Following its acclaimed 2022 and 2023 tours, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra will perform again this summer under the baton of its Canadian-Ukrainian Music Founder and Music Director Keri-Lynn Wilson for a tour of great cathedrals and concert halls of Europe and the United States, in a continuing demonstration of Ukrainian artistry as the nation fights for its freedom. The only performance in New York will be at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Thursday, August 1 at 7pm.
The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra will present their unique version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony featuring soloists and chorus singing Schiller’s thrilling cry of freedom, “Ode to Joy”, in Ukrainian. In the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s great work, the orchestra’s dramatic and emotionally charged performance boldly re-asserts the values of humanity, resistance and progress in defiance of oppression. The concert will open with a new work by acclaimed Ukrainian composer Victoria Vita Polevá entitled Bucha Lacrimosa, for solo violin and orchestra, performed by concertmaster Marko Komonko.
Under the patronage of Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra brings together leading musicians based in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and elsewhere in Ukraine alongside Ukrainian musicians forced into exile by the war and Ukrainian members of European orchestras. Zelenska says, “The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra’s remarkable concert tours have seen it become not only the musical voice of Ukraine, but a powerful cultural voice for everyone who cares about liberty in the face of aggression.”
The Orchestra was formed in 2022 by Keri-Lynn Wilson, in coordination with the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, the New York Metropolitan Opera, and the Polish National Opera in Warsaw. It was a direct response to Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine and a bold initiative to defend Ukraine’s cultural legacy as the country fights for its freedom in the face of violence and aggression. This year, they began rehearsals in Warsaw before embarking on an international tour which includes stops at St. Eustache in Paris, the Polish National opera in Warsaw, St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., as well as at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.
Maestro Wilson says, “I’m thrilled to be bringing the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra to the spectacular gothic Cathedral of St. John the Divine for our 2024 Beethoven Nine Freedom Tour on Thursday, August 1st at 7pm. Since St. John has long been a champion for social justice and a peaceful world, it is the ideal setting for our program of music composed in response to political oppression, from Ukrainian composer Victoria Vita Poleva’s Bucha Lacrimosa to Beethoven’s Ninth. We are playing for a free Ukraine and a democratic world!”
The soloists for the tour will be Ukrainian singers Olga Bezsmertna (soprano), Natalia Kukhar (mezzo-soprano), Valentyn Dytiuk (tenor), and Andrii Kymach (bass-baritone). While on tour, the orchestra will be joined by local choirs with links to the wider Ukrainian community. In New York, the Ukrainian Freedom Chorus is comprised of singers from various ensembles and from far and wide: Amor Artis (NYC), Princeton Pro Musica, and Monmouth Community Chorus (Ryan Brandau, director); Oratorio Society of New York (Kent Tritle, director); alumni of the University of California Berkeley Chamber Chorus (Marika Kuzma, director emerita); along with several alumni of the Bard Conservatory Vocal Arts Program, Indiana University, Westminster Choir College, Yale University, and members of the Berkeley Community Chorus, Dumka Chorus of New York, Ensemble Cherubim, San Francisco Symphony Chorus , and Yevshan Vocal Ensemble of Hartford. The have gathered from the Tristate area, California, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, and Utah and have given their time and voices generously to embrace the spirit of Beethoven’s work. Some of them are recent refugees from Ukraine; many are singing in the Ukrainian language for the first time.
To purchase tickets and for more information, visit stjohndivine.org.
Are children allowed?