We the Living (2026)

for SSAATTBB chorus & strings
Libretto by Safiya Sinclair
14 minutes

Score and Recording Available Upon Request

Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic on the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of 9/11
Gustavo Dudamel, Oscar L. Tang and H. M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Music & Artistic Director

WORLD PREMIERE
The New York Philharmonic
The U.S. Army Soldier’s Chorus
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
Capt. Jac’kel Smalls, associate bandmaster
Perelman Performing Arts Center, World Trade Center, NYC
September 11, 2026

We the Living
by Safiya Sinclair

The day’s veil broke blue, streets raked quiet
as a moonscape. No one spoke. Sleepless, the city
sutured itself home, hands and souls united.

We live in the footprint of memory.
We walk in the psalms of their lives. Each of us
is what the ash made. Remember me.

We the living, keepers of what survives.
Let all your grief grow wild, as flowers burst
from pavement, and starlings seek another sky.

Come home now.
Our hearts will make a house of the living.
Our voices a cathedral of light.

Come home now. Remember me.
Come home.