Stanford joins National Requiem of Remembrance commemorating the 10th anniversary of 9/11

"This event will be a fitting way for all of us who participate to pay tribute – whether as performers on the platform, or as members of the audience seated in the congregation," said Gregory Wait, conductor and music director of Schola Cantorum. (Photo: Linda A. Cicero / Stanford News Service)

Stanford will commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with a performance of Mozart's Requiem in D Minor at Memorial Church, as choruses across the country join in a National Requiem of Remembrance.

The performance, which will feature Schola Cantorum, an 80-member chorus based in Mountain View, is free and open to the public. It will be held at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 11, at Stanford Memorial Church, located in the university's Main Quad.

The chorus will be joined by Robert Huw Morgan, university organist at Stanford; celebrated soloists Christine Abraham (soprano), Malin Fritz Walrod (alto), Victor Floyd (tenor) and Jeffrey Fields (baritone); and local musicians.

Schola Cantorum is one of more than 60 choruses that will sing Mozart's immortal work – in individual or combined performances – in a National Requiem of Remembrance honoring the nearly 3,000 people who perished as a result of the attacks. The performances will begin on the East Coast and roll, hour by hour, across the United States to culminate in performances in Hawaii.

It will be the second time Schola Cantorum and Stanford's Office for Religious Life have collaborated in a memorial performance of Mozart's Requiem to honor the victims of 9/11. On the first anniversary of the attacks, the chorus led a community singing of the requiem at Memorial Church, as part of a "Rolling Requiem" by choirs across the United States and around the world.

"We who have made our life's work the choral art know the power and impact of joining in community to sing with one voice," said Gregory Wait, conductor and music director of Schola Cantorum and the director of vocal studies in the Department of Music at Stanford.

"This event will be a fitting way for all of us who participate to pay tribute – whether as performers on the platform, or as members of the audience seated in the congregation."

The Rev. Scotty McLennan, dean for religious life at Stanford, will preside over the one-hour service, which will include the dean's reflections and candle lighting.

On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists from the extremist group al-Qaida hijacked four commercial passenger airplanes. They deliberately crashed two of the planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and crashed a third plane into the Pentagon in Arlington, Va. After learning about the other attacks, passengers on the fourth hijacked plane, Flight 93, are believed to have fought back, and the plane crashed into an empty field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people, including hundreds of rescue workers, died in the attacks.

Editor Note:

Media wishing to cover the performance should contact Elaine Ray, University Communications: (650) 723-7162 (office), (650) 387-0636, elaineray@stanford.edu.

-30-