NIU singers to join worldwide Sept. 11 performance

by Mark McGowan

Voices from the NIU School of Music will join others from around the world to honor those lost and those who helped during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with a round-the-clock performance of Mozart's "Requiem in D Minor."

The "Rolling Requiem" begins at 8:46 a.m. (the time of the first attack) in New Zealand and the Philippines, and then again an hour later one time zone west, and again an hour after that in the next time zone west and so on until it crosses the globe.

NIU students and alumni will sing at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel on the campus of the University of Chicago as either members of the Bach Chamber Choir of Rockford or the Voce Nordica of DeKalb, both led by NIU Director of Choral Activities Eric Johnson.

The program starts at 8 p.m. with readings by NBC-Channel 5 morning news anchor Dick Johnson and a performance of "Prayer for the Children" by Voce Nordica. The performance of Mozart's "Requiem," a liturgical mass for the dead, begins at 8:46 p.m. after a minute of silence.

Others in the mass choir conducted by Peter Lipari, NIU Opera Workshop music director, include the Downers Grove Choral Society and the Elmhurst Choral Union. Soloists are soprano Alfreda Burke, mezzo soprano Stacy Eckert, tenor Thomas Dymit and baritone Paul Grizzell. The West Suburban Symphony Orchestra of Hinsdale will accompany the singers.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for our music students at Northern to use their musical gifts for a greater cause," Eric Johnson said. "It is a great honor to join with so many music organizations to commemorate the events of 9/11. I anticipate it to be a very emotional experience."

"The Rolling Requiem can serve as a reaffirmation of love and support for one another," according to the group's Web site at www.rollingrequiem.org. "In the same way that so many reached out to help immediately after the attack, it is hoped that this effort and the unified singing will make a difference for many people, while also serving to commemorate the first anniversary."

The concept comes from Seattle.

Shortly after the completion of the Seattle Symphony's "Requiem" concerts in January, one of the basses in the chorus shared a powerful story of his chance meeting with a woman who attended the opening night performance.

She told him of her vision during the concert: have the best choruses in the country ring the area around Ground Zero to perform the Requiem after the clean-up was completed. There would be one voice for each person lost.

This brought a group of Seattle Symphony Chorale members together to formally explore the idea. Committee volunteers have met on a weekly basis since to discuss the vision, develop a course of action and implement it.

After the first performances west of the International Dateline in New Zealand and the Philippines, it crosses the ocean to Japan, Siberia and China and flows on to Africa, India and Italy. It soars across another ocean and touches Brazil, Guatemala and New York.

Then, it moves across North America and South America, and on through islands in the Pacific, as it completes its circle. Each choir member will make a heart badge for the concert, which will include a name from the list.

In addition, the committee proposes that international choirs perform at 8:46 a.m. EST at the three sites where lives were lost: Ground Zero, the Pentagon and Somerset County, Pa. These choirs would be made up of singers chosen by lottery by officials in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania.

One of the choirs performing a memorial program that day in New York City — the Choir of Clare College from Cambridge, England — will deliver a concert at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17, in the Boutell Memorial Concert Hall.

Under the direction of Tim Brown, the Clare College Choir exists primarily to sing regular choral services in the college chapel, but it also gives frequent concerts in the United Kingdom and abroad as well as contributing to the Choral Evensong broadcasts on BBC Radio 3.

The concert, sponsored by the Campus Activities Board and the NIU Music Society, is free and open to the public. A free-will donation will be taken.

"Clare College Choir is a world-class ensemble," Johnson said. "We are very fortunate to have the opportunity to hear the best of the English choral tradition here on our own campus."

For more information, call Johnson at 753-7984.