50 years ago today: Erich Leinsdorf announces the death of President Kennedy at Symphony Hall

November 22, 2013 at 12:18 pm

By Lawrence A. Johnson

The Boston Symphony Orchestra was playing a Friday matinee November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.  Erich Leinsdorf, BSO music director, made the announcement from the stage of Symphony Hall, a historic moment captured on a live radio broadcast. Leinsdorf and the orchestra performed the Funeral March from Beethoven’s “Eroica” symphony as a spontaneous tribute.

Was anyone in Symphony Hall that day that remembers the event?

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