On September 11, 2011 I attended the charity concert presented by the Japan-USA Friendship Disaster Fund at Riverside Church. The concert was performed in honor of the victims of 9/11 and the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan. It began with a brief memorial service during which the people organizing the event introduced themselves, the wife of a firefighter who lost his life on 9/11 spoke out about her experience on that tragic day, and a reverend said a short prayer in honor of all of the victims. The prayer was followed by a performance of Amazing Grace and Hallelujah, both beautifully rendered by the members of the Queens College Orchestra & Chorus. The evening’s program also included a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Air on the G-string and Wolfgang Mozart’s Requiem KV626—the main event of the evening—and concluded with another beautiful rendition of Ave Vernum Corpus.

The entire program was spectacular but the Requiem was probably my favorite part of the evening. For this piece the Queens College Orchestra and Chorus teamed up with the Japan and U.S. Memorial Orchestra and Chorus to produce a truly spine-tingling and heart-wrenching rendition of Mozart’s masterpiece. The composition is beautiful in itself but the performance of the two orchestras was truly worthy of the people they were commemorating with their music. I am truly grateful to have been part of the small group of people gathered in the church to witness a performance that excelled in honoring the memory of those who lost their lives because of two horrible tragedies, and anytime I look at the beautiful origami crane that I received as a gift for being part of this wonderful event I will remember the beautiful performance. I would definitely not give up an opportunity to see a similar program again in the future.

Anyone who could not attend the memorial concert can listen to a rendition of the Lacrimosa–my favorite part of the Requiem–performed by the Cracow Concert Choir and the New Polish Philharmonic here. Hopefully, this small taste will give people a sense of what they missed.