Addressing a ceremony at the Ukrainian Embassy in Warsaw on Friday, Roman Shepelyak, charge d'affaires of Ukraine’s diplomatic mission, described Dąbrowski as one of Ukraine’s greatest friends who “offered support to our country, particularly in the wake of Russia’s full-scale aggression”.
He thanked the director of the Polish National Opera for the opportunites that he created for young Ukrainians to develop their talents thanks to a programme of Polish grants, and for his “day-to-day sustained efforts and contribution to the development of Ukrainian culture”.
Dąbrowski played a key role, alongside Peter Gelb of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in forming the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra which is made up of Ukrainian musicians, members of orchestras from Ukraine who had to flee areas attacked by Russia, as well as Ukrainian members of orchestras in several European countries. Established in 2022, it has so far made three international tours, each of which was preceded by several weeks of rehersals at the Polish National Opera in Warsaw.
Dąbrowski said during the ceremony that the 2025 tour of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra should bring the project to a close, with an itinerary comprising Kharkiv, Lviv, Odesa and Kyiv. “My other dream is to see Ukraine in the European Union”, he added.
Dąbrowski is the third Polish member of the National Ukrainian Academy of Arts. The other two are film directors Krzysztof Zanussi and Jerzy Hoffman.
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Source: IAR, PAP