♪ choral KU chant ♪
♪ soft concert band music ♪
PAUL: Saturday morning we woke up in Columbus, Ohio,
drove the rest of the way from Columbus to New York City
that evening, arrived 11:00 at night or so.
A lot of the students checked in and out on the town.
Apparently it is a city that never sleeps.
♪ upbeat concert band music ♪
PAUL: They had the one free day the next day, Sunday.
♪ triumphant concert band music ♪
PAUL: Monday we rehearsed all morning at the
DiMenna Center downtown.
♪ bassoon with tick tock percussion ♪
PAUL: I don't really want people to come away from the
concert talking about what a great band you are.
I have only interest in them talking about that piece. That music.
What it did for them, where it took them.
It's all about the music tomorrow.
Be great because the music needs us to be great.
♪ haunting bells ♪
PAUL: Monday afternoon we were at the 9/11 Memorial.
They arranged a tour for us.
It was a very cold, blustery, rainy day, miserable.
It was perfect.
PHILIP: You can't get any closer than Ground Zero.
It makes it much more real to the ensemble.
♪ scraping and ominous percussion ♪
PAUL: Tuesday it was checking out of the hotel, and a
sound check at Carnegie, dinner together and the concert.
It went very quickly here at the end.
For us as an ensemble, the last couple of weeks has really
gone beyond the sort of normal "oh let's make sure this is
in tune, play together there", but rather going right to
the message of the music.
When you have the technique mastered and you're just trying
to make the music now, that's when we can be at our highest level.
I felt like from the beginning it was just rock solid.
ALBERT: That was life-changing, for sure. That was crazy.
PETER: We had a wonderful crowd, lot of friends and
family in the audience.
Standing ovation, which it's great to get a standing
ovation after a concert but in Carnegie Hall, that was incredible.
PHILIP: It was awesome, a dream come true.
I think every young, aspiring musician hopes that they can
play at Carnegie Hall someday.
So it's awesome to finally realize that dream.
MURIEL: We felt really prepared and so there weren't many
nerves going into it and I think we felt really good coming out of it.
PHILIP: To come to the place that it was written about,
just makes it that much more meaningful and I think it
means more to the audience too.
JIM: The audience I think was extremely appreciative of
the quality of the work.
The audience was more than any I've seen in a very long
time absolutely involved in the work.
VALERIE: There were so many emotions.
The woman who sat next to me actually grabbed my hand and
we both felt the towers coming down.
I would have never thought at 9/11 when it happened that
one day my daughter was going to be on the stage making
people remember what happened that day.
MOHAMMED: I was very impressed with the seriousness of
purpose with which the students approached it and with
which the faculty approached it.
PAUL: We're certainly excited to play at home next week.
It'll be nice to share with our audience at home.
(applause)
♪ solo bassoon ♪
VALERIE: What else is there right now that can convey
those feelings, those emotions, in remembering that time right now?
♪ solo bassoon, harp, and wind instruments ♪
♪ haunting bells ♪
PAUL: This project had so many crucial elements, so many
different people involved in little and big ways.
♪ loud wind ensemble ♪
MOHAMMED: We took all these aspects, a uniquely American
story and the aftermath of 9/11, and we did something
really special with that.
♪ loud wind ensemble crescendo ♪
PAUL: And the scope of it in terms of performance and
media coverage and audience and number of performances and
recording, I knew along the way that they had prepared well.
Everyone knew what they needed to do for the concert, and they did it.
♪ loud wind ensemble finale ♪
(loud applause)
(applause continues)