Musical notes of hope in war-torn Ukraine
After several weeks into the Russia-Ukraine war, numerous residents who took shelter in the underground subways and metro stations of Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv, heard songs of hope amid explosions. As part of the opening act of the ongoing Kharkiv Music Festival, the Concert Between Explosions was recently presented by five Ukrainian musicians, who had travelled to the subway station. The moment they took to their music instruments, to perform tunes of Western European composers and even Ukrainian musicians, the faces around them lit up!
Sergey Polituchiy, president of the Kharkiv-based festival, who was born and brought up in Russia, shares, “During the opening, we saw smiles on the faces of people who live underground in metro stations, in the environment of shelling and explosion. Culture and music will remain forever, and war is temporary!”
“The main idea is that music is always about peace, not war,” says Yuliya Nikolaevska, a professor at Kharkiv National Ivan Kotlyarevsky University of Arts, and one of the performers at the concert, adding, “There we played Bach, Skorik, Dvorak, as well as the Anthem of Ukraine, Ukrainian folk songs that everyone sang along! ‘The concert gave me hope’ said one of the subway workers. And this makes me feel confident that we are all together, and that we will win.”
Vitali Alekseenok, the Berlinbased artistic director of the fest, feeling helpless to not be able to cross borders and be in Kharkiv at this point, adds: “The Ukrainian musicians are in Kharkiv. They came especially by car to the metro station because it’s really difficult and dangerous to move in the city.” He further shares, “We started with the Ukrainian anthem, and all 250 attendees put their hands to their hearts. They told us it’s a fresh air for them right now, and it’s a little piece of normality. We’ve understood that people need art.” Sharing their plans to continue the festival for as long as the war lasts, despite the difficulty to plan amid “bombs falling every day”, Alekseenok informs that another concert is scheduled in the coming days.
Culture and music will remain forever, and war is temporary!
SERGEY POLITUCHIY, President, Kharkiv Music Festival