Ukrainian youth choir defies war, touring world with messages of freedom
- The Shchedryk ensemble, described as Kyiv’s oldest children’s choir, are on an international tour that included New York’s famed Carnegie Hall
- Power outages and air raid sirens forced the choir to rehearse in a dark bomb shelter, illuminating sheet music with mobile phones and torches
From a dank Kyiv bomb shelter to the bright stage lights of Europe’s theatres, a Ukrainian youth choir’s hymns in praise of freedom offer a kind of healing balm to its war-scarred members.
The Shchedryk ensemble, described as Kyiv’s oldest professional children’s choir, were in the Danish capital this week for a performance as part of an international tour that also took them to New York’s famed Carnegie Hall.
It was supposed to be part of a busy year to celebrate the choir’s 50th anniversary. But Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine changed all that, with members scattering inside their homeland and abroad in search of safety. Some members say they have lost friends and family in the fighting.
“It is very difficult to gather the children”, said Marianna Sablina, the choir’s artistic director and chief conductor, whose mother founded the choir in 1971. Some of the members are “outside the borders of Ukraine, and only about a third of the forum currently lives in Kyiv”.
Earlier this year, the choir managed to reassemble and began rehearsing in Kyiv’s National Palace of Arts.
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Ukrainians sing national anthem, folk songs as they shelter from Russian missiles
The vagaries of war often plagued the rehearsals. When Kyiv came under bombardment and suffered power outages, air raid sirens forced the choir to assemble in a darkened bomb shelter, illuminating their sheet music with whatever light source they could find.
