“Surrounded by broken windows, bombed-out buildings and rubble, Ukrainian cellist Denys Karachevtsev casts a striking figure as he plays a somber Bach melody in a haunting musical tribute to his hometown of Kharkiv,” write Adela Suliman, Julie Yoon, and Maite Fernández Simon in Wednesday’s (3/23) Washington Post. “Karachevtsev posted a video on social media to raise awareness of the destruction, as well as funds to restore Ukraine’s second-largest city, home to about 1.4 million people…. Karachevtsev, 30, was born in Kharkiv. He studied music in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, and traveled the world touring with different orchestras … He decided to remain in Kharkiv despite the heavy shelling of the city since Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 … working as a volunteer, helping people with evacuation and access to humanitarian aid. He spends the day volunteering and practicing the cello. His friend and cameraman for the video, Oleksandr Osipov, 37, … also is a native of Kharkiv and said he and many others had chosen not to flee but to remain in the city they love.… Before the war, Kharkiv was known as Ukraine’s intellectual capital.… Around half the population, about 700,000 people, have fled.” The article includes video of Karachevtsev playing Bach in Kharkiv.
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