About The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra

The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra was formed in 2022 by Canadian-Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson as a direct response to Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. It stands as a bold initiative to defend Ukraine’s cultural legacy as the country fights for its freedom in the face of violence and aggression. The Orchestra brings together the finest Ukrainian musicians from ensembles across the country, Ukrainian musicians who had become refugees abroad following the invasion and Ukrainian members of European orchestras.

“On the day Putin invaded I was angry and appalled and immediately determined to do something to oppose this barbarism,” says Wilson. “Not just because I am of Ukrainian Canadian heritage and I have close cousins in Ukraine, one of whom is a Lieutenant Colonel in the army who has been fighting on the eastern front since 2014, but because this assault on a nation and its culture demanded a response in kind. I could not take up arms, but I could take up my baton as my weapon.”

Wilson, along with her husband Peter Gelb, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and Waldemar Dabrowski, director of the Polish National Opera in Warsaw, then set about bringing together the musicians and enabling the infrastructure of a tour “to demonstrate the eternal power of music and the unshakeable cultural resilience of a people.”

Both organizations remain stalwart backers of the UFO and continue to play leading roles in the cultural world in standing up to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and in expressing support for the war’s victims. The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy has also been a staunch supporter of the orchestra, which is under the patronage of Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska, and has assisted in ensuring Ukrainian-based male members of the orchestra can leave the country and deploy their musical excellence as part of the wider war effort in a remarkable demonstration of the power of art over adversity.

The orchestra’s four summer tours since 2022 have taken in some of the most prestigious concert halls across Europe and the United States. These have included the BBC Proms and the Barbican in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Lincoln Center in New York City and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC as well as concerts in Poland, France and Ireland. They have also performed in some of the great cathedrals of Europe and the US.

The 2024 Beethoven Ninth Freedom Tour saw the orchestra taking its unique Ukrainian language version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with Schiller’s great cry of liberty, “Ode to Joy,” sung by the soloists and chorus in Ukrainian with Schiller’s “Freude” (Joy), changed to “Slava” (Glory) from the phrase that has become familiar around the world as the rallying call of Ukrainian resistance in the face of ruthless Russian aggression, “Slava Ukraini!” (Glory to Ukraine!). “The decision to sing in Ukrainian was an important artistic and wider cultural statement for us,” explains Wilson. ”Putin is literally trying to silence a nation. We will not be silenced.”

The orchestra performed its unique Ninth at historically and politically significant venues including the storied Saint-Eustache Church in Paris, where soldiers from the French Military Chorus were taught the Ukrainian text by a Ukrainian refugee chorus master; Gdańsk’s CRIST shipyard where the orchestra performed before Solidarity founder Lech Wałęsa, evoking poignant parallels between Polish and Ukrainian struggles against Soviet oppression; and at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral, a symbol of resistance to Nazi bombs, where the orchestra was joined by the Royal Opera House’s Songs for Ukraine chorus of Ukrainian refugees. A filmed performance in Warsaw to mark the third anniversary of the invasion was broadcast across Europe and the US by Arte and PBS.

A live recording of the UFO’s Beethoven’s Ninth was released in 2024 on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label. The orchestra also features in a documentary film, “Beethoven’s 9: Ode to Humanity”’ examining Beethoven’s symphony within both historic and contemporary contexts of war and of hope and including extensive footage of the orchestra in rehearsal and performance as well as interviews with Keri-Lynn Wilson and other musicians.

The UFO is honored to have showcased contemporary Ukrainian composers such as Silvestrov, Skoryk, Stankovych, and Poleva alongside the greats of the wider European musical tradition including Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms and Verdi. The 2025 tour showcased the orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s mighty Fifth Symphony, and a live recording will be released by Deutsche Grammophon in February 2026 to mark the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion. The tour also featured the premiere of a powerful new work by acclaimed Ukrainian composer Maxim Kolomiiets, “Suite from The Mothers of Kherson”, a moving tribute to the Ukrainian women who made a 3,000 mile journey behind enemy lines to rescue their children forcibly detained by Russian authorities. The suite has been adapted from a new full-scale opera by Kolomiiets and librettist George Brant that will premiere at the Polish National Opera in Warsaw, and then the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in 2026.

Throughout their brief career the UFO has prompted a rapturous and emotional public response, critical acclaim and unprecedented media attention for an artistic venture of this kind. The concerts have received live television and radio broadcasts as well as attracting significant television news attention and extensive coverage in newspapers all over the world including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Times, Le Monde, Die Welt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and many others.

It was during the course of that first tour around Europe and the US in 2022 that it became clear to Wilson that rather than being a one-off intervention, the sheer weight of support the orchestra enjoyed, and the talent and passion displayed by the musicians, meant that ending the orchestra then would have been a dereliction of duty. “We therefore gathered again to tour in 2023,” says Wilson, “and we will continue to do so in support of Ukrainian culture for as long as is required. Plans are in progress for our 2026 tour and it remains my dearest hope that one day, and of course I hope that day is not too far away, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra will be able to perform in Ukraine too, in front of its home audience in a concert celebrating the country and its brave people’s triumph over the awful adversity it has been forced to endure.”