Four Centuries of Great Music September 16, 2023 Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra

Much of today’s Four Centuries of Great Music features music from a live concert of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson which took place on Sunday, August 20th in Warsaw, Poland, in advance of Ukrainian Independence Day, August 24.  The program features the overture to Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, Ukrainian composer Yevhen Stankovych’s Second Violin Concerto, with violinist Valeriy Sokolov, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and the Ukrainian National Anthem in a string arrangement by Ukrainian composer Yuri Shevchenko.. 

We open with the performance of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.  The final movement is sung in Ukrainian, instead of the original German.  This new edition takes a lead from Leonard Bernstein, who famously changed the word “Freude/Joy” to “Freiheit/Freedom” when he conducted the symphony in Berlin in 1989, after the Wall came down.  Maestro Wilson has changed “Freude” to “Slava” – “Glory” – the rallying cry for Ukrainian freedom.  The orchestra is joined by the chorus of the Polish Bialystok Opera and Ukrainian soloists Olga Kulchynska, Nicole Chirka, Dmytro Popov, and Vladyslav Buialskyi. 

Next on this special edition of Four Centuries of Great Music, we have the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson performing the overture to Verdi’s La Forza del Destino from a live performance on Sunday, August 20th in Warsaw, Poland.

Next on this special edition of Four Centuries of Great Music, is a performance of Ukrainian composer Yevhen Stankovych’s  Second Violin Concerto, with violinist Valeriy Sokolov joining the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra conducted by Keri-Lynn Wilson from this live performance on Sunday, August 20th in Warsaw, Poland

We are concluding our special presentation on Four Centuries of Great music with music from the live performance of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra on Sunday, August 20th in Warsaw, Poland with Ukrainian National Anthem in a string arrangement by Ukrainian composer Yuri Shevchenko. 


The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, created in 2022 by Keri-Lynn Wilson, in collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera and the Polish National Opera, and now under the patronage of Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska.  It is composed of leading Ukrainian musicians from inside the embattled country, as well as recent refugees and Ukrainian members of European orchestras.  It was formed to defend Ukraine’s cultural legacy as the country fights for its freedom.

We are closing today’s Four Centuries of Great Music with the theme of Ukrainian Independence and Freedom from the Russian tyranny with Lewis Spratlan: Invasion as performed by Nadia Shpachenko, Anthony Parnther, Pat Posey, Aija Mattson-Jovel, Phil Keen, Yuri Inoo, and Joti Rockwell from the album Invasion

Thank you for joining today’s Four Centuries of Great Music and join us again next week.