The 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration will be commemorated next year with the recreation of two significant White House concerts. The Kennedy Centre will host the events, which will be based on performances by Pablo Casals and Grace Brumby.

In the first event, Yo-Yo Ma and Emanuel Ax will be among the performers in a recreation of a performance led by Casals that followed a state banquet in 1961. In the second, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves will sing selections from a concert given by Grace Brumby for the Kennedys in 1962.

The Kennedy Centre will also mark the anniversary with a dance programme by the American Ballet Theater made up of favourite dances of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and with the premiere of a newly commissioned work by Peter Lieberson based on Kennedy’s speeches.