THE MUSIC OF JFK: In December, it was announced that the Nasher Sculpture Center co-commissioned Steve Mackey to write a string quartet to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy Assassination. The piece, One Red Rose, made its debut on Tuesday night at Carnegie Hall with the Brentano String Quartet performing. “Heartfelt in effect and fascinating in detail, One Red Rose showed Mr. Mackey’s expert grasp of the string quartet idiom: not only the timbres, textures and expressive effects of its component instruments, but also the genre’s distinctive capacities for parity, transparency and discernible impact of disparate, simultaneous threads,” Steve Smith writes on nytimes.com.

STUDY UP: The Quaker City Night Hawks play their big CD release show tonight at Magnolia Motor Lounge in Fort Worth. Expect just about everything from the band’s latest effort, Honcho, which has local music writers quite pleased. If you’re headed out to the show (or even if you just want to hear new stuff from one of North Texas’ top live acts), check out features this week on fweeekly.com and dfw.com.

CONGRATS TO THE CARTER: The Amon Carter Museum of American Art has been named a finalist for the 2013 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. The award is given out by the  Institute of Museum and Library Services and honors institutions for community service. The winners of the $5,000 award will be announced in late April.

TUNE IN ALERT: Classical music fans will want to make sure they don’t sleep too late on Saturday. That’s because the Dallas Symphony Orchestra will be the featured orchestra on NPR’s From the Top, which is broadcast at 9 a.m. on WRR Classical 101. (That being said, you can already listen to the show online.) The episode was taped in early January and features North Texas’ best young musicians: pianist Aakash Patel of Carrolton, cellist Russell Houston of Richardson, and composer Chase Dobson of Dallas.