The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square will mark 20 years since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, with a 30-minute special to air on TV and online on Sept. 11, 2021.
The special, “9/11 | Coming Together,” will feature selections from past choir performances, commentary of people recalling that tragic day, and narration by broadcast journalist Jane Clayson Johnson. Johnson, a former KSL-TV anchor, was co-anchoring the CBS News early morning show with Bryant Gumbel on Sept. 11, 2001, when the attacks began.
The special, Johnson said in a statement, commemorates “human kindness during the tragedy of 9/11. In a way, this special parallels the challenges in today’s world and reminds us that embracing each other with love and respect can help heal the human heart.”
Johnson’s narration will be filmed at locations along the Hudson River, across from where the World Trade Center towers once stood. She will introduce clips of the choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square performing such songs as “You Raise Me Up,” “Peace Like a River,” “Wayfaring Stranger,” “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep,” “One Person” and “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”
Also included will be a clip of “Angels Among Us,” featuring Broadway star Kristin Chenoweth, taken from the choir’s 2018 Christmas concert.
“Music is an integral part of this commemoration because it can touch the human heart in a unique and personal way,” said Mack Wilberg, the choir’s music director. “We hope listeners of this special feel peace, gratitude, love, and closer to the divine.”
The choir was scheduled to sing at a private concert in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Sept. 11, 2001, for attendees of a business convention. The event was hastily rescheduled as a public memorial service, with the choir and orchestra performing patriotic songs and Gordon B. Hinckley, then-president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking. Three days later, the choir and orchestra performed at two memorial services in the tabernacle, conducted by the church’s governing First Presidency, to coincide with a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance.
The 20th anniversary special will stream Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021, at 8:46 a.m. Mountain time — the symbolic time that the first plane crashed into the north tower of New York’s World Trade Center — on the choir’s YouTube channel, Facebook page and website, as well as the BYUtv mobile app and the LDS Church’s website.
The special will air that day at 9 a.m. Mountain time on KSL-Channel 5, on BYUtv, and online at BYUtv.org. A repeat showing is set for that day at 3:30 p.m. Mountain time on BYUtv and BYUtv.org.
On Sunday, Sept. 12, at 9:30 a.m. MT, the special will be repeated as an episode of the church’s long-running “Music and the Spoken Word” on all of the above outlets, as well as KSL.com and the KSL-TV app.
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