Over £500,000 raised for Ukraine in multiple events across the UK

Thank you for your support for Ukraine!

We raised over £500,000 across in a number of events across the UK - Royal Opera House, Royal Festival Hall, S4C TV and Aberystwyth, NI Opera, Roundhouse Night for Ukraine, Sadlers Wells, Marylebone Theatre, Omnibus Theatre and others.

I am so proud of us, all these amazing human beings, our unwavering stance and heartfelt desire to help, to protect, to create, to make music to save lives.

"This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before." (c) Leonard Bernstein

Ukrainian Baritone Yuriy Yurchuk, Royal Opera House Principal Artist, appeals for support for Ukraine at fundraising events across the UK

The Royal Opera House – Concert for Ukraine – will take place on 15 April on the main stage. Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv joins Music Director of The Royal Opera Antonio Pappano to conduct singers including Ukrainian baritone Yuriy Yurchuk, Ukrainian tenor Dmytro Popov, South African soprano Pretty Yende, and British-Italian tenor Freddie De Tommaso. All net proceeds from this event will go to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) for Ukraine, including optional donations made to the Royal Opera House in the checkout process.

On 10 April at the theatre at Rudolf Steiner House, an array of performers – including Yuriy, will perform a mixed repertoire of Russian and Ukrainian works, inviting world-wide condemnation of the Russian invasion into Ukraine and appealing for peace, raising support for refugees through DEC.

Yuriy Yurchuk, UK-based Ukrainian baritone, appeals for support for Ukraine and refugees fleeing the conflict at multiple events across the country. Being one of the first Ukrainians outside 10 Downing Street at the start of the conflict on 24 February, Yuriy sang Ukrainian anthem in call for peace. In response to the tragic situation in Ukraine, Royal Opera House artists will come together on 15 April at Concert for Ukraine – a special performance of much-loved arias and ensembles.

On 9 March, Yuriy together with a group of artists spearheaded by Bob Geldof and Bloom twins, came together at the Night for Ukraine, a fundraising event at the Roundhouse, London. Funds raised were donated to DEC, Disasters Emergency Committee, to support humanitarian and emergency response work in Ukraine. 

On 22 March, Southbank centre – at the Royal Festival Hall hosted a fundraising event with proceeds going to support the Disasters Emergency Committee’s (DEC’s) Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. Among the performers were Ben Whishaw, Jonathan Pryce, Kyiv-born Yuriy Yurchuk, Dinara Klinton, mezzo-soprano Ksenia Nikolaeva.

On 2 April, the Wales and Ukraine Concert was held at Aberystwyth Arts Centre and broadcasted live on S4C. The concert was organised in collaboration with DEC Cymru to raise funds for DEC Cymru's Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal featuring Yuriy Yurchuk, tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones, Côr y Cwm, Côr Glanaethwy, and the Aberystwyth School Plascrug Choir.

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV ROMANCES ALBUM IS NOW RELEASED

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The Rimsky-Korsakov Album is now released and is available on Stone Records website, as well as Itunes, Google Play and Amazon.

Sunday Times Review:

"With the exception of The Nightingale and the Rose, Rimsky’s art songs are less well known than they deserve, so it is astute of Stone to present two rising young artists in a disc entirely devoted to these beautiful Romances. The Armenian Hovhannisyan wraps her bright, sensuous soprano around this famous number, but it is the Ukrainian baritone Yurchuk’s wonderful legato and superb Russian delivery that make this collection irresistible."

BBC Music Magazine Review:

"A gorgeous fest of Rimsky-Korsakov neglected Romances, rich in melody and colour. The two terrific, impassioned young singers are ones to watch."

Russian Art and Culture

"Both singers bring a strong feel for the text and the Russian language. These are not romances where the text is subsumed in the requirements of melody, the two go hand in hand. Both Hovhannisyan and Yurchuk have richly characterful voices. Hovhannisyan’s Slavic style soprano brings great character and richness to the music, though some may find her approach occasionally effortful. Yurchuk is similarly character with a resonant and lyrical baritone with an edge to it which reminds me of the young Sergei Leiferkus

Both share the honours, roughly alternating songs. Rimsky-Korsakov’s piano parts are perhaps not as demonstrative as some, erring on the side of flowing accompaniment, but Rybin brings out plenty of character.

Sergey Rybin provides an excellent article in the CD booklet introduction the composer and his music, and there are full transliterated texts (no Cyrillic) and translations. This is one of those discs that you feel ought to have been produced years ago. By my reckoning, there is material for a further three CDs!

Shakespeare Day Live event - watch the replay of ROH broadcast focused on operas and ballets inspired by the playwright's work

To celebrate the life of the Bard, the Royal Opera House has life-streamed an event focused around opera and ballet adaptations of his work.

Part of the BBC and British Council's Shakespeare Lives online festival, 'Ballet, opera and the Bard' saw rehearsals and performance from both The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet. The hour-long stream featured Principals Lauren Cuthbertson and Edward Watson rehearse The Winter's Tale, as well as a performance of the potion scene from Kenneth MacMillan's classic adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. The event will also see Royal Opera artists Susanna Gaspar, Amy Lane, Yuriy Yurchuk and Jonathan Santagada performing and rehearsing music from Verdi's two great Shakespearean operas, Otello and Falstaff.

Yuriy wins 2nd prize and Critics prize in 14th Ottavio Ziino International competition in Rome

1° premio 14^ edizione concorso lirico internazionale Ottavio Ziino : GIULIANA GIANFALDONI

2° premio 14^ edizione concorso lirico internazionale Ottavio Ziino : YURIY YURCHUK

3° premio 14^ edizione concorso lirico internazionale Ottavio Ziino : CARLOTTA VICHI

Premio della critica: YURIY YURCHUK

http://ilvillaggiodellamusica.it/vincitori-del-14-concorso-lirico-ottavio-ziino/

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