Top artists to sing, play for Ukraine
Frederica von Stade among big names for S.F. benefit concert
An array of Bay Area and international luminaries from the classical music world — including world-renowned mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, pianist-composer Jake Heggie, conductor Nicole Paiement and members of the San Francisco Symphony — are slated to perform in a concert to benefit Ukraine in the wake of the Russian invasion of that country.
The program, titled “Concert of Compassion,” is scheduled for Monday, May 9, at Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco.
Other artists on the program include San Francisco organist Jonathan Dimmock, the concert’s organizer, and the Bay Brass, a collective of local instrumentalists. Ukrainian soprano Alina Ilchuk, baritone Eugene Brancoveanu, bass
Matt Boehler and cellist Jeffrey Zeigler are also on the bill.
“The project began on a personal note,”
Dimmock told
The Chronicle.
“I have a friend who’s originally from Kharkiv, and he sent me video footage of the bombing of the city hall there. This was well before it hit the American media — like three minutes after it happened.
“I felt I had a personal connection, and felt I had to do something. My instinct as a musician is to pull together some musicians and do it as a community.”
The program includes music by San Francisco Symphony Music Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas, Missy Mazzoli and Samuel Barber, as well as Ukrainian composers Valentin Silvestrov and Lesia Dychko.
Von Stade, the semiretired opera star who has lived in the East Bay for decades, said she signed on to the project as soon as she was asked and persuaded Heggie, her longtime collaborator, to take part as well.
“I would lay down my heart and soul for this, because I’m so devastated by what is happening,” she said.
She and Heggie plan to perform two
songs, one by Debussy and one by Poulenc. Debussy’s “Noël des enfants qui n’ont plus de maison” (“Christmas of the Homeless Children”), which was composed during World War I, struck von Stade as particularly apt.
“The words,” she said, “are heartbreaking: We don’t have any houses! My father has gone to war, my mother has gone to war, everything is destroyed.”
Dmytro Kushneruk, the Ukrainian consul general, is also scheduled to speak.
The performance will be livestreamed at www.concertof compassion.com and will be available for viewing for several weeks afterward, Dimmock said.
Viewing is free, but donations are requested.
Proceeds will go to the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, famed chef and philanthropist José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen and Nova Ukraine. Dimmock said the goal is to raise $100,000, of which 60% to 70% is already in hand.