Keri-Lynn Wilson, conductor
Marko Komonko, violin
Olga Bezsmertna, soprano
Nataliia Kukhar, mezzo-soprano
Valentyn Dytiuk, tenor
Andrii Kymach, bass-baritone
The Washington Chorus
Eugene Rogers, director
Ukrainian Freedom Chorus (“Slava!” Chorus)
Marika Kuzma, chorus master
VICTORIA VITA POLEVÁ
Bucha. Lacrimosa
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Symphony No. 9
Following its acclaimed 2022 and 2023 tours, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra assembles again under the baton of its Canadian-Ukrainian Music Founder and Music Director Keri-Lynn Wilson for a tour of great cathedrals and concert halls of Europe and the United States in a continuing demonstration of Ukrainian artistry as the nation fights for its freedom.
In the 200th anniversary year of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the orchestra will present its acclaimed and emotionally charged version of the work with the unique feature of its choral text, Schiller’s great cry of freedom, resistance, and progress against the forces of oppression in the form of his poem “Ode to Joy,” sung in Ukrainian.
The choral forces for this concert are comprised of singers from The Washington Chorus, directed by Eugene Rogers, and “Slava!” Chorus, a combination of singers gathered from far and wide, directed by Ukrainian-American chorus master Marika Kuzma. Singers of the “Slava!” Chorus include members of Ensemble Cherubim; alumni of University of California Berkeley, University of North Carolina, and Indiana University; and several singers from Ukraine.
The program also features Ukrainian composer Victoria Vita Polevá’s Bucha. Lacrimosa, a work for solo violin and orchestra, performed by concertmaster Marko Komonko.
Under the patronage of Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra will again bring together leading musicians based in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and elsewhere in Ukraine alongside Ukrainian musicians forced into exile by the war and Ukrainian members of European orchestras.
