Tag: Ukraine

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Can a piece of music stop a bullet?

In the 2015 documentary about Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, The Music of Strangers, Silkroad’s Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh recalls the agony of experiencing the war in Syria from afar and reflected on the role of music during a time of armed conflict, saying, “Can a piece of music stop a bullet? Can it feed somebody who is hungry? Of course, it doesn’t. You question the role of art altogether.”

Yet we keep hearing stories about music’s role in lifting the spirits of Ukrainians as they endure the horror of the Russian onslaught. Recently in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, organizers of the annual Kharkiv Music Fest improvised by moving an abbreviated version of the festival into a subway station, where they performed a “concert between explosions” for hundreds of their appreciative fellow citizens. Opening with the Ukrainian National Anthem, they played music by Bach and Dvorak, and arrangements of Ukrainian folk songs. The festival’s art director, Vitali Alekseenok, explained, “Music can unite…. It’s important now for those who stay in Kharkiv to be united.”

Concert between explosions – KharkivMusicFest-2022 in subway shelter (YouTube)

‘Concert between explosions’ provides respite in Kharkiv subway shelter (Washington Post)https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/27/classical-music-kharkiv-concert-ukraine-war/

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7-year-old Ukrainian refugee performs for thousands in Poland

The Washington Post reports that Amelia Anisovych, the seven-year-old whose performance of the Ukrainian language version of “Let It Go” from the Disney movie Frozen from inside a bomb shelter in Kyiv was viewed by millions, is now a refugee in Poland. She recently sang the Ukrainian national anthem before thousands as part of a benefit concert for those who, like Amelia, are fleeing the war. Video of both performances are included in the story:

A Ukrainian girl sang ‘Let It Go’ in a Kyiv bunker. She just performed for thousands in Poland.

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Ukraine’s National Anthem as a powerful symbol of Western unity

On March 15, a New York Times headline declared , “Ukraine’s National Anthem Reverberates Around the World,’ and illustrated this with a video montage. The anthem, which begins with the words, “Ukraine’s glory hasn’t perished,” also provides powerful inspiration within the embattled country, where it is heard multiple times each day.

The story explained the origins of the anthem in the 1860s, when it was composed specifically to “revive and celebrate a Ukrainian heritage that was at risk of being lost to a process of Russification.” During the Soviet period the anthem was repressed and supplanted, but it returned after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and was sung repeatedly during the Maidan Square protests of 2013 and 2014.

Here, Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma perform the Ukrainian National Anthem

Here is the link to the New York Times story: Ukraine’s National Anthem used around the world as an expression of support

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DakhaBrakha, a Band From Kyiv, Saw a War Coming

Created in 2004, the Ukrainian band DakhaBrakha has become known in the United States through repeated appearances here over the past decade. A recent New York Times story documents their experiences amidst Russia’s current war on Ukraine:

DakhaBrakha, a Band From Kyiv, Saw a War Coming

The story includes links to two performances by DakhaBrakha:

DakhaBrakha – Пливе човен (2019)

DakhaBrakha – Full Performance (Live on KEXP)

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Music provides hope in the midst of war in Ukraine

Last night’s PBS News Hour shared a report by William Brangham looking at “the voices and melodies uplifting a nation under siege,” asserting, “In the midst of so much chaos and destruction in Ukraine, the sound of music has the power to bring light to darkness.

In bunkers and at evacuation points, music uplifts a nation under siege