“The Pavarotti Music Centre is not only a direct practical attempt to rebuild in post-war Bosnia but also a human response that goes to the heart of war damage. ”
In October 1997 Roxana was invited to Mostar by composer Nigel Osborne to direct the opening performances of the ground breaking Pavarotti Music Centre, with a cast of over 300 children from across the war torn region it was a historic event, performed for a 2,000 person audience, TV networks from across the world and Pavarotti himself.
Roxana had previously met and worked with Nigel Osborne, in 1995, during the Siege of Sarajevo, when she was smuggled through the tunnel under the airport, to co-direct the Opera Evropa, composed by Nigel Osborne, libretto by Goran SImic. The Opera Evropa was funded by the British Council and was part of the Sarajevo Winter Festival, that took place despite the electricity cuts, lack of water, food and threat of snipers and shells.
The Pavarotti Centre was the joint creative venture of Bono, Pavarotti, Tom Stoppard and Brian Eno who saw a role for creativity and music to unite the two sides of the war torn and divided city of Mostar.
After rehearsing both in Mostar and travelling out to villages that had been cut off during the war, Roxana was really drawn into the work and fell in love with Bosnia Herzegovina She took on a one year contract at the Pavarotti Centre, running music and theatre workshops across Bosnia Herzegovina working with children and young people affected by the war. The project was funded by War Child Netherlands. During that time she had training in the specific use of music and theatre in a therapeutic workshop setting from the award winning practitioners Eugene Skeef and Nigel Osborne, who have both pioneered in their field of working with music and social change.
