A symbolic tour. Supported by the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Polish National Opera, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra will go on tour this summer in Europe and the United States. Composed of the best Ukrainian artists and European ensembles, it will include in its ranks artists specially demobilized by the Ukrainian Minister of Culture for this meeting.
“Music can be a powerful weapon against oppression. This tour aims to defend Ukrainian art and its courageous artists who fight for the freedom of their country”, explained in a joint press release Peter Gelb, general manager of the Met, and Waldemar Dabrowski, director of the Teatr Wielki-Opéra. National of Poland.
In a gesture of solidarity with the victims of the war in Ukraine, the Met and the @Opera_Narodowa will gather leading Ukrainian musicians into the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra for a European and American tour from 7/28 to 8/20.
Full press release: https://t.co/Qb2f2qJ3d3 pic.twitter.com/dtYhm00EmS
— Metropolitan Opera (@MetOpera) April 25, 2022
The tour, whose proceeds will be donated to the benefit of Ukrainians, will be held from July 28 to August 20. It will begin in Warsaw, before passing through the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands and will end in New York and Washington. In France, the Ukrainian freedom orchestra will perform on August 2 in Orange, as part of the opera and classical music festival of the Chorégies d’Orange.
Musicians specially demobilized for this tour
Led by Canadian-Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, who initiated the project, the Ukrainian Freedom Tour will notably bring together musicians from the kyiv National Opera, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra and the Kharkiv Opera.
Some of them benefited from a special dispensation granted by the Minister of Culture in order to allow “orchestral musicians in the country of age to be enrolled in the army to lay down their arms and take their instruments and demonstrate the power of art over adversity,” the statement said.
The program will also bring together two internationally renowned Ukrainian stars: the soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska and the virtuoso Anna Fedorova.