On December 21, 1999, a plane from Alghero landed in Saravejo. Outside, it was 10 degrees below zero, and between two walls of snow, a narrow corridor led a Sardinian choir into the airport.
To tell this story, however, we need to leap forward 26 years, to September 20, 2025. In Florinas, the traditional choir organizes Cantos in Carrela, an event in which several choirs roam the streets of the town, taking turns singing and dancing. Each neighborhood offers food and drink to all participants—singers, dancers, and onlookers. Everyone contributes what they can, and there's no exchange of currency: a song is worth as much as a smile, and as much as a toast.
It's here, in a carrela, over a glass of wine, that this story is told through the voice of maestro Giacomo Pintori. It's 1999, and Sarajevo bears the scars of a four-year siege. Yet, the commander of the Multinational Brigade, General Sabatelli, decides to organize a musical event, "United in Music." The Florinas Choir is invited to participate. "I still think about it," says one of the soloists, Angelo Zara. "They postponed the departure three times, it was too foggy. I was in Sicily for a baptism... I almost missed out too."
On the evening of December 22nd, before the Governor of the Sarajevo Canton, the mayors of the main cities of the Republika Srpska and the Federation, folk groups, choirs, and Balkan dance companies performed in a packed theater. For the first time since the end of the conflict, a stage hosted Muslim and Bosnian Serb groups, and music became a fragile yet powerful instrument of peace. When the maestro finished his story, everyone's eyes watered.
