The Schiller Institute NYC Chorus was back in the historic Little Italy district in the Bronx on September 15, 2024, to present the 9/11 Memorial Concert:
Tragedy & Hope- Restoring the Classical Tradition in America. 

The inspiring commemoration of the tragedy of September 11, 2001, Tragedy & Hope, took place at Our Lady of Mt Carmel RC Church, and was addressed by FDNY Chaplain Msgr. Jamie Gigantiello with the FDNY Ceremonial Unit Color Guard. Please take a look at the concert program attached below as you watch this phenomenal event which presented the world dialogue of cultures that formed the American Classical Tradition.

YouTube

PROGRAM

Further reading

American music itself is very much what people brought to these shores from diverse circumstances around the world. Alongside native melodies, it was all brought together into a new classical school of music by the courageous efforts of Jeanette Thurber who created the National Conservatory of Music of America with the crucial role of Antonín Dvořák as director in the early 1890s and his collaboration with H.T. Burleigh. 

You'll hear for the first time a new arrangement for America's anthem, My Country 'Tis of Thee, by Schiller Institute music historian Fred Haight, originally composed by Dvořák to replace the music for the American anthem from the British anthem, God Save the King.

You'll also see the theme for another anthem, Battle Hymn of the Republic, which made it's way from an early 19th century Slavonic church composition of the 26th Psalm by Ukrainian-Russian composer Dmitry Bortniansky, to the tune of abolitionist camp song, John Brown's Body, and finally to the words of Julia Ward Howe during the Civil War.

The program includes the works of Brahms, Dvořák, H.T. Burleigh, Hall Johnson, Verdi & more.

Special guest artists:

The NEO String Quartet, led by Jungwon Yoon
Elvira Green, soprano
Everett Suttle, tenor
Linda Childs, contralto
Michelle Erin, soprano
Dura Jun, pianist