A FREE BENEFIT "CONCERT IN SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE"

A FREE BENEFIT “CONCERT IN SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE” CELEBRATES UKRAINIAN MUSIC, POETRY, AND ART WITH PROMINENT UKRANIAN ARTISTS AND MAJOR GUEST ARTISTS IN CULVER CITY’S ROBERT FROST AUDITORIUM MAY 1

Jacaranda Music, Wende Museum of the Cold War, Culver City Forward,

Culver City Unified School District (CCUSD), and Classical Underground Partner to Present a Direct Appeal for Refugee Support

CULVER CITY, CA (April 18, 2022) – A benefit “Concert In Solidarity With Ukraine,” featuring a roster of brilliant Ukrainian classical musicians with guest artists, will be presented to raise funds and show local support to the millions of refugees displaced from their homes. Jacaranda, the acclaimed concert series, and Music at the Wende, a program of the unique Wende Museum of the Cold War, present an emotion filled evening of music and poetry curated by Patrick Scott, Jacaranda’s Artistic Director. Short works by classical Ukrainian, Russian and Polish composers will include living Ukrainians Valentin Silvestrov and Jan Freidlin, as well as the late Miroslav Skoryk, and the Romantic modernists Reinhold Gliere, and Sergei Prokofiev. Music by Dmitri Shostakovich, the soul of Soviet oppression under Stalin, and Henryk Gorecki from Poland provide moral support.

Tickets are free for the event with a suggested $25 minimum charitable contribution by phone on-site. Donations will be solicited during the concert with a goal of raising significant funds for Direct Relief to provide critical health care for victims of the War in Ukraine. Audience-enabled real-time smart phone donations will be sought and displayed during the event. This reserved ticket evening takes place Sunday, May 1 at 6:30pm in the 1200-seat Robert Frost Auditorium in Culver City.

“Ukrainian culture, history and identity are under attack by Russia, but we can share and celebrate the music, poetry, and art here while helping address the physical suffering of Ukrainian refugees in Europe. Beyond the trauma, exhaustion, and respiratory issues from toxic air pollution, only 32% of Ukrainians are vaccinated, and only 3% are boosted. Working with the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, Direct Relief has provided 164 tons of medical supplies, including insulin, critical care medications, oxygen concentrators, and other essential resources The need for critical health care is enormous and still growing,” said Thomas Small, former Culver City Mayor, and CEO of Culver City Forward.

Prominent concert pianists Inna Faliks and Steven Vanhauwaert, Latin Grammy-winning cellist Antonio Lysy, and violinist Myroslava Khomik, will be joined by the Lyris Quartet, Jacaranda’s culturally diverse resident string ensemble, for a program of solos, duos, and quartets. The concert will culminate with special guest singers performing the Ukrainian National Anthem. The singers will be accompanied by the Jacaranda Youth Chamber Orchestra made up of high-achieving student string players from high school orchestras across the region. Jacaranda Music Director Mark Alan Hilt will conduct.

Between the musical performances, prophetic poetry by Taras Shevchenko, an important painter, and father of Ukrainian literature, selected by Wende’s Chief Curator Joes Segal, will be recited by Castulo Guerra (Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Usual Suspects), a classically trained actor from Argentina, where a large Ukrainian immigrant population resides. Wende’s team — Segal and Founder/Executive Director Justinian Jampol along with Classical Underground founder and Ukrainian Artist Laureate of Culver City Alexey Steele, and art critic Alisa Lozhkina, author of Permanent Revolution: Art in Ukraine, The Twentieth to the Twenty-First Century — will select impactful art and images to be projected during the evening.

Event organizer Thomas Small will introduce CCUSD Superintendent and former Vietnam refugee, Quoc Tran, who will make welcoming remarks. Actor Alex Feldman (“The Americans”), who left Ukraine at a young age, will serve as the evening’s multilingual emcee. Robert Frost Auditorium, CCUSD’s restored mid-century architectural landmark is being donated for this free reserved ticket event. The Los Angeles Conservancy acknowledged, “This futuristic auditorium is one of the most breathtaking modern buildings ever designed.”

Concert in Solidarity with Ukraine partners are non-profit organizations. Their websites will link to Robert Frost Auditorium ticket reservation site: https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/64240

The event begins at 6:30pm at the Robert Frost Auditorium, located at 4401 Elenda Street in Culver City.

About Jacaranda Music: Jacaranda produces classical music adventures designed to awaken curiosity, passion, and discovery with a spirit of inclusion. By engaging a wide range of audiences, these curated concerts based primarily in Santa Monica since 2003, advance the repertoire of soloists and ensembles with live music, recordings, music videos, and education. Founded October 4, 2003, by arts impresario Patrick Scott and conductor/organist Mark Alan Hilt, Jacaranda produces a concert series that features exciting current and rising stars in the world of classical music performance with program notes singled out by Classical Voice as “so absorbing that you don’t want to pry your eyes away from the pages... plenty of context for an alert, adventuresome concertgoer.”

About Wende Museum: The Wende is an art museum, historical archive of the Cold War, and center for creative community engagement that explores and inspires change. The Wende reaches beyond the walls of a museum and places equal value on international scholarship, community engagement, digital access, and wide-ranging experimentation. Wende is a German word meaning “turning point” or “change” that has come to describe the transformative period around the fall of the Berlin Wall. Founded in 2002, the Wende Museum holds an unparalleled collection of art and artifacts from the Cold War era, which serves as a foundation for programs that illuminate political and cultural changes of the past, offer opportunities to make sense of a changing present, and inspire active participation in personal and social change for a better future. 

About Culver City Forward: Culver City Forward (CCF) was formed as a public-private partnership to bring together leaders from the Culver City business, government, educational, philanthropic, and community groups to provide a non-partisan and fact-based platform to strengthen Culver City’s economy, support the local workforce, and meet the diverse needs of the business, civic, and community stakeholders. Culver City is a unique and vibrant city with an identity all its own. It is a wonderful place in which to live and work and is undergoing tremendous growth. But with its growth comes challenges. CCF provides fact-based research and sensible policy solutions to assist the city in resolving challenges; and help implement changes to enhance the quality of life for business stakeholders, residents, and the community at large.

https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/64240