On September 11, 2001, I was teaching at Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School - just north of Boston. I received the shocking news just as I was entering my class of 100 singers, Concert Choir, and it was a “long block” - that meant that I would be with these students for 90 minutes. We listened to WBUR and students were free to make phone calls or sit outside on the grass. They were all serious and quiet. My overwhelming feeling was that the lives of these students would never be the same.
It was the following April that I traveled with a select group of these same students. We went to New York City to sing at St. Patrick’s and other venues. We visited Ground Zero and the students were sober and respectful. Our afternoon concert was right at Ground Zero, at St. Paul’s Chapel which had provided sanctuary for the firefighters, police officers and construction workers. This beautiful Episcopal chapel had a balcony that wrapped around the inside. As I was about to introduce our final piece, I asked the students if they could space themselves around the balcony. They did that in a flash. As I translated the Hebrew round we were about to sing, I realized the depth of meaning that these words had to all of my singers and all who listened: Lamentations 5:21 Hashivenu, Adonai, chadesh yamenu kekedem - “Turn us back, O Lord, renew our days as of old.” As the students began singing the lament, the chapel was silent and no one moved. My arms did little in the way of conducting my young singers. The prickle that went up my back from heels to the top of my head, remained there for the three minutes of this haunting song. If you were to ask any of these 30 singers about their most profound musical experience, each one would tell you: “Singing Hashivenu at the “church of the dust.”