My Requiem Some Leave Their Mark

10th anniversary of 9/11 brings back flood of memories

Posted September 8, 2011, 24:27 10th anniversary of 9 / 11 brings back flood of memories Most of the students Liz Erickson fifth grade at Hillside Elementary were born in 2001. They know little about the terrorist attacks that shocked the nation, September 11, 2001. For the local teacher, however, the events of the day were much more than that.

By: By Jeff Holmquist, New Richmond News

Most students Liz Erickson fifth grade at Hillside Elementary were born in 2001. They know little about the terrorist attacks that shocked the nation, September 11, 2001.

"For them it is a history lesson," said Erickson.

For the local teacher, however, the events of the day were much more than that.

Erickson lost his sister, Patricia Carroll-Statz, when terrorists struck the Pentagon in Washington, DC It was not until two days after the attack that received the word family official Statz-Carroll, a civilian employee Pentagon, was among the dead.

"We were pretty sure before that," Erickson recalled. "It was right where his desk was."

As the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks approaches, Erickson said she will use her personal experience to speak with students on this day.

"This is a day the world changed," she said, fighting back tears. "It was a very traumatic day, but I had tremendous support from my colleagues and the community. Everyone was so nice. "

Erickson 12 other brothers and sisters who live across the nation, has experienced the same feeling of support that people have learned from their loss.

"People drop things off and prepared meals," she said."Everyone was so friendly."

But the family members, who all hail from Chippewa Falls, also used the personal tragedy to inspire others. Erickson was back to work Sept. 12, 2001, although some have asked why she returned to her usual routine so quickly.

A couple more proms (41 and 42)… « Technical Slip

On Sunday it was 14 (almost) everything about Benjamin Britten. Britten I find sound to be like fudge - often quite delicious, but you can find abusing sick and feeling queasily suddenly. Not much danger of that here though, as was an intriguing program of works. We missed the Jody Talbot through late, but were safe in our seats for the Cantata Misericordium that made ​​up the first half. Neither was as majestic as the subject or clogged mean, fun feature of Britten extends into the areas of holiness and death. The Sinfonia da Requiem was particularly good – the highlight of the evening for me – and all the more impressive having been woven together at the tender age of twenty-six.

The Spring Symphony was, by and large, great. Many of the settings are just perfect, marrying pastoralism with modernist orchestration in a way which avoids the lurking parochialist danger. It’s something of a patchwork though, and of its many short sections some did misfire. I said there were no sickly moments but then I recalled the massed ranks of screechy schoolboys rasping their way through George Peele’s hackneyed images of ‘strawberries swimming in cream’ and ‘schoolboys playing in a stream’ (or was it on a green?). The aseasonality of the fruit was noted by my companions. Aside from that, though, a fine evening of music. The BBC Singers, Symphony Chorus and Symphony Orchestra provided their usual rich sound, tightly marshalled by Mark Wigglesworth who was standing in at short notice.

Back the following night for Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet dancers. I had set myself up to be underwhelmed, having seen this danced wonderfully at Covent Garden a few months ago, and I wondered just how much the lack of visuals would hinder the performance. In the event, I was pleasantly surprised; it was daft to worry, in fact – I listen to the score often and Tchaikovsky is among my favourite handful of composers. All the twists and turns of the story are conveyed there musically. By the end, I had a tear in my eye – the major variation of the main theme giving way to those broken, dying strings is heartbreaking – and Gergiev and the Marinovsky Theatre Orchestra were given a resounding ovation.