9.11.01

"Gabe, go call the dorm and ask Deb (the dorm mom) to make sure Joe is awake. It's the first rehearsal. Where is he?...Okay let's try this again from the top," Mr. Riccobono said. A couple minutes later Gabe returns from using the phone and says, "Deb just told me that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center in NYC." "Hmmmmmm. Well I think President Downing would want us to continue on with rehearsal."

It was the first day of my Senior year at Interlochen Arts Academy in northern Michigan. We were in brass ensemble.

It was an interesting place to be on 9/11. Many of classmates were from NYC or DC and some of their parents worked in Manhattan or in the Pentagon. For most of us, it was our first time away from home. I had never been to NYC so it was hard for me to imagine that what I saw was real. It made it more real that my new friends were freaking out, worried about their families. Thankfully, to my knowledge, everyone's families were safe. This was before we had cell phones and we didn't have great internet access at the school. I think this was for the best. The tvs were on in the lobbies but on this idyllic lake in the middle of a forest, I wasn't glued to the tv for days watching the coverage. Can you imagine the worst thing in US history in your lifetime happening and you not really watching any news coverage of it? Looking back, that seems sort of hard to believe, but life just went on. I'm not sure my life changed at all until my parents took me to the airport after Christmas break and they couldn't walk past security.

Ten years later, I realize much more the effect the events of that day have had and still have on us. After having a husband and children of my own, I feel more for the people whose husbands and children never came home again because of what happened that day.

On my tour this summer I asked members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir what stands out in their mind as the highlights of their time in the choir. Most of them mentioned 9/11. Apparently they were scheduled to perform that night. They thought for sure it would be cancelled, then got word the performance would happen, but the music would be changed to patriotic music and hymns. President Hinckley was there and spoke words of healing and they mourned those who had died. A man in the choir gave me goose bumps as he said that after the last number, which I believe he said was "God Bless America", the audience all came to their feet including a man in the very front row in a wheelchair who was wearing a veteran's hat. He was very moved by watching this man's resolve to stand up. I think he said that no one even clapped. They just stood and soaked in the moment.

This weekend, the Utah Symphony will be performing a piece by John Adams called "On the Transmigration of Souls" that Adams wrote to commemorate 9/11 and for which he won a Pullitzer Prize and Grammy. The NY Philharmonic premiered it one year after the attacks. Can you imagine what that must have been like for them? Playing it for an audience of people who surely lost friends that day. The piece uses a chorus and a children's chorus who are standing right behind Brian on the stage. Brian said the first day of rehearsals he felt very moved hearing the children sing the text which describes missing persons.

While I didn't get to participate in it, I am very much looking forward to watching the prerecorded 9/11 Mormon Tabernacle Choir with Tom Brokaw special this Sunday. Click here to find channels where you can watch it. Apparently Mr. Brokaw happens to really like the choir's rendition of "Shenandoah." He didn't realize that the choir would be singing Shenandoah in the 9/11 special until he got the script. He told the man driving him from his hotel to the taping that he was really looking forward to hearing it, as he'd never heard them sing it live, only on his ipod. "Well actually, they already recorded that on Tuesday so you won't be hearing it today....but I'll see what I can do." After all the recording work was done, Mack asked the choir and orchestra to perform Shenandoah one more time. They took Mr. and Mrs. Brokaw to a sound booth in the Conference Center where they would hear it the best and said that Mrs. Brokaw got very emotional as they began. Mr. Brokaw rested his elbows on the chair in front of him and covered his face with hands. As the choir finished, he turned and said with tears in his eyes, "All of America has got to watch this broadcast. This is what will bring hope to Americans."

In light of the anniversary this weekend and with everything that has been going on lately in country: earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding, and fires, there is no doubt that these are scary times. I really like what Thomas S. Monson said in the Washington Post this week, "Destruction allows us to rebuild our lives in the way He teaches us, and to become something different than we were. We can make Him the center of our thoughts and His Son, Jesus Christ, the pattern for our behavior. We may not only find faith in God in our sorrow. We may also become faithful to Him in times of calm."