About the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra
Keri-Lynn Wilson is the founding conductor and music director of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra. An ensemble created in 2022 in collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera and Polish National Opera, it is composed of leading Ukrainian musicians. It was formed to defend Ukraine’s cultural legacy as the country fights for its freedom. Now under the patronage of Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra will come together each summer to tour capital cities and festivals of the world.
Following its acclaimed 2022 and 2023 tours, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra has again assembled under the baton of its Canadian Ukrainian Founder and Music Director Keri-Lynn Wilson for its Beethoven Ninth Freedom Tour of great cathedrals and concert halls in Europe and the United States in a continuing demonstration of Ukrainian artistry as the nation fights for its freedom.
In the 200th-anniversary year of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, the orchestra presents its acclaimed and emotionally charged version of the work with the unique feature of its choral text, Schiller’s great cry of freedom, resistance, and progress against the forces of oppression in the form of his poem “Ode to Joy,” sung by the soloists and chorus in Ukrainian.
Keri-Lynn Wilson Receives Award from President Zelensky
Keri-Lynn Wilson has been awarded the Order of Princess Olga by President Zelensky on August 23rd in honor of Ukrainian Independence Day for her dedicated and tireless artistic work in support of Ukraine. The award is in recognition of Ms. Wilson’s creation of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra and its concerts around the world in defense of Ukraine’s cultural legacy, as well as Ms. Wilson’s on going concert activities inside Ukraine’s embattled cities. Slava Ukraini🇺🇦
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9
Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, Keri-Lynn Wilson