UKRAINIAN FREEDOM ORCHESTRA, INTERNATIONAL TOUR

In another gesture of solidarity with the victims of the war in Ukraine, the Metropolitan Opera and the Polish National Opera will gather leading Ukrainian musicians into the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra for a European and American tour July 28–August 20, including stops in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, before culminating with concerts in New York and Washington, DC. (For tour details and tickets, click here.) Under the leadership of Canadian-Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, the orchestra will perform a program that includes Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov’s Seventh Symphony and Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2, with Ukrainian virtuoso Anna Fedorova. Leading Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska, who sang the title role of Turandot at the Met in the spring, will perform the great aria “Abscheulicher!” from Beethoven’s Fidelio, a paean to humanity and peace in the face of violence and cruelty.

The orchestra will include recent refugees, Ukrainian members of European orchestras, and some of the top musicians of Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and elsewhere in Ukraine. The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine is supporting the project by addressing the organizational issues of allowing male musicians to put down weapons and take up their instruments in a remarkable demonstration of the power of art over adversity.

The tour has been assembled with the cooperation of Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its Ministry of Culture, and money raised from the tour will go to support Ukrainian artists. Donations can be made to the Ministry of Culture at https://donate.arts.gov.ua/en.

The Ukrainian Freedom Tour is generously supported by the Ford Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and United Airlines.

Tour Schedule and Tickets

July 28: Warsaw (Teatr Wielki–Polish National Opera)
July 31: London (BBC Proms)
August 1: Munich (Isar Philharmonic Hall)
August 2: Orange, France (Chorégies d’Orange Festival)
August 4: Berlin (Konzerthaus)
August 6: Edinburgh (Edinburgh International Festival)
August 8: Snape, England (Snape Maltings)
August 11: Amsterdam (Amsterdam Concertgebouw Festival)
August 13: Hamburg (Elbphilharmonie)
August 15: Dublin (National Concert Hall)
August 18 and 19: New York (Lincoln Center)
August 20: Washington, DC (Kennedy Center)

https://www.metopera.org/information/ukrainian-freedom-orchestra/