Regards, Ivan
Posted on 09/09/2002 10:18:20 PM PDT by MadIvan
HUNDREDS of choirs around the world will begin a 24-hour rolling performance of Mozart’s Requiem tomorrow as part of a series of global events to commemorate the September 11 attacks.
Beginning in New Zealand and ending in American Samoa, more than 180 choirs in 21 time zones and 25 countries will take part in what has become known as the “rolling requiem”. Each hour-long performance will begin as the clock strikes 8.46am in each country’s time zone, the time that the first aircraft struck the north tower of the World Trade Centre. Some 15,000 volunteer singers are expected to take part.
The performance will begin west of the International Dateline in New Zealand and the Philippines and will travel through Asia, Africa, Europe and North and South America and the Pacific.
Britain’s contribution will be sung by the Keighley Vocal Union, based between Keighley and Skipton, near Bradford in West Yorkshire. Frank Smith, the choir’s organiser, expects at least 60 people to join him at St Peter’s Methodist Church in Crosshills.
Mr Smith was introduced to the idea by a friend, who pointed him towards the Rolling Requiem website (www.rollingrequiem.org). Each choir member will wear a badge bearing the name of one of the victims. Each person who died will be represented somewhere across the world.
The requiem was organised by the Seattle Symphony Chorale at the suggestion of an unknown patron. Madeline Johnson, chairwoman of the Seattle organising committee, said: “It’s like ripples in the water. It keeps spreading and spreading and reaching more people, like a counter-balance to the terror and destruction.”
In London, advance bookings have dipped in concert halls, theatres and tourist attractions amid fears that the capital may be the target of an attack on the anniversary.
Less than half of the seats have sold for the BBC Proms concert tomorrow night at the Albert Hall, though the rest of the week’s performances almost sold out. The West End musicals Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera and My Fair Lady are expecting drops of around 6 per cent in ticket sales, while advance bookings at the London Eye fell 18 per cent on the previous day.
The first anniversary of the attacks will be marked by ceremonies across the United States, with moments of silence, readings of texts such as the Gettysburg Address and a roll call of the 2,810 who lost their lives. President Bush will visit all three crash sites, at Ground Zero in New York, the Pentagon in Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Memorial events will also be held across the world, with moments of silence, prayers and public reflection planned from London to Liberia.
A two-minute silence will be observed on the stock exchanges in London, Paris and Amsterdam, as well as other financial centres, and Pope John Paul II is to dedicate his weekly Wednesday audience to commemorating the disaster.
The German Government will use the September 11 anniversary to rebuild some of the bridges after a fortnight of friction between Berlin and Washington. The Bundestag will hold a session devoted to the September 11 attacks and its consequences for peace.
A minute of silence is planned before the debate. At noon an ecumenical service will be celebrated in Berlin Cathedral attended by President Rau, Gerhard Schröder, the Chancellor, and Dan Coats, the US Ambassador.
France is staging only a handful of official activities. In the main ceremony President Chirac is to attend a memorial service at the US Embassy in Paris at midday tomorrow.
In Poland a demonstration in support of the United States will take place in the afternoon in front of the US Embassy in Warsaw, with a minute’s silence to remember the dead.
Budapest, Hungary’s capital — which is twinned with New York — will commemorate the occasion with two vertical beams of light representing the twin towers.
Cities across Canada will hold a minute’s silence and a Canadian maple and an American oak will be planted on the hill of Canada’s Parliament building in Ottawa.
Regards, Ivan
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