UNESCO

Gary Brain was commissioned by UNESCO to go to Sarajevo, Bosnia, only days after the peace accord had been signed, in order to write a white paper on the state of classical music there.

Prior to the war, Sarajevo boasted a rich musical life with about 250 professional musicians. Gary found only twelve musicians left. He was taken by armoured car to the Sarajevo Winter Olympics Stadium which where he was shown many musicians’ graves.

Gary Brain called the head of cultural events of UNESCO. They decided to arrange a concert at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris to raise public awareness of the situation.

A television crew went to Sarajevo and filmed an award-winning documentary of Gary’s work and the Paris concert.

Gary brought together the remains of the Sarajevo Philharmonic amalgamating them with the Symphony Orchestra of Milan, Italy and the Chorus of Saint-Eustache in Paris. He completed the casting with the famous German bass René Pape, the French soprano Françoise Pollet and two singers from the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

This concert featured two Bosnian works along with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. On top of a prolonged standing ovation at the conclusion of this concert, the audience went wild when Gary started conducting the Bosnian National Anthem, the first time it was ever performed outside of Bosnia.

Monies collected gave Sarajevo a professional orchestra, where Muslims played beside Jews who played beside Christians.

The Secretary General of U.N. said of the Sarajevo concert: “It takes time to rebuild buildings, but we can begin to repair souls now”.

Gary was subsequently made an “Artiste de la Paix” by UNESCO.