SARAJEVO FOR THE FUTURE

About the case

IN THE EFFORT to gather support for the Sarajevska Filharmonija it was a great pleasure that our appeals for the benefit of this humanitarian aid programme were met with so much warmth and sympathy from all sides.
It was a special joy that Lord Yehudi Menuhin kindly obliged us in our request for his participation in the project. Little did we know that his statement should prove to have been written a few months before his death.
In the Winter of 1993 the Danish photographer Marianne Grøndahl listened to a radio programme about the terrible conditions of the Sarajevska Filharmonija during the Balkan war.
This sparked off her wish to describe the mental and artistic survival of these musicians. During her two stays in Sarajevo she endeavoured to give a photographic account not just of the difficult circumstances but also of the longing for peace in each musicians.
This postcard portfolio includes 12 selected photographs the sale of which will contribute to the maintenance of the orchestra.
In the form of greetings from a sender to an adressee these postcards admonish us all to protect and cherish basic human values.
Published by Fortuna 2001

THE PHOTOGRAPHS IN this portfolio were taken in Sarajevo during Fall and Winter 1998-99. I wanted to portray the musicians of the Sarajevska Filharmonija who survived the war as persons and artists. My aim has been to show what music means to people in terms of solidarity and love of beauty.
I also wished to describe the dignity of the citizens of Sarajevo in general, and their hope for the future. I would like to share that hope with you.
Marianne Grøndahl
Copenhagen, December 2000

After so much suffering, we are now trying to rebuild our lives and we are doing it the only way we know it, with music...

AFTER SO MUCH suffering we are now trying to rebuild our lives, and we are doing it the only way we know, with music.

We have never given up during the grim days, and we will continue now that the sun is beginning to show its face among the clouds. With your help, sunshine will soon be all over us.

Emir Nuhanovic
Director, Sarajevska Filharmonija

THE AGONY OF Bosnia and Herzegovina has seized our hearts and minds for half a decade now. While we have seen, of late, important steps towards stabilization – the peace accords, the end of large-scale military hostilities, the holding of elections – albeit partial – the resumption of at least rudiments of daily life – the plight of the people of Bosnia continues.

Refugees and displaced persons face enormous obstacles, and sometimes outright violence, in trying to exercise their right to return home. The prospects for economic recovery remain uncertain. Vital infrastructures have yet to be rebuilt. Unemployment remains at distressing high levels.

The most difficult challenge is recovery from the human trauma and suffering – from the deliberate and planned massacres and atrocities against civilians. What this calls for is the judgment of those accused of war crimes, so that this can encourage reconciliation, the fundamental requisite for peace.

The international community must continue to act in solidarity with the efforts of Bosnia’s men, women and children to promote reconsiliation. The arts can play a critical role in facing this challenge. For the arts have great power – to communicate, to inspire, to express hope and exorcise pain and in so doing promote understanding, one of the main foundations of peace and springboards for prosperity.

The orchestras, in particular, are a potent reminder of the value of tolerance and of working together to create something that is larger than any one individual. In that spirit, then, let us pledge our ongoing support for the musicians and other artists of Bosnia, and for all Bosnians struggling toward a new and more hopeful era in their country’s history.

Kofi Anan
Secretary General of the United Nations

TO ALL MUSICIANS in the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra.

The concert in Sarajevo on the 14th of July 1997 is still vivid and moving to me. Humanly and artistically, it was a unique experience. That evening is forever engraved in my memory and that of the musicians from Teatro alla Scala, who played and sang with their colleagues from Sarajevo in e fellowship of feelings and purpose that also included the audience in the concert hall and the viewers who followed the concert on television through out the world.

I cherish a well-founded hope that the bonds that were tied that evening will endure in the future as strong testemony to a communication reaching beyond musical experience, and that the fruits of peace may continue to grow vigorously on the trees of your country.

Ricardo Muti
Conductor

THE SARAJEVO PHILHARMONIC Orchestra is today a strong, living proof of the eternal truth of the Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s words: “Music is Life, and like it, inextinguishable”.

Michael Schønwandt
Conductor

TO ALL MEMBERS of the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra.

I am very happy to have had the chance yet again to give a concert in Sarajevo and I hope the townspeople enjoyed it too.

Similarly, I hope with all my heart that I shall have the opportunity again to play for all of you.

Eugene Nimura
Cellist

MUSIC HAS THE  power – in one measure, in one moment – to rejoice with those who are happy, stand by those who despair, and brace those who are worn out.

And at every concert all over the world all of these are present amoung the audience. May music flourish in Sarajevo.

Morten Zeuthen
Cellist

MY PERFORMANCE WITH the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra was full of deep emotion. It is a real pleasure for me to be able to express the extraordinary memories I keep as an artist and even more as a human being of this experience.

It has been a great privilege for me to perform together with this fantastic orchestra the Mozart Requiem, conducted by Maestro Zubin Mehta on June 19, 1994, when the situation in your town and your country was such a special one.

I hope I will be able to collaborate with you again in the future.

José Carreras
Opera singer

WE HAVE BEEN in Sarajevo performing Mozart’s Requiem.

We have seen all the tragedy of Sarajevo. Together with Maestro Zubin Mehta we ask for the solidarity of all musicians in the world in helping The Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra to become rebuilt.

Ruggero Raimondi, Cecilia Gasdia, Ildiko Komlosi, José Carreras
The vocal soloists at the concert on 19th of June 1994

IT WAS A great honour for me to play with The Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra during my visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina in December 1997.

I admire the orchestra not only for the musical skill and its members but also for the important role it played as a unifying force during the war.

I hope that the orchestra will continue to flourish and bring peace and joy to people everywhere.

Maxim Vengerov
Violinist. Unicef, Envoy for music

TO MY WONDERFUL colleagues of The Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra who gave me a most remarkable musical experience. I will never forget them and their inspiring and beautiful playing.

Arve Tellefsen
Violinist

I AM SURE that my dear colleagues of The Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra helped mutually to maintain the richly diverse community of Sarajevo in the spirit of harmony.

Lord Yehudi Menuhin
Violinist and conductor
(1916 – 1999)

MY PLUNDERED BOSNIA

My Bosnia has been plundered,
my fields have not been ploughed,
four summers did they remain unsown.
My fields have not been ploughed,
four summers did they remain unsown.

My house has no walls,
my stable shelter no bulls,
Granny has no sons.
My stable shelter no bulls,
Granny has no sons.

For lack of brothers, sisters,
freedom is my solace
and renders new hope in me.
Freedom is my solace
and renders new hope in me.

Bosnian folk song, 1918

This humanitarian aid programme has been supported by:

• KONSUL GEORGE JORCK OG HUSTRU EMMA JORCK’S FOND
• OVERRETSSAGFØRER L. ZEUTHENS MINDELEGAT
• OLE KIRK’s FOND
• Bodil Pedersen Fonden
• Unibank-fonden
• Politiken Fonden
• Stats.aut. Revisionsselskab Ernst & Young
• Advokatfirmaet Nebelong & Partnere
• ADVOKAT LARS BORRING APS
• Austrian Airlines
• Lindholm A/S
• Nofo print as
• FINNNYGAARD.COM
• Forlaget Fortuna ApS