Concert, other ceremonies will mark 25th anniversary of 9/11
Concert, other ceremonies will mark 25th anniversary of 9/11
On that Tuesday morning a quarter-century ago, Mitchell Stecker vividly recalls being herded out to the playground at Washington Park Elementary School.
“I remember that clear blue sky,” said Stecker.
It was shortly after the start of the school year, and Stecker was in the fourth grade and not yet 10. He became ill when he was outside and had to leave. It was when he was back in the building that a teacher explained why the air was thick with bewilderment and tension.
That morning was, of course, Sept. 11, 2001, when the United States sustained the worst-ever foreign attack on its soil and the world experienced its deadliest terrorist attack.
Along with all the solemnity that’s been attached to the anniversary of 9/11 in all the years since, this year’s commemorations arrive with the sobering realization that at least a third of all Americans alive today were not yet born when the events of Sept. 11, 2001, unfolded, and an additional batch was too young when it happened to carry any memories of it, or the memories they do have are hazy and vague.
Stecker acknowledges that it’s “strange” to think that he and other people in their mid-30s are probably on the youngest end of the spectrum of people who still carry distinct memories of 9/11. That day was “a before-and-after dividing point” for the country, he said.
Now the music director of the Washington Festival Chorale, Stecker helped choose some of the material for a free 9/11 remembrance concert that will be happening at Immaculate Conception Church in Washington at 7 p.m. Saturday. The Washington Festival Chorale will be teaming up with the Washington Symphony Orchestra for the concert, which will feature selections that blend the somber with the hopeful.
This is the second time both groups have come together to commemorate 9/11 – the first was in 2011, when they both used, in the words of Washington Symphony Orchestra conductor Yugo Ikach, the “gorgeous, cathedral-like setting” of Immaculate Conception Church for a memorial concert. Ikach said the concert will underscore the healing nature of music and that “we learn to persevere.”
The concert will include Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings,” “Requiem for the Living,” by choral composer Dan Forrest, “I Dream a World,” by jazz great Dave Brubeck, and “Bring Me All Your Dreams,” by Christopher H. Harris, a contemporary choral composer from Texas.
“We’ll honor the loss of that day and consider how we can move into a way of living that doesn’t involve violence,” Stecker said.
While the concert itself is free, advance registration is strongly encouraged. That can be done at washsym.org/concerts/community-events.
The concert is one of several events marking the anniversary of 9/11 on Friday and Saturday in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties.
Because of construction at the site of the former Washington Mall on Oak Springs Road, South Strabane’s annual 9/11 memorial service will be at Tanger Outlets on Racetrack Road. It will start Friday at 8:45 a.m., around the time the first airplane hit the World Trade Center. It will be at the outlet mall this year due to ongoing construction at the site of the former Washington Mall, where the township has a 9/11 memorial.
About 30 miles away, in Carmichaels, another 9/11 memorial will be getting underway at the same time. It’s the only 9/11 remembrance planned in Greene County and six fire departments will be participating. “A Fireman’s Prayer” will be recited, as will the poem “Tears of a Cop.” Musical selections will be performed by the Carmichaels Area Band and the band from American Legion Post 400. Tim Solobay, the former state lawmaker from Canonsburg, will be the speaker.
On Saturday, a 5K run and walk benefitting the Tunnel to Towers Foundation will start at Canonsburg Memorial Stadium on Jefferson Avenue at 8 a.m. The Tunnels to Towers Foundation was established in the name of Stephen Siller, a New York firefighter who ran from the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. He was one of the 343 firefighters who died that day.
In nearby Cecil Township, the anniversary of 9/11 will be marked by an event at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies that will have volunteers cleaning headstones and other beautification projects. The National Cemetery of the Alleghenies is among the 144 national cemeteries participating in the National Day of Service and Remembrance being organized by Carry the Load, a nonprofit organization that recognizes the work done by first responders, military personnel and others. It will start at 10 a.m.
Eldersville’s annual 9/11 remembrance service is set for Saturday at 1 p.m. at the White Church building on Fire Road, across from the Jefferson Township Fire Hall.
In Fayette County, Connellsville will be having a remembrance service at its Veterans Plaza at 6 p.m. It will include a number of local officials, including state Rep. Ryan Warner and Mayor Greg Lincoln, first responders, patriotic music, representatives of the Connellsville Veterans of Foreign Wars post and more.
Also, Common Ground Ministries of Broken Arrow, Okla., and Mountaintop Faith Ministries of Stahlstown, Pa., are holding a memorial and prayer service in front of the Fayette County Courthouse at noon Friday.