The Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine at the Lviv National Philharmonic Hall. Theodore Kuchar, an American conductor of Ukrainian origin, is the group’s music director.
“The Ukrainian violinist Solomia Onyskiv arrived in the United States last month on a mission,” writes Javier C. Hernández in last Wednesday’s (2/15) New York Times. “With the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of her country approaching, she worried that the world was quickly forgetting the suffering there. She had come with 65 other musicians from the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine to lead a 40-concert tour aimed at promoting Ukrainian culture.” On Feb. 15, the orchestra performed works by Brahms, Dvořák, and Ukrainian composer Yevhen Stankovych at Carnegie Hall. “The musicians … have spent much of the past year on tour … watching the destruction of war from afar…. The Lviv orchestra, established in 1902, is among many Ukrainian cultural groups that have gone abroad since the invasion … to highlight the country’s cultural identity…. Over the past year, the Lviv musicians have toured in Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Austria and other countries. Their visit to the United States began last month in Vero Beach, Fla., and will conclude next month … in Ames, Iowa…. The tour was mostly planned before the war, but the continuing devastation has added poignancy and meaning.”
