Mostar Rock School: World Music Day

The City of Mostar is marking World Music Day with a special program this year. The idea of World Music Day originated in France in the 1970s, and has developed and taken root to this day, not only in France but also in more than 110 countries around the world.

This day is traditionally celebrated on the first day of summer, June 21st, with free outdoor concerts by professional and amateur musicians. In some countries, this day is also a national holiday, and the World Music Day celebration agenda also includes concerts held a few days before or after June 21st.

The City of Mostar, in cooperation with the Mostar branch of the French Institute in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been celebrating World Music Day with open-air concerts for several years. This year, we are preparing three concerts, two concerts in the Zrinjevac City Park, one in collaboration with the Mostar Symphony Orchestra, the other with the Mostar Rock School, and a concert in the MC Pavarotti Atrium.

The symphony orchestra is preparing a concert with the ethno group Čuvarice iz Rama, which will be performed on June 20, 2024, under the direction of conductor Damir Bunoza. The concert begins at 9:00 PM, and the repertoire has been carefully composed and is a unique mix of ethno, rock, and classical music.

The Mostar Rock School traditionally celebrates World Music Day with final concerts by its students, and for the concert on June 21, 2024, in the Zrinjevac City Park, they are preparing a performance by several successful Rock School bands, and they have also invited the popular Sarajevo hip-hop group Helem Nejse as guests. The concert starts at 8:00 PM.

The Mostar branch of the French Institute in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in cooperation with the Pavarotti Music Center, is organizing a concert by the famous jazz musician Srđan Ivanović, which will be held on June 20, 2024 at the MC Pavarotti Atrium. The concert is called 'Modular', and Ivanović's album of the same name was created as a combination of Eastern and Western sensibilities, an innovative version of modern jazz inspired by the Balkans. The concert, which starts at 9:00 PM, will also feature Ludivine Isambourg, an excellent flautist who comes from the electro-jazz scene, the famous guitarist Manu Codjia, and Matis Regnault, a young bassist with whom he often performs in Paris.

We also encourage all our fellow citizens who play a musical instrument to celebrate this day in their yards on June 21, 2024! We hope that the program with which we celebrate World Music Day this year is diverse enough and that all music lovers in Mostar will enjoy their favorite sounds outdoors!