Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra / Valeriy Sokolov / Keri-Lynn Wilson

Freedom!

As a gesture of solidarity with the victims of the war in Ukraine, New York’s Metropolitan Opera and the Polish National Opera have gathered leading Ukrainian musicians to form the »Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra«. The orchestra consists of refugee musicians, Ukrainian members of European orchestras and some of the best artists from Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odessa and other Ukrainian cities. The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy supports the project by exempting male musicians from military service to allow them to tour. One of the orchestra’s founders is the Canadian-Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, who also leads the orchestra. The Ukrainian violinist Valeriy Sokolov, one of the leading artists of his generation, is also performing. The programme reflects on topics which Ukraine is facing since the Russian invasion. The mood is set by the portentous opening chords of the ouverture to Verdi’s opera »The Power of Fate«. Beethovens’s »Eroica« shows how quickly a statesman can turn into a tyrant: Originally written out of enthusiasm for Napoleon, the composer quickly revised the dedication when the French revolutionary crowned himself Emperor. Instead, the magnificent symphony can be perceived as a call for a liberation war agains the oppressor. Today’s Ukraine is represented by Yevhen Stankovych, one of the country’s great living composers.