Music Chair Laurel Thomas
A year ago, music Chair Laurel Thomas was sitting in a meeting with members of the Saint Mary’s College departments of music, theatre, dance, art, and special events to plan the 2011 fall schedule for the Little Theatre in the Moreau Center for the Arts. “We were concentrating so hard to make sure we all had venues for our performances that I don’t think (the significance of the dates) occurred to any of us,” Thomas said.
It wasn’t until months later that Thomas realized her first scheduled performance was on the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. “Once it dawned on me,” she said, “I became convinced that we either had to cancel any type of musical performance on that day, or devote the performance to a commemoration of September 11.”
Thomas decided on the latter of the two and began working with departments across campus to arrange a commemoration that will bring together different facets of art to honor and remember those lost and affected by the attacks.
The event, entitled We Remember, will be at 4 p.m. on Sunday and will include works of poetry, dance, and music featuring faculty members from Saint Mary’s English, music, and dance departments. There is no cost to attend and the public is invited.
“We really want to capture the mood of meditation,” Thomas said. “It’s the idea that love extends forever as life lives on. We’re not trying to relive, we’re trying to remember.” Thomas explained that not every performance will speak directly of the events of September 11. Thomas herself will be performing “Amor Mio, Si Muero y Tu No Meres,” a song by Peter Lierson and Pablo Neruda that addresses the topics of love and loss. English Professor Max Westler will be reading an excerpt from Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” and music Professor Jeffrey Jacob will perform a Chopin nocturne, a piece composed nearly one hundred years before the events of September 11.
“I believe that for all of us the healing power of art can help to redefine, and possibly transcend, our personal pain,” Thomas said. “We hope that something in this hour we are offering, whether it be music, dance, or poetry, would speak to the hearts of those who have suffered loss.
“Without a collective memory,” Thomas continued, “we have no sense of whom we are as human beings; in a way, memory defines us as such. By remembering, we allow events and loved ones to live on.”
—Bridget Meade ’12