A few days after the tragic events of 9/11, I received via email a remarkable letter written by William R. Harvey, an 18-year old violinist studying at Juilliard.  William had been asked to perform at the Armory in New York, where soldiers who were working at Ground Zero went to unwind before they went back to the site of the disaster. William wrote the letter after he left the Armory and sent it to his family and a few friends. 

I wasn't the only person who read the letter because it “went viral” and was read by tens of thousands of people all over the world.  In the letter, William says, "I've never understood so fully what it means to communicate music to other people," and he said the experience will forever change how he views his role and responsibility as a musician.  Shortly after we received the letter we contacted William and he recorded the letter in its entirety for WFMT.  Towards the end, we mixed William’s performance of Amazing Grace under his voice. 

The end result was a seven-minute piece entitled, “Playing for the Fighting 69^th.”  It aired on WFMT the week after 9/11 and was heard in its entirety on All Things Considered on the one-month and one-year anniversaries of 9/11. 

In fact, the experience William had that day at the Armory really did change his life: he founded a non-profit organization called Cultures in Harmony (culturesinharmony.org) that “forges connections across cultural and national barriers through the medium of music” and he has performed classical music in such places as Moldova, Tunisia, Cameroon, Qatar and other locations around the world. Last year, William accepted a position on the faculty of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul, and he now teaches there on a full-time basis. 

Last week, as a follow-up to the piece we produced 10 years ago, we spoke by telephone with William in Kabul. What this amazing young musician said about his experiences these past 10 years is moving, thought provoking  and inspirational and we’ve added it to the original piece, “Playing for the Fighting 69^th.”

A few days after the tragic events of 9/11, I received via email a remarkable letter written by William R. Harvey, an 18-year old violinist studying at Juilliard.  William had been asked to perform at the Armory in New York, where soldiers who were working at Ground Zero went to unwind before they went back to the site of the disaster. William wrote the letter after he left the Armory and sent it to his family and a few friends. 

I wasn't the only person who read the letter because it “went viral” and was read by tens of thousands of people all over the world.  In the letter, William says, "I've never understood so fully what it means to communicate music to other people," and he said the experience will forever change how he views his role and responsibility as a musician.  Shortly after we received the letter we contacted William and he recorded the letter in its entirety for WFMT.  Towards the end, we mixed William’s performance of Amazing Grace under his voice. 

The end result was a seven-minute piece entitled, “Playing for the Fighting 69^th.”  It aired on WFMT the week after 9/11 and was heard in its entirety on All Things Considered on the one-month and one-year anniversaries of 9/11. 

In fact, the experience William had that day at the Armory really did change his life: he founded a non-profit organization called Cultures in Harmony (culturesinharmony.org) that “forges connections across cultural and national barriers through the medium of music” and he has performed classical music in such places as Moldova, Tunisia, Cameroon, Qatar and other locations around the world. Last year, William accepted a position on the faculty of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Kabul, and he now teaches there on a full-time basis. 

Last week, as a follow-up to the piece we produced 10 years ago, we spoke by telephone with William in Kabul. What this amazing young musician said about his experiences these past 10 years is moving, thought provoking  and inspirational and we’ve added it to the original piece, “Playing for the Fighting 69^th.”