When Rome speaks, the world listens – and this September, she’s tuning up for something rather magnificent.
On Sunday, September 21, 2025, the historic Piazza Pio XII, nestled between St Peter’s Square and Castel Sant’Angelo, will become the stage for a rousing and richly symbolic musical gathering—the World Peace Concert: SOUND OF PEACE.
And let me be clear – this is no passing street performance or rogue opera busker hoping for coins and claps. This is an internationally orchestrated event, sanctioned by the Jubilee 2025 Holy Year and presented under the dignified banner of the Fondazione Pro Musica e Arte Sacra, the sort of foundation that doesn’t so much host events as canonise them.
A Crescendo of Compassion
With all due reverence to the setting, the aim isn’t just to fill the Roman air with exquisite sound – though that alone would be divine. Instead, this concert seeks to do what diplomacy often fumbles and power forgets: to unite. To soften hearts. To remind us, through music, that “peace begins within us” – a noble reminder in a world increasingly fond of shouting.
Expect a lineup of world-renowned artists, though names remain tightly tucked under the maestro’s cloak. We’re promised voices from across continents and cultures, converging under the vast Roman sky with the Vatican’s dome watching wisely overhead.
And let’s be honest – few places on Earth lend themselves so well to a performance of passion and purpose. This isn’t Coachella with rosary beads. This is sacred pageantry with a backbeat. When Rome takes to the mic, it does so with centuries of soul.
More Than Music, It’s a Mission
Unlike many modern concerts, where the price of admission funds pyrotechnics and overpriced popcorn, this one has a conscience.
Funds raised will go toward humanitarian relief for families and children affected by war and educational and cultural cooperation initiatives aimed at lighting more candles than cursing darkness.
It’s an event less interested in selling T-shirts than in changing lives. And that’s rather refreshing.
The organisers tell us in solemn whispers that music is the universal language of peace. And indeed it is. No border fence, bombast of rhetoric, or political posturing can resist the simple, soaring power of a song sung in hope.
The Setting: A Cathedral of Atmosphere
Picture it: the fading gold of a Roman sunset spills across Bernini’s colonnades. The crowd hushes. A single note pierces the air, followed by a hundred more. Suddenly, between the centuries-old stones of St Peter’s Square, the future feels less divided.
If that doesn’t stir you, check your pulse or your passport.
Rome has hosted emperors, popes, and pilgrims. On 21 September, it will host the peacemakers — or at least those singing their hearts out for the cause.
Details to Come – But Circle the Date Now
Details regarding the artist lineup, live broadcast, timing, and attendance will be released shortly via jubilaeum2025.va and Fondazione Pro Musica e Arte Sacra. But if you have even a single romantic cell left in your body or a memory of music soothing your soul, you’ll want to be there.
If you can’t, the concert will be broadcast globally because peace, like music, is best when shared.
So, mark it down:
📍 SUNDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER 2025
📍 ROME – PIAZZA PIO XII
📍 A concert for peace, beneath the windows of the Pope
And remember — Rome is playing the right notes in a world increasingly out of tune.
By Susan Ng
