Requiem for 9/11: Kentucky opera director to lead National Chorale for 20th anniversary

University of Kentucky Opera Theatre Director Everett McCorvey will lead the music at a ceremony commemorating the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, at the Empty Sky Memorial in Jersey City, N.J.

McCorvey will conduct the U.S. Army Field Band and Soldiers Chorus and the New York City-based National Chorale in an ensemble that will also include five current UK students and four alums now in the Soldier’s Chorus, as well as several other Lexington Area musicians.

“It’s hard to believe that this is the 20th year,” McCorvey said. “The backdrop for the concert will be the Statue of Liberty on one side and the site of the Twin Towers on the other side.”

The Empty Sky Memorial was established in New Jersey’s Liberty State Park on the Hudson River in memory of the 749 New Jerseyans who lost their lives at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pa., on 9/11. A total of 2,996 people, including 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists, died in the attack that day. The event will be attended by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Senators Corey Booker and Robert Menendez, and survivors and families of victims of the attack.

The collaboration came about through McCorvey’s role as music director of the National Chorale and a relationship McCorvey has established with the Soldier’s Chorus having several former students join the ensemble.

“If I were starting out, again, in high school, and if I had known that there was a professional career that you could have as a member of a military band or a military choir, I would have absolutely tried to go that route,” McCorvey said. “I try to steer my students towards considering having a career in one of the military bands or choruses.

“They are serving their country, and I think it’s one of the most honorable jobs that one could have. And the fact that you could do that, and practice your art is just the best of all worlds.”

He adds, “whenever I have had the opportunity to conduct them, the musical level is so high. It’s just astounding.”

The last time the National Chorale and Soldier’s Chorus came together under McCorvey’s baton was for a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Requiem” in May 2016 at Lincoln Center, a piece that was frequently performed as a 9/11 tribute.

Saturday’s performance will include “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “Taps,” “God Bless America,” and “America the Beautiful” with Broadway star Phillip Boykin. They will also present Stephen Paulus’ a cappella choral favorite “The Road Home” and Kentucky-based composer Earlene Rentz’s arrangement of “Amazing Grace,” which McCorvey commissioned for his conducting debut at Lincoln Center.

“My biggest challenge that day is probably going to be trying to not get emotional,” McCorvey said.

The current students joining in the event are doctoral voice students Kathrine Thawley and Courtney Porter, masters student Houston Tyrrell, and undergraduates Nathaniel Thompson and Jackson Arnold.

At 20 years on, McCorvey said UK now has students who were too young to remember or weren’t even born on 9/11. He was speaking from his hometown of Montgomery, Ala., Sunday and reflected on teaching his children about events of the Civil Rights movement he experienced firsthand as a child.

“I feel the same about 9/11,” McCorvey said. “There are so many people who weren’t born, who we need to tell this story to, they need to know about this story.

“We need to know the people who were sacrificed that day, and the people over the past 20 years who have sacrificed their lives to try to keep our country and the world safe. And we owe an incredible debt of thanks to the soldiers, and people in the U.S. military who work on the front lines, to help to keep America safe around the world. … I want to be able to say thank you to those people in the way that I can give my best, which is through music and through art.”