolis and at Amherst and Yale University, with several of those concerts led by Oundjian.

Hailstork referred to this work as one of his “dramatic cantatas.”

Among them are “Rise for Freedom,” about the Underground Railroad, and “A Knee on the Neck,” a requiem for George Floyd.

In writing this piece for the CMF, Hailstork fed off of Bicknell’s experience witnessing the speech. “The whole concept was his,” the composer said. “Those students were so touched by attending that event.”

Indeed, no one hearing that speech could have imagined what would unfold 27 days later in Dallas.

“I will say this,” Bicknell recalled, “We were inspired. Five percent of our class later joined the Peace Corps. Soon after the assassination, the president of Amherst (Calvin Plimpton) called us together and said, ‘Let us do the work, to complete what he encouraged us to do.’ It didn’t sink in back then. But one of my friends told me that he signed up for the Peace Corps the day after the speech.”

Memories live on for each of those Amherst students – one in particular lives with a singular recollection, Bicknell recounted.

“Early that morning he went to the gym to practice some squash. When he walked into a nearby room, there was JFK, totally alone, standing there, practicing his speech.”