Appeal for nation
Veronika represented Ukraine at previous Wales Harp Festivals
ATOP harpist from Ukraine will make an emotional appeal at a North Wales music festival asking people to donate money to her war-torn homeland. Virtuosa Veronika Leminshenko will be performing virtually at the Wales Harp Festival at Galeri Caernarfon tonight and will be interviewed live over a video link by the event’s artistic director, Elinor Bennet.
She organised her fundraising tour at breakneck speed after quitting her job in in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg where she was working with the orchestra when President Putin ordered his troops to invade her homeland.
She was lucky to escape while many fellow Ukrainians were detained or arrested but she managed to reach the airport and board a flight after two other planes were cancelled.
Her parents Alla and Yuri and her brother, Maksym, decamped to the west Ukraine city of Lviv from their home city of Kharkiv which has been pulverised by Russian shelling.
Other family members, close friends and musical associates are sheltering in basements, struggling to find food and resources amid Putin’s ruthless onslaught in Ukraine.
Veronika, 33, has performed at the Wales Harp Festival on previous occasions, always as a representative of Ukraine, including one not long after Russia annexed the Crimea in 2014 when she defiantly wore Ukrainian national costume for her performance.
This year’s festival at Galeri (second and final day today, April 13) combines concerts with master classes and workshops.
Veronika had originally hoped to re-visit Wales to play in person but difficulties obtaining travel documents mean she is unlikely to get here in time. Instead, organisers have arranged for her to pre-record a concert in Paris which will be screened during the festival ahead of the live interview.
Elinor said she is heartbroken about the desperate and cruel plight faced by her friend Veronika and compatriots.
She said: “We are doing anything we can to help Veronika. She is such a courageous force for good. Her actions have been amazing from the moment Putin’s violent aggression began. The situation in Ukraine is beyond belief, so many people have been left homeless and bereft by this barbarous, inhuman dictator.”
To donate to the Veronika Lemishenko Charity Foundation visit glowingharp-ukraine.com. For full details of the festival programme go to www.walesharpfestival.co.uk