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 the first rehearsal. No one asked to delay it, but rather declared that they needed to be together and sing.

And the answer was “YES, we will hold the rehearsal! We need to be together, and we need to feel our way through this together.”

One hundred and twenty people showed up for that first rehearsal. We sang—and we cried together—and then we sang some more.

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—we were all united in our grief and our determination that this terrorist event would not break our nation, but make it stronger.

On December 31, 2001, the chorus presented its first concert.

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.