Ukraine's Odesa Philharmonic comes to Korea with message of hope, peace

The Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra, a renowned Ukrainian orchestra founded in 1937, will make its Korean debut at the Goyang Aram Nuri Arts Center Aram Concert Hall on Wednesday.

Under the baton of conductor Hobart Earl, who has led the orchestra for 32 years and has been honored by the Ukrainian government as a People's Artist, the 75-member orchestra will perform music of hope beyond the pain of the ongoing war. Many of the orchestra members are women because of a ban on men leaving the country.

The concert will feature a total of 10 pieces, ranging from Giuseppe Verdi's “The Force of Destiny Overture” to Miroslav Skorik's “Childhood,” which was also featured in the film "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors."

The concert will also include works by prominent Ukrainian composers, including Mykola Lysenko, Vitaliy Kolodub, Oleksandr Lastovetskyi, Myroslav Skoryk and Iosif Gonobolin. In particular, seven pieces will make the Korean premiere including Sergei Bortkiewicz's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 16, unveiled in Kharkiv, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire) in 1913.

Korean pianist Kim Jun-hee, who won the Horowitz International Music Competition held in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, in 2017, will join the orchestra in performing Bortkiewicz's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 16.

Kim had planned on performing with the Odesa Philharmonic shortly after winning the Horowitz Competition, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the war, the collaboration was delayed for seven years.

Wednesday's concert is supported by the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Korea, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange. Admission is free.