Ukraine
theartsdesk in Kyiv - defiant new operatic epic in an empty galleryThursday, 13 October 2022
The Khanenko Museum stands opposite the Taras Shevchenko Park in central Kyiv, a popular green oasis next to the University. One of the 83 Russian missiles fired into Ukrainian cities on Monday this week landed at an intersection on the edge of the... Read more... |
Album: Gogol Bordello - SolidaritineWednesday, 14 September 2022
If anyone was going to produce a raucous musical response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, it was always likely to be Gogol Bordello. After all, the band has both Ukrainian and Russian members (among other nationalities), they have a... Read more... |
Stanislav Aseyev: In Isolation - Dispatches from Occupied Donbas review - journeys through space and time in UkraineWednesday, 29 June 2022
Stanislav Aseyev is a Ukrainian writer who came in from the cold. Until the spring of 2014, he was an aspiring poet and novelist based in the eastern Donbas region: when, however, its main city and surrounding area fell under the control of pro-... Read more... |
First person: Ukrainian violinist Valeriy Sokolov on performing while his homeland is destroyedFriday, 24 June 2022
A fortnight ago I performed Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with the Aurora Orchestra, joining them and their Principal Conductor Nicholas Collon in Cologne. Tonight we shall present the same programme at the Royal Festival Hall. These are my first... Read more... |
Album: Vadim Neselovskyi - Odesa: A Musical Walk Through a Legendary CityTuesday, 21 June 2022
Odesa (Sunnyside) is a deeply-felt and wonderfully played solo piano album with a massive emotional and stylistic compass. New York-based composer/pianist Vadim Neselovskyi has made a strong statement in homage to the city by the Black Sea where he... Read more... |
theartsdesk Radio Show 33: Ukraine special - musicians and artists direct from Ukraine, with co-host Anastasia PiliavskyTuesday, 10 May 2022
The latest edition of Peter Culshaw’s occasional global radio shows focuses totally on Ukraine, looking at music, art, culture and resistance.Culshaw has reported over the years on the Odessa Film and Jazz festivals for theartsdesk, and written for... Read more... |
Dance for Ukraine, London Coliseum, online review - a gala to rememberFriday, 22 April 2022
What do top ballet dancers keep permanently in their back pocket? Answer: a fully rehearsed, ready-to-go gala item, to judge by a one-off fundraising event mounted in double-quick time at the Coliseum last month and now available to stream,... Read more... |
Bournemouth SO, Karabits, Lighthouse, Poole – let there be light and joySaturday, 19 March 2022
Returning to his Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for the first time since the crisis began in his home country, Kirill Karabits’ arrival on stage was greeted by the entire Lighthouse audience rising to their feet with loud applause and cheers of... Read more... |
Russians and friends play on for UkraineWednesday, 16 March 2022
National sensitivities are running understandably high right now in the thick of an ever-escalating aggression. What a shame that the Southbank Centre has excluded Russian artists from performing alongside British and Ukrainian performers to bring a... Read more... |
‘Slava Ukraini!’: Russian musicians worldwide show solidarityFriday, 04 March 2022
“You are told that we hate Russian culture,” President Zelenskyy of Ukraine informed Russians, using their language, in a speech for the ages just before the invasion, “But how can a culture be hated? Any culture? Neighbours are always enriching... Read more... |
GogolFest:Dream review - the best music festival of the summer?Thursday, 17 September 2020
GogolFest:Dream in Kherson, somewhere near the Crimea in Ukraine was the music festival of the summer. Admittedly, in my case and for many, having missed out on WOMAD, Glastonbury, Fez, and others it was the only festival of the summer, and the bar... Read more... |
Maria Reva: Good Citizens Need Not Fear review - tales of gloomy humour and absurdist charmTuesday, 19 May 2020
Maria Reva’s humorously gloomy debut collection, centring on the inhabitants of a block of stuffy apartments in Soviet (and post-Soviet) Ukraine, starts, predictably enough, with Lenin. Instead of an austere symbol of ideology, he’s a statue who “... Read more... |
