60 years ago this month, Yo-Yo Ma gave his first high-profile performance aged seven, in front of President John F. Kennedy. In 2022, he returned to the Kennedy Center to honour the late American politician. John F. Kennedy was assassinated 59 years ago in 1963. Eight years later, the Kennedy Center opened, and over the last 50 years has developed an international reputation for excellence across the arts, with nine total performance areas hosting around 3,000 events annually. In September of this year, the centre opened a new free permanent exhibition titled, ‘Art and Ideals: President John F. Kennedy’, and the gallery was opened with a performance by a Kennedy Center favourite; the American cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Ma played El Cant dels Ocells (Song of the Birds), which in itself he described as a tribute to the Spanish cellist, Pablo Casals, who played the same song for President Kennedy in 1961. “Pablo Casals was inspired what President Kennedy and his administration were trying to do in the world, so accepted an invite to play at the White House,” Ma told the audience at the Kennedy Center exhibition opening.