A roar, as on the eve of trouble, and then a lull… With this soft and lyrical seventh symphony by Valentin Silvestrov, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra’s concert began on August 4 at the Berlin Concert Hall. On stage – 75 musicians from Ukraine. It’s hard to imagine that a month ago this orchestra didn’t exist, and the musicians had never played together before.

Some of them have been performing in Europe for a long time, some fled the country after the Russian invasion, but most still live and play in various orchestras in Ukraine. To participate in this tour, they had to obtain a special permit from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. And in a welcoming speech on the concert program, President Volodymyr Zelensky called the song “a powerful weapon against invaders”.

For musicians, this is an opportunity to perform again with full houses.

Among those who left Ukraine just a few weeks ago is cellist Evgeny Dovbysh. When Russia attacked his homeland, Evgeny dropped his bow and began carrying sandbags to fortify barriers in his city of Odessa. In the first month of the war, there was no music – Eugene, like many other musicians, became a volunteer: he carried medicine, water, equipment.

He sent his wife and 8-year-old daughter abroad. Five months later, at a rehearsal in Warsaw, he saw her for the first time. Hanna Vikhrova also plays the violin in the orchestra.

“This project is important for our country,” says Eugene before the show in Berlin. “I see how full the halls are, how people stand up and applaud after every show, actually, that’s real support.”

“This is an opportunity to convey to the people here that the war is not over, it continues, we have a very difficult situation,” says his colleague in the orchestra, Dmitry Mitchenko. He plays the horn at the National Philharmonic of Ukraine in Kyiv. Concerts in the Ukrainian capital resumed in May, but with half-empty halls – only as many spectators are allowed as can fit in an air-raid shelter.

In Berlin, there were almost no empty seats in the hall. The musicians were welcomed and seen standing and a standing ovation. Dmitry hopes this attention and standing ovation will turn into real help for his country.

Conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson: “My Wand Is My Weapon”

The idea of ​​creating an orchestra belongs to Canadian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson. His great-grandparents immigrated to Canada from Ukraine. She grew up in the Ukrainian community in Winnipeg. “I have relatives in Chernivtsi. One of them is fighting in Donbass,” says Keri-Lynn Wilson without hiding her emotions. “And I wanted to fight too. But as a musician. And my weapon is a conductor’s baton.”

Conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson grew up in the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada

When the war started, Keri-Lynn performed in Europe. It struck her deeply that musicians in Ukraine had to hide and run while she could safely drive just a few hundred kilometers away.

She told her husband, director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Peter Gelb, about her crazy idea. He couldn’t refuse his support and agreed with the world’s leading platforms. After ten shows in Europe, the musicians will travel to the United States, where they will perform in New York and Washington.

“Under any other circumstances, a tour of this magnitude would have been absolutely impossible,” he says. “But as it was about protecting Ukraine and Ukrainian culture, the impossible became possible.”

The head of the Metropolitan Opera: “Putin’s plan to destroy Ukrainian culture”

The Metropolitan Opera’s leadership came out in support of Ukraine from the start and even terminated the contract with opera singer Anna Netrebko, who refused to sever personal ties with Vladimir Putin. Ukrainian singer Lyudmila Monastyrskaya was invited to replace her. She also performs with the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, performing the very symbolic Leonora aria of Beethoven’s Fidelio: “Oh no, tyrant, the next day is not yours.”

“We all know that Putin’s plan is to destroy not only Ukraine, but also its culture. And this is a vivid example of the greatness of Ukrainian art and a direct response to Putin,” Gelb said at a concert rehearsal in Berlin.

The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra rehearses the seventh symphony by Valentin Silvestrov

In addition to Monastyrskaya, Anna Fedorova, one of the leading Ukrainian pianists, performs solos with the orchestra. She admits that she can barely contain her emotions when she sees so many wonderful musicians from Ukraine on stage. She studied and worked with many of them. Through the power of art and classical music, she wants to remind Europe of the suffering of Ukrainians.

It is with this thought in mind that the musicians play Silvestrov’s seventh symphony. The greatest living Ukrainian composer was forced to flee Kyiv at the start of the war. Now he lives in Berlin. Silvestrov dedicated this symphony to his wife Larisa, who died early.

It ends with a harp solo, accompanied by wind instruments. This symbolizes the last breath of the composer’s wife. But for Keri-Lynn Wilson, it’s the breath of life. “These are the souls of our brothers and sisters who died but continue to live in our hearts,” says the conductor. “This symphony ends in silence. And this is the most fascinating part of it.”