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President Kennedy Welcomes Composer Igor Stravinsky to White House

Jan. 19, 1962 - President Kennedy entertained composer Igor Stravinsky (right) at a small White House dinner last night. Mr. Stravinsky, Russian-born, is now a citizen of the United States. He is in Washington this week to conduct the Washington Opera Society in three performances of his opera “Oedipus Rex.” The guests, in addition to Mr. and Mrs. Stravinsky, included Leonard Bernstein, conductor of the New York Philharmonic, and Mrs. Bernstein; Princess Stanislas Radziwill, Mrs. Kennedy’s sister; Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a Presidential assistant, and Mrs. Schlesinger; and Robert Craft, a musical associate of Mr. Stravinsky. Both Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Stravinsky have Harvard backgrounds. Mr. Stravinsky taught there in 1939-40, the year Mr. Kennedy was a senior. The two men did not know each other at the time.

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