In the heart of Kyiv, between the piercing sounds of two air raid alerts, a different kind of melody rang out on Friday night. The Kyiv Classic Orchestra transformed the city’s main railway station into an unlikely concert hall, delivering an hour of live music to travelers and displaced residents in an effort to “warm their souls” amid the ongoing war with Russia .
The vast waiting room hall of the station, which has been serving as a designated “point of invincibility” for several weeks, became the stage for a performance featuring pieces by 19th-century Ukrainian composer Semen Hulak-Artemovsky, alongside excerpts from Mozart and Gershwin . These “points of invincibility” are heated shelters set up across the country to provide warmth, electricity, and mobile charging for the population during the bitter winter months, especially after intensive Russian bombardment on energy infrastructure has left hundreds of thousands of households without heating or electricity .
To draw in weary travelers, the orchestra first performed an opening piece at the top of the station’s grand staircase. Conductor Herman Makarenko, immaculately dressed in a fur-collared coat and white scarf, led a nine-piece string ensemble before dozens of onlookers. Some hurried past, exhausted and preoccupied, but many stopped to film or simply listen, their faces softening with the music .
The concert was organized as part of a US-Ukrainian solidarity project, and organizers hope it will be the first of many in the coming weeks . Tetiana Marozova, one of the event’s organizers, explained the deeper purpose behind the initiative. “We think this initiative is very important because we need to take care not only of our bodies in these difficult situations without heating, without electricity,” she said. “But we can bring a little bit of joy to Ukrainians and warm their souls” .
For those who experienced it, the impact was immediate. Zinaida Yarmolenko, a 76-year-old traveler who stumbled upon the concert by chance after hearing the first few notes, was visibly moved. “Classical music is what we need at this time,” she said with a smile. “I’m really happy” .
Conductor Herman Makarenko described music as “medicine for the soul,” framing the performance as part of a larger struggle. He stated that Ukraine is now fighting on the “cultural front,” nearly four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion began. “That’s very important,” Makarenko emphasized, “to show that we, Ukrainians, are unbreakable” .
This concert in the train station is just one example of how culture persists in Kyiv, even under the shadow of conflict. In a separate but equally powerful recent event, French musician Salomé Gasselin performed at the National Philharmonic as part of the Kyiv Baroque Festival. That concert, which took place the night after a deadly Russian missile strike, was described as a “small miracle,” a testament to the power of art to assert dignity and humanity in the face of tragedy .
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