\u2018People often ask me about my work with Ukrainian musicians,\u201d says the Canadian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson. \u201cThey will say things like, \u2018How are things out there? We don\u2019t hear much about the war, I guess it\u2019s all calmed down a bit.\u2019 When I hear that I want to scream, \u2018No, it really hasn\u2019t calmed down!\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson established the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra<\/a> in the weeks after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. With her husband, Peter Gelb, general manager of New York\u2019s Metropolitan Opera, she contacted leaders of the world\u2019s top international orchestras and located dozens of elite Ukrainian musicians \u2013 some working in western Europe, some who had fled Russia, others performing in Kyiv, Lviv or Odesa \u2013 to establish a 75-piece \u201cbattalion of culture\u201d who would assemble for a few weeks each year.<\/p>\n The UFO were stars of the 2022 Proms<\/a>, earned rave reviews around the world, received a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, and toured their titanic version of Beethoven\u2019s Ninth in 2023 and 2024, translating Schiller\u2019s lyric into Ukrainian and turning his \u201code to joy\u201d into a declaration of \u201cSlava Ukraini\u201d (Glory to Ukraine). However, after three and a half years of relentless conflict, Wilson admits that the orchestra may be a victim of compassion fatigue. \u201cThere\u2019s a danger that the world could lose interest, just as the Russian bombing gets ever more brutal, and as more and more Ukrainians are killed. I guess the only way we can get that story across is to keep on fighting through music.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018You take cover for an hour, and then get back on stage and re-establish your rapport with the audience\u2019 \u2026 Vladyslav Primakov. Photograph: Kinga Karpati & Daniel Zarewicz<\/p>\n The orchestra members, many of whom are based in Kyiv, can attest to the relentless bombardment they face on a day-to-day basis. \u201cI might be playing a small chamber concert one evening, which is suddenly interrupted by air raid sirens,\u201d says Vladyslav Primakov, a cellist with the UFO as well as the Kyiv Philharmonic and the National House of Music. \u201cYou have to stop what you are doing, take cover for an hour, and then get back on stage, re-establish your rapport with the audience, and then try and enter a space of sensitivity all over again. Then I return home to my wife and five-year-old daughter, and I might get an hour of sleep, amid the drone attacks. It is exhausting.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is very scary,\u201d confirms UFO double bassist Nazarii Stets, who also plays with several other Kyiv ensembles. \u201cWe all have apps on our phones which give air raid warnings. Sometimes you see neighbours who sleep in the underground stations because it is safer. And then you have to go to rehearsals the next morning after zero sleep, and you are shattered. Of course, we are not on the frontline, about to kill or be killed. These people are the true heroes. But, as musicians, our instruments are our weapons.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018It is very scary\u2019 \u2026 Nazarii Stets. Photograph: Kinga Karpati & Daniel Zarewicz<\/p>\n At the moment, orchestra members like Stets and Primakov are among an elite of men of fighting age \u2013 alongside sportsmen, academics, scientists and certain caregivers \u2013 who are given dispensation to avoid military service, something reviewed every two years. This is a cause of resentment for some drafted Ukrainians. One Belgium-based musician in the UFO was the object of his brother\u2019s anger for not returning to Ukraine<\/a> to volunteer. \u201cThere are some musicians who have remained in exile and avoided the draft,\u201d says Stets. \u201cI guess they, like footballers and boxers, are representing Ukraine on the world stage, fighting for us culturally. But I understand why some are uncomfortable with that.\u201d<\/p>\n It may seem frivolous for Ukrainian musicians to be playing concerts at this moment, or for the Ukrainian government to maintain an arts programme as it fights for its very survival, but it recalls a famous wartime quote often attributed to Winston Churchill. When asked to cut the arts budget to aid the war effort, he is said to have responded: \u201cSo what are we fighting for?\u201d It is a crucial point for Wilson. \u201cCulture is our soul,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s what gives Ukrainians their identity. We have to maintain and expand that. I receive letters from soldiers on the frontline, saying thank you for your support, thank you for fighting for us. Soldiers come to our concerts, they watch us on YouTube and social media. We have performed for soldiers in rehab, some blinded in battle, and we were overwhelmed by their support.\u201d<\/p>\n Wilson has strong ties to Ukraine \u2013 her ancestors emigrated from Chernivtsi a century ago to join thelarge Ukrainian community in Winnipeg, Canada \u2013 and she is close to two cousins from the Bukovina region who are now serving as military volunteers. She spends six weeks a year as music director of the Kyiv Camerata<\/a>, Ukraine\u2019s leading chamber orchestra, and is learning Ukrainian; she was already fluent in French, Italian, German and Russian when she launched the UFO. \u201cI initially tried conversing with Ukrainian musicians in Russian. But you realise that this is now verboten, even for those in the Russian-speaking areas of the east.\u201d<\/p>\n It sounds like a lullaby, then you realise it’s being sung by someone trying to comfort the mother of an abducted child<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It is a sore subject. \u201cFrom 24 February 2022, I decided that no Russian will be spoken from my lips,\u201d says Stets. \u201cAnd, likewise, no Russian music from my hand. We have a limited amount of time, and I would rather spend my time developing and championing the Ukrainian repertoire.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI, too, can no longer play Russian music,\u201d says Primakov. \u201cSame with Russian books, films, TV, art \u2013 anything Russian is cursed. It is terrible to think this way, but it has become instinctive.\u201d<\/p>\n The repertoire for this tour features a new work by Ukrainian composer Maxim Kolomiiets. His opera, The Mothers of Kherson, with a libretto by American playwright George Brant, will be premiered at the New York Met next year, but here will be previewed as a 15-minute suite. \u201cIt is a remarkable piece, about the tens of thousands of Ukrainian children who have been kidnapped by Russia,\u201d says Primakov. \u201cThere are parts that sound like a lullaby, but you quickly realise that the lullaby is being sung by someone who is trying to comfort the mother of an abducted child. It is rare to play such a devastating and resonant contemporary work.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Art is a political weapon\u2019 \u2026 Keri-Lynn Wilson. Photograph: Kinga Karpati & Daniel Zarewicz<\/p>\n The programme also includes the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner\u2019s Tristan and Isolde (\u201cThat moves me to tears every time,\u201d says Primakov) as well as Beethoven\u2019s Fifth: \u201cI once saw the Fifth as something dark and tragic. But now I see an air of defiance. It embodies our fighting spirit. It reminds us that we are soldiers, too.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur repertoire must send a strong message, and the Fifth was not a light choice,\u201d says Wilson. \u201cThe opening four notes were famously used as a sign of resistance in occupied Europe<\/a> during the second world war, and the BBC used it during blitzkrieg. It is about resilience. It reminds us that art is a political weapon. Every time I go to Ukraine, I realise that I am playing Russian roulette, I could be killed. But I would rather fight than not do anything. My baton is my weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n The Ukraine Freedom Orchestra<\/a> is at Cadogan Hall, London<\/a>, on 29 August<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018People often ask me about my work with Ukrainian musicians,\u201d says the Canadian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson. \u201cThey will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-360894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115064277930664088","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}