National Chamber Ensemble KYIV SOLOISTS

The National Chamber Ensemble Kyiv Soloists (artistic director Anatoli Vasylkovskii), guests from Ukraine, grace the stage of the Lithuanian National Philharmonic. The ensemble involves famous musicians from all over Ukraine, most of whom are winners of national and international competitions. For its outstanding achievements in representing the Ukrainian culture in the world, the ensemble was awarded the title of Ambassador of Ukrainian Culture in the World.

In February of this year, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Kyiv Soloists were giving concerts in Italy as part of their European tour. The war broke out and everything changed. The concert agencies of Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavia and the Baltic States quickly began to organize the ensemble’s concert tour and fundraising for Ukraine. “We perform for peace,” says Anatoli Vasylkovskii. “It is difficult to express our emotions in words … our families are in Ukraine, and we keep in touch with them every day: with parents, brothers, sisters and relatives. Our work right now is taxing, but we keep performing. Music helps us in this situation, and it is our duty to represent Ukrainian culture.”

The concert programme features works by Ukraine’s classics and eminent contemporary composers Maksym Berezovsky, Valentin Silvestrov, Myroslav Skoryk and Oleksandr Shymko as well as Ukrainian folk songs arranged for string ensemble; Concerto for strings by Nino Rota, one of the foremost Italian film composers; the Tenth Symphony by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, the German music genius. The Ukrainian anthem performed at the beginning if the concert lends the event symbolic and sensitive element.