Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra - The Inaugural Concert

[Only available to stream in select countries. See FAQs for more details.] On February 24, 2022, the Met watched in horror as Russia launched a brutal and unnecessary invasion of Ukraine. In response, the company immediately jumped into action, launching a series of efforts to both stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people and help raise vital funds to support relief efforts. One of these endeavors was the formation of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra—in partnership with the Polish National Opera—which brought together recent refugees, Ukrainian members of European orchestras, and some of the top musicians from Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa, and elsewhere in Ukraine to play a 13-concert tour throughout Europe and the United States in the summer of 2022. In this performance, Keri-Lynn Wilson takes the podium for the tour’s inaugural performance at Warsaw’s Teatr Wielki, conducting a program that features symphonies by Silvestrov and Brahms, as well as Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, featuring pianist Anna Fedorova, and Leonore’s triumphant Act I aria from Beethoven’s Fidelio, sung by soprano Liudmyla Monastryrka. And to close the moving evening, Maestro Wilson leads a wistful yet uplifting arrangement of the Ukrainian National Anthem by Yuri Shevchenko, a Ukrainian composer who died just one month into the war.