Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Berlin, Germany
It’s frightening: Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which violates international law, has been going on for two long years. Two years of life under fire and bomb terror – in constant danger of losing your life or your home. For many people this also means two years of living in exile.
Having hope and creating culture under these circumstances is extremely difficult. But there are the unbreakable ones: the artists who, despite the worst conditions, fight the cruelty of war with the beauty of music.
Two top Ukrainian ensembles are playing in memory of the victims of the war and against forgetting: one was founded in exile in the spring of 2022 and caused a sensation in famous halls in Germany, the second endured the entire war under the most difficult conditions in the capital Kyiv.
Both bring music to the stages to give people hope and to constantly set cultural signs of Ukrainian freedom – at home and in German exile. For this important occasion, the two orchestras join forces and together signal solidarity and unbreakability.
The symbolic concert will feature works by HIF Biber, F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and by directly affected Ukrainian composers such as A. Rodin, H. Gavrylets and Z. Almashi.
Conductor: Roc Fargas
Bogdana Pivnenko – violin, Artistic Director of Kyiv Camerata orchestra
Artistic Director MRIYA: Kateryna Suprun
Kyiv Camerata orchestra, Exile Orchestra MRIYA
Program:
Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber (1644-1704) – Battalia à10
Hanna Gavrylets (1958-2022) – “Chorale” for strings (2005)
Chorale for strings
Oleksandr Rodin (*1975) – Concerto–Symphony for Violin and String Orchestra (2023)
Soloist: Bogdana Pivnenko
Break
Zoltan Almashi (*1975) – Maria’s City for strings (2023)
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809-1847) String Symphony in C minor