The concert comes after nine days of rehearsals in the Polish capital under the baton of Canadian Ukrainian conductor Keri Lynn-Wilson, who, together with Peter Gelb, the director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, came up with the idea of forming an ensemble made up of leading Ukrainian musicians from various European orchestras and recent refugees.
The orchestra's Warsaw residency was financed by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, while the tour is a joint project between the Polish National Opera and the Met.
The programme of the concert includes Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov’s Seventh Symphony; Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2, featuring Ukrainian virtuoso Anna Fedorova; and Brahms’s Fourth Symphony.
Polish Culture Minister Piotr Gliński, who met members of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra after one of their last rehearsals, described the message of the ensemble’s tour as "a reminder that the war cannot leave anyone indifferent; that Ukraine is defending not only its sovereignty but also Poland, the whole of Europe, the entire civilized world, democratic values and freedom.”
Gliński added that in this tour “music will serve as a weapon in defence of democracy and good against the evil of the Russian Federation.”
From Warsaw, the 74-member orchestra will travel to perform at the BBC Proms in London (July 31), Munich, Germany (August 1), Orange, France (August 2), Berlin (August 4), Edinburgh (August 6), Snape Maltings, UK (August 8), Amsterdam (August 11), Hamburg (August 13), Dublin (August 15), New York’s Lincoln Center (August 18 and 19), and Washington’s Kennedy Center (August 20).
(mk/gs)