A violinist’s music comforted people in New York City after 9/11 — when she was just 11 years old

PHILADELPHIA — On Sept. 11, 2001, 11-year-old Magee Capsouto and her family lived in Lower Manhattan, just five blocks north of the World Trade Center.

“It was one of those days, like perfect fall. You know, you go outside, the sky is blue, you don’t see a cloud in the sky,” Capsouto, who now lives in the Philadelphia area, said.

Capsouto, her younger brother and their mother had walked over to the farmers market at the World Trade Center Plaza.

“We happened to be looking north, and we watched the plane barrel straight down the street and hit the north tower,” she said. “There was definitely no figuring out which way was up, it was just a very primal screaming for our mom. She came running back, she grabbed us, and she pulled us and we ran across the street.”

With their home compromised once the South Tower collapsed, the family ran half a mile north out of harm’s way.

“My parents owned a restaurant, and that just was the only place we could think to go,” she said.

Her parents decided to open the restaurant to the community, serving three free meals a day to anyone who needed it.

“We actually became kind of a de facto staging ground for first responders, for people who spent their days on the pile trying to find survivors,” Capsouto said.

One night in the days after the attacks, Capsouto did something that helped change the course of her life.

“One of our neighbors from the building was like, ‘Hey, you play violin, I think that would be a great thing.’ And so they just kind of threw me up on a table, and I played,” she said. “And there was something deeply, deeply powerful about being able to give back.”

Capsouto would go on to play the violin professionally, including her current stint with the Philly Pops. She’s also earned her doctorate in music arts and works to advocate for equity in classical music.

Her younger brother is now a firefighter, both lives changed and shaped, like so many others, by the horrors of that day and the warmth, love and community borne of it.

“Music is a language that doesn’t require words,” she said, “and so we could just be in the moment of music together.”