An evening of music that became a symbol of dialogue and hope. On Friday, September 26, within the Franciscan Festival 2025, the San Colombano Museum in Bologna hosted the concert “Notes of Peace” by the Chamber Orchestra of the Magnificat Institute of Jerusalem.
A highly anticipated event in the program, capable of filling the hall and deeply moving the audience: young Christian, Muslim, and Jewish musicians shared the stage, demonstrating that coexistence is possible even in a context marked daily by conflict and division.
The tour included four stops: Bologna (September 26, Franciscan Festival), Pavia (September 27, Cathedral), Novara (September 28, Church of San Nazzaro della Costa), and Lecco (September 29, Basilica of San Nicolò), bringing the same message to different ecclesial and civic contexts.
The orchestra brought to Bologna not only performances of great quality but above all a strong message: music as a universal language that transcends walls and mistrust.
"It is not easy to travel with these young people," recalled Br. Pari, "where many people feel lost or powerless in the face of so much cruelty. But our mission is to bear witness that another path is possible."
The audience, wrapped in the intensity of the pieces, perceived in the faces of the musicians the strength and fragility of those who live every day under the threat of violence, and at the same time the determination to build bridges through art.
The journey through northern Italy of the Magnificat found a particularly meaningful moment in the Cathedral of Pavia, where the young musicians performed using the “instruments of the sea”: violins and cellos made from wood recovered from migrant boats that sank in the Mediterranean.
Thanks to the support of the Casa dello Spirito e delle Arti Foundation and the Arnoldo Mosca Mondadori Foundation, the young members of the orchestra were able to play instruments that contain within themselves the stories of those who faced the sea in search of salvation. A double symbol of resilience: that of migrants and that of young people living in a country at war.
The concert fit perfectly into the theme of the Franciscan Festival 2025, “The Canticle of Connections”, which celebrates the 800th anniversary of the Canticle of the Creatures by Saint Francis and reflects on new forms of connection among people, communities, and the environment.
In this context, “Notes of Peace” resonated as a concrete act of connection: not a simple musical performance, but a gesture of encounter among cultures, religions, and peoples.
At the end of the performance, the audience’s long applause was not only an artistic recognition but almost a collective promise: to guard that spark of harmony that the music of the Magnificat managed to ignite.
In the heart of Bologna, through the notes of young people from Jerusalem, the Franciscan Festival offered not just a concert but an experience that remains imprinted as a sign of possible peace and fraternity.
Francesco Guaraldi
