Arts & Culture

UNT professor brings song cycle about Franciscan priest felled in 9/11 attacks to Denton stage

KERA | By Lucinda Breeding-Gonzales | Denton Record-Chronicle

Published September 2, 2026 at 7:04 PM CDT

In this Sunday Sept. 11, 2011 file photo, the bunker coat and helmet worn by FDNY Chaplain Mychal Judge are displayed as City of New York Fire Commissioner Salvatore J. Cassano speaks at the New York City Fire Museum in New York during a memorial ceremony for the 343 members of the FDNY who lost their lives in the World Trade Center attacks. The bunker coat and helmet worn by Father Judge on Sept. 11, 2001, were dedicated to the museum during the service. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg, File)

Richard Novak never forgot a priest who blessed firefighters as they charged into the World Trade Center as it burned.

"I remember on 9/11, I talked to my parents on that evening, and they asked, 'Did you see there was a priest who was pulled out of the wreckage?'" said Novak, who is an adjunct professor of voice at the University of North Texas and Texas Christian University. His parents are from Yonkers, New York, and the terrorist attack loomed large.

"That whole day was a blur," Novak said.

Something bright and beautiful persisted in that blur: Franciscan friar and New York Fire Department chaplain Mychal Judge. Of the 3,000 people killed in the terrorist attack, Father Judge was the first to be identified.

Pianist Joey M. Martin, left, violist Ames Asbell and tenor Richard Novak, a University of North Texas voice professor, will perform Stations of Mychal at UNT's Paul Voertman Concert Hall on Thursday.

In 2021, Novak, a tenor, joined his longtime contemporaries, violist Ames Asbell and pianist Joey M. Martin, in the premiere of Stations of Mychal, a song cycle that memorializes the beloved priest. Novak sings the part of Judge, changing from a priest's Franciscan robes into firefighter gear.

Novak conceived the piece and recruited librettist Rick Davis and composer Kevin Salfen to flesh it out. Novak and Salfen are both graduates of the UNT College of Music.

The piece was written during the COVID-19 pandemic. Novak, Salfen and Davis collaborated to create more than an hour of music that tells the story of Judge's conversion and life of service. Father Judge provided spiritual counsel and comfort to firefighters, made recovery from alcoholism one of his spiritual practices, and examined his life through theology and, every day, seeing people. That was the true gift of the man called the "Saint of 9/11," Novak said, seeing people instead of looking past them.

Novak approached Davis, who was a colleague of Novak's at Texas State University.

"He was the first person I thought of. He was a theater professor before he became a dean," Novak said. "I’m the only Catholic in the group."

Davis, though, was drawn to a Lenten practice rooted in the Catholic Church called the Stations of the Cross. Established by the Franciscans, the Stations of the Cross take seekers and Christians on a psychological and spiritual journey of prayer based on the road Jesus walked to his crucifixion. Davis wrote 14 songs, modeled after the 14 stations.

"The cycle is bookended with Mychal’s prayer, the one he said probably every day: 'Lord, take me what you want me to go. Let me meet who you want me to meet. Tell me what you want me to say. And keep me out of your way,'" Novak said.

The songs take the audience through Judge's ordination and let them look on his struggles. In addition to having alcoholism, Novak said that one of the friar's peers in Alcoholics Anonymous revealed that Judge identified as a gay man, something his brethren in the clergy didn't know.

"During the AIDS crisis, church authority advised clergy not to minister to patients with AIDS," Novak said. "He started an AIDS ministry, he marched in the pride parades. A lot of people hated him for it, and other people loved him for it."

Judge did minister to patients with HIV/AIDS.

In this July 17, 2000, file photo, the Rev. Mychal Judge, the Fire Department of New York's chaplain with the New York City Fire Department, stands at the shore before a service to remember the 230 people who died on July 17, 1996, in the explosion of TWA Flight 800, at Smith Point Park in Shirley, N.Y. Judge joined relatives for the Flight 800 memorial service every year until 2001, when six weeks later Judge himself was killed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks at the World Trade Center.

"Mychal would massage their feet with oil," Novak said "He hugged them and their partners. These were men who lost their jobs, lost their families. Mychal ministered to them."

The cycle sees Judge through his service to thoroughly mortal humans, including a detective shot by a teenager. And in "The Last Homily," the piece commemorates Judge's final homily, given on Sept. 10, 2001. At a renovated firehouse in the Bronx, Novak said, Judge's words took on a deeper meaning. Judge commended the firefighters for showing up, getting on their rig when an alarm came in, and barreling toward mystery.

Novak, Asbell and Martin have performed the piece in New York, Thailand, Japan and Scotland. This week, they'll perform the piece for the 25th anniversary of 9/11 with a free performance at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 3, in the Paul Voertman Concert Hall in the UNT College of Music, located at Avenue C and Chestnut Street on campus. The musicians will perform the piece at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 4, at the Van Cliburn Concert Hall at TCU, 2805 S. University Drive in Fort Worth.