In the summer of 2001…
…there was a small group of Missoulians working towards the first-ever rehearsal (scheduled for on Thursday, September 12) of the newly incorporated Missoula Community Chorus, Inc.
We had 40 people signed up and thought that if we had 60 show up, we would have a great founding chorale.
On 9/11, we woke to the stunning news of the attack on the Twin Towers, followed by the Pentagon and United Flight 93 as the day unfolded. Robbin Roshi Rose, the Executive Director, began to get urgent phone calls from singers who had registered, asking if the Community Chorus would go forward with that first rehearsal. No one asked to delay it, but rather declared that they needed to be together and sing. The answer was YES, we will hold the rehearsal—we needed to be together, and we needed to feel our way through this together.
120 people showed up for that first rehearsal. We sang, and we cried together, and then we sang some more. And the following week, our first public performance was at Missoula's 9-11 Memorial Service in Caras Park. Every person who sang, every person in the audience who listened, were all united in our grief and our determination that this terrorist event would not break our nation, but make it stronger. Our nation was never more united in purpose and care for each other.
The musical beauty of singing together continues to inspire hope, help create safe spaces for joyousness and grieving, and allows us to find the strength of our community. Music can take you places, it can heal your places, it can create new places. Every September 11, remember the power of music.
And the rest, as they say, is history…
On December 31, 2001, the chorus presented its first concert.
And has the people of Missoula have been singing in the Community Chorus ever since.