Art and Humanity in the Midst of War: The Story of the Sarajevo String Quartet with Dr. Dijana Ihas

“Front lines, Broken Schools, Broken Churches, Broken Hospitals.
WE NEVER SAID NO.
Everywhere people needed a sense that they were still human beings we played.”
Dr. Dijana Ihas

The above quote is from a presentation I hosted last February by Dr. Dijana Ihas titled Art and Humanity in the Midst of War: The Story of the Sarajevo String Quartet. Dijana shared a first hand account of her experience performing 206 concerts as a violist with the Sarajevo String Quartet during the infamous siege of Sarajevo from April 5, 1992 – February 29, 1996.

​Her story is miraculous, hauntingly recent and not well known. Sharing this story feels like one of the most important things I have ever done with my life. Since the Music for Young Violinists group has grown so much since I posted a year ago I felt it would be valuable to share this information again. Videos of the presentation are posted on youtube (click on the titles to be re-directed) in 5 parts as follows:

PART 1/5 - "What Does it Mean to be Besieged?"

PART 2/5 - “When everything is taken away from you, humans are so intelligent they find a way to survive.”

PART 3/5 - A Glimpse Into One of the Performances

PART 4/5 - Years later, a need to understand: “Why Did I Do That?”

PART 5/5 - Why Arts? Why Music? Why Strings?