This summer, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra is once again embarking on a tour across Europe. The concerts will take place in countries that have expressed steadfast support for Ukraine, including Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra tour is a powerful act of solidarity. The program includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Wagner’s Liebestod, Maksym Kolomiiets’s Mother of Kherson, Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture, Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs, Victoria Poleva’s Bucha Lacrimosa, and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8.
Tour dates:
- August 14 — Warsaw, Poland
- August 16 — Wrocław, Poland
- August 18 — Lucerne, Switzerland
- August 20 — Vilnius, Lithuania
- August 22 — Jūrmala, Latvia
- August 25 — Bucharest, Romania
- August 26 — Bucharest, Romania
- August 27 — Amsterdam, Netherlands
- August 29 — London, United Kingdom
Keri-Lynn Wilson is the founding conductor and music director of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra. The ensemble was created in 2022 in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion as a bold initiative to defend Ukraine’s cultural legacy as the country fights for its freedom. It brings together leading Ukrainian musicians from inside and outside the country and is a collaboration between the Metropolitan Opera, the Polish National Opera and The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture. The orchestra’s honorary patron is Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska.
The UFO assembles each summer and its three international tours have so far taken in some of the most prestigious concert halls, as well as some of the great cathedrals, of Europe and the United States. These include the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Lincoln Center in New York City, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, St Paul’s Cathedral in London and Saint Eustache in Paris. The 2024 Beethoven Ninth Freedom Tour celebrated the symphony’s 200th anniversary with a unique version of the work featuring its inspirational choral cry of freedom, “Ode to Joy,” sung in Ukrainian and included a concert, symbolic of the struggle against oppression, in the Gdansk Shipyards in Poland, birthplace of the Solidarity Movement.
