The Grenchus Foundation @ Ukrainian Freedom Tour @ Lincoln Center
Mary Grenchus
The Grenchus Foundation @ Ukrainian Freedom Tour @ Lincoln Center
We had a wonderful time at the Ukrainian Freedom Tour at Lincoln Center and supporting such a wonderful cause. We love this mission to support Ukrainian Artists.
write up’s below by Lincoln Center : )
ON THE UKRAINIAN FREEDOM ORCHESTRA:
The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra brings together Ukrainian musicians from around the world in artistic defense of their homeland. Organized by the Metropolitan Opera and the Polish National Opera in a gesture of solidarity with the victims of the Russian invasion, the orchestra is led by Canadian-Ukrainian maestro Keri-Lynn Wilson, who grew up in Winnipeg, the home of the largest concentration of Ukrainians in North America. It was Ms. Wilson's idea to create the orchestra.
The Members of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra are amongst Ukraine's leading orchestral musicians. They include recent refugees, Ukrainian members of European orchestras, and some of the top musicians from within the country. Many members hail from Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, and Odesa, where they perform with orchestras and opera companies such as the Kyiv National Opera, Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, and Kharkiv Opera. Beyond the border, the orchestra includes members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Royal Swedish Opera Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Tonkunstler Orchestra of Vienna, Belgian National Orchestra, and Seoul Symphony Orchestra, among others. The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra adds a new chapter to a long tradition of ensembles assembled in the face of violence and in the name of peace, including the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and the Afghanistan National Institute of Music.
The orchestra's tour of Europe and the United States, assembled in partnership with Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture, includes performances in Warsaw, London, Munich, Orange, Berlin, Edinburgh, Snape, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Dublin, New York, and Washington DC.
About 3 of the leading Artists Present:
Keri-Lynn Wilson:
Keri-Lyn Wilson’s career as a conductor of many of the world’s leading opera houses and orchestras spans more than 20 years. Most recently, her idea of defending Ukraine through music resulted in the creation of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra. Highlights of her 2022-23 season include her Metropolitan Opera debut, conducting Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk; her return to Covent Garden, conducting La Traviata; and perfromances with Tokyo’s NHK Orchestra, the Hessische Staatsorchester Wiesbaden, the Filarmonica arturo Toscanini, the Wroclaw Philharmonic, the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, the Iceland Symphony, and the Lithuanian National Orchestra. She will also be making her debut at Buenos Aires’ Teatro Colon with Tosca and returning to her alma mater, The Julliard School, for performances next spring.
Over a rich and varied career, Maestro Wilson has conducted, among many other orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Symphonierchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, San Francisco Symphony, Wiener Kammerorchester, Bruckner Orchestra of Linz, Russian National Orchestra, Prague Philharmonia, RAI Symphony Orchestra, Salzburg Mozarteum, Ravinia Festival Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Orchestre National d’Ile de France, NDR Radiophilharmonie, Toronto Symphony, and L’Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal. She has also taken the podium to lead performances at Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opernhaus Zurich, Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, English National Opera, Canadian Opera Company, and Washington National Opera. She was also the first female conductor to lead an opera at the Arena di Verona, where she conducted Tosca and Madama Butterfly, Tokyo’s National Theatre, where she led Madama Butterfly, and the Opera di Roma, where she conducted Aida.
Anna Fedorova
Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova has performed with leading ensembles including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Yomiuri Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic, and at the world’s most prestigious concert halls, such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Tonhalle Zurich, Paris’ Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, and many others. She is a regular guest at leading music festivals, such as the Verbier and Menuhin Festivals in Switzerland, Stift Music Festival in the Netherdlands, Festival de Sintra in Portugal, and Ravinia Festival in the United States. in July 2022, she performed at an opening of the Verbier Festival with Maestro Gianandrea Noseda and the Verbier Festival Orchestra, and she made her debut at the international piano festival La Roque d’Antheron.
In 2018, she signed with Channel Classics Records, with whom she has released 6 albums, including Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra and the duo album Silhouettes with violist Dana Zemtsov. In March 2022, she and interartists Amsterdam organized a charity concert with members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, cellist Maya Fridman, and percussionist Konstantyn Napolov, raising humanitarian aid for victims of the war in Ukraine. Since then, she has performed more than 20 benefit concerts in March and April 2022. She recently joined double bassist Nicholas Santagelo Schwartz to establish the Davidsbundler Music Academy in the Hague. Before the Academy’s doors officially open in September 2022, the Davidsbundler Foundation has already started to provide top-quality musical education to Ukrainian refugees who have fled to the Netherlands. She is a graduate of the Lysenko School of Music in kyiv, under Borys Fedorov, and the Accademia Pianistica at the Royal College of Music, London, under the guidance of Norma Fisher. Her mentors include Alfred Brendel, Menahem Pressler, Steven Isserlis, and Andreas Schiff.
Liudmyla Monastyrska
Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska is acclaimed for her lush, powerful, compelling performances and superb technical command. Born in Kyiv, she was a principal soloist with the National Opera of Ukraine for several years before expanding her international career, and following her highly acclaimed 2010 debut with Deutsche Oper Berlin in the title role of Puccini’s Tosca, her relationships with European, American, and Asian opera houses have only continued to expand. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut singing the title role of Verdi’s Aida in 2012, followed by Tosca, Santuzza in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana, and Abigaille in Verdi’s Nabucco.
In 2021-22 season, she sang the title role of Puccini’s Turandot at the MET, Abigaille in Nabucco at Covent Garden, and the title role of Aida in Naples and Verona. Other recent performance highlights include Aida, Elisabeth in Don Carlo, Tosca, and Abigaille at the National Opera of Ukraine; Lady Macbeth in Macbeth at the Bavarian State Opera, Leonora in Il Trovatore at La Scala; Tosca in Rome and Barcelona; Abigaille at Dutsche Oper Berlin and in Hamburg; Leonora in La Forza del Destino at Deutsche Oper Berlin and Covent Garden; and Santuzza in concert with the NDR Radiophilharmonie. She has sung Abigaille and Aida at the Vienna State Opera, Abigaille at LA Opera and the Bavarian State Opera, Leonora in Il Trovatore and Tosca at Staatsoper Berlin, Tosca and Elisabeth at Deutsche Oper Berlin, the title role of Manon Lescaut in Barcelona, the title role of Norma at Houston Grand Opera, the Tosca at the Paris Opera. She has also thrilled audiences at Madrid’s Teatro Real, the Salzburg Festival, Oper Frankfurt, Bucharest’s Festival Enescu, Chile’s Teatro Municipal de Santiago, Valencia’s Palacio de las Artes Reina Sofia, and Torre del Lago’s Festival Puccini, as well as in concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazonale di Santa Cecilia, Munich Radio Orchestra, and Cleveland Orchestra among others.