The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra – photo Kaparti & Zarewicz
In its fourth summer tour, the Ukranian Freedom Orchestra takes in Lithuania, Latvia and the George Enescu Festival in Romania, as well as paying return visits to Lucerne, Amsterdam, Warsaw and London.
Under the patronage of Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska, and led by Founder and Music Director, Keri-Lynn Wilson, the Orchestra will feature a programme which includes Beethoven’s Symphony No 5. This work was composed during a time of war and personal crisis, and symbolises the victory of triumph over adversity. As Maestra Wilson says, the “…. iconic opening four notes, amongst many other things, came to symbolize allied resistance to Naziism during the Second World War. Let them be a symbol to the world of our resistance today….. Slava Ukraini!”
Keri-Lynn Wilson leads the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra – photo Kaparti & Zarewicz
Also on the programme is a powerful new work by Ukrainian composer, Maxim Kolomiiets, featuring a suite from the new opera, The Mothers of Kherson, with librettist George Brant. The opera was jointly commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Teatr Wielski-Polish National Opera in Warsaw and written in honour of the Ukrainian women who made a 3,000-mile journey behind enemy lines to rescue their children forcibly detained by Russian authorities. The Mothers of Kherson will be staged by the Polish National Opera in 2026 and by the Metropolitan Opera as part of its 2028-28 season.
The programme also features the 2025 Beverly Sills Artist Award winner Rachel Willis-Sørensen who is known for her diverse repertoire ranging from Mozart to Wagner, and as a regular guest at leading opera houses around the world. Le Monde writes: “… the American soprano has without a doubt one of the most impressive voices in the opera world”. Highlights from her 2024–25 season include Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore at the Met and Covent Garden, her debut in the title role of Bellini’s Norma at Staatsoper Berlin, and Elisabetta di Valois in Verdi’s Don Carlo at the Teatro di San Carlo and Bavarian State Opera. As part of this tour, Ms Willis-Sørensen will perform Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, and Strauss’s Four Last Songs.
For the first concert at the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, violinist Alexandra Conunova – of whom Gramophone writes that “…her playing is this fabulous: the warm-toned, easy fluidity of her virtuosities; her range of articulation, colour and shading; the subtle spontaneity; the natural shaping” – will perform Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No 1. She has appeared with many leading international orchestras, including the Orchestre de Paris, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Paris Chamber Orchestra and the Mariinsky Orchestra.
Other works on the programmes include Ukrainian composer and pianist Victoria Vita Polevá’s moving Bucha Lacrimosa, composed in memory of the victims of Russian atrocities. Polevá’s music has been identified as ‘sacred minimalism’ and has been commissioned by exponents of new music, such as Gidon Kremer, who commissioned Sempre Primavera in 2005, and The Art of Instrumentation in 2010, and the Kronos Quartet for whom Walking on Waters was written in 2013. Dvořák’s Symphony No 8, also on the programme, was written while on holiday at his summer resort. A cheerful and optimistic work, it reflects the inspiration from his surroundings, and the Bohemian folk music that he loved.
The tour begins at the Teatr Wielki–Polish National Opera in Warsaw before performances at the Wroclaw Opera in Poland, and the Lucerne Festival, following which the orchestra will undertake a series of first visits to countries who have shown staunch support for Ukraine and its people – the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society in Vilnius, the Dzintari Concert Hall in Jūrmala, Latvia, on the shore of the Baltic Sea, and at the prestigious George Enescu Festival in Bucharest. The orchestra will then appear at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, before the final concert at London’s Cadogan Hall.
The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra was formed in 2022 by Canadian Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson in direct response to Russia’s brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The orchestra unites leading musicians based in Ukraine alongside those forced to leave the country as refugees, and Ukrainian artists from premier international ensembles elsewhere across Europe in a powerful symbol of cultural solidarity. It was created in collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Teatr Wielki–Polish National Opera in Warsaw, the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra
Dates and programme details of the tour can be found on https://www.ukrainianfreedomorchestra.org/tour.
Further information is available on the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra website.
Information sourced from:
Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra programme notes
Artists’ websites
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