‘A Prayer for Peace’ Terry Vosbein, professor of music at W&L, was inspired by the 9/11 attacks to compose an original song, "A Prayer for Peace."
Twenty years ago this September 11, 2001, Washington and Lee music professor Terry Vosbein was in Oxford, England, where he was spending a sabbatical as a visiting fellow at University College. He got a call from a friend in Paris telling him, “Your country has just been attacked.”
VosbeinAfter a week of self-described “numbness,” Vosbein composed “A Prayer for Peace,” which you can listen to above. It was his response to the tragedy that had unfolded back home. He has described the composition as his personal prayer for a peaceful world, “a world where there is no place for hatred or violence… a world in which religions recognize the overwhelming similarities that far overshadow their minor differences.”
We offer “A Prayer for Peace” today, on the 20th anniversary of 9/11. As you listen, we invite you to remember all those whose lives were lost that day and to remember especially two members of the Washington and Lee family — Rob Schlegel, of the Class of 1985, who died in the Pentagon, and James Gadiel, of the Class of 2000, who died in the World Trade Center.
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