Throughout 2025, the World Tribune will feature on the cover historical acts of cultural diplomacy that shifted public sentiment and even thawed tensions between nations.
On May 27, 1992, several grenades exploded in front of a bakery in Sarajevo, killing 22 and wounding 108 citizens in line to buy bread.
The following morning, while images of the horrific attack raced around the world, Vedran Smailović, the principal cellist of the Sarajevo Orchestra, woke up, donned his tux and tails, and carried a chair and his cello to the ruined downtown Sarajevo marketplace. There, he played “Adagio in G Minor” for those massacred.
Smailović returned to the square every day for 22 days, at different times each day to avoid sniper fire, performing the same song in honor of each person who had been killed.
He also played at funerals, graveyards and buildings destroyed in the Siege of Sarajevo (the longest siege of a capital city in modern warfare). His actions were of particular note as snipers were known to target funerals.
While Smailović fled to safety in Ireland in late 1993, his bravery drew international attention, and he became a symbol of hope for artists and peacekeepers around the world.
Speaking of the power of art and culture, Ikeda Sensei relayed a story from Greek mythology. Zeus, the tyrannical ruler of the gods, chained Prometheus to a boulder. His crime: Prometheus had given humankind fire, language, music and art.
Sensei explains:
The powerful often fear the people becoming wise and strong; these attributes make them harder to dominate.
Nichiren taught that one characteristic of a corrupt, degenerate world is the people becoming weak. He lamented, “We live today in a time of trouble, when there is little that ordinary people can do” (“The Bodies and Minds of Ordinary Beings,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 1134). To change the world, the people must become strong and powerful. (Reaching Beyond, p. 18)
The image of a single musician playing cello among the smoldering ruins of his city remains an iconic symbol of peace, a reminder that one person can indeed change the world.
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