Askonas Holt is honoured to once again be collaborating with the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra as they embark on their third international tour beginning this evening with a performance at Saint-Eustache Church in Paris.

From France the orchestra returns to Poland for concerts at the Polish National Opera, followed by performances at the Crist Shipyard in Gdynia on Poland’s Baltic coast. The end of the month brings an appearance at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, after which they cross the Atlantic to the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York, before finishing at the Kennedy Center on 4 August.

The Askonas Holt Tours and Projects team has been collaborating with the ensemble since its inception in 2022, working with colleagues at the Metropolitan Opera and Polish National Opera to arrange at very short notice the critically acclaimed inaugural tour that summer. 2023 saw the return of the orchestra, with a series of performances at major European festivals and concert halls.

Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 will again be the centrepiece of the programme, with the orchestra joining forces with local choirs made up of members of the Ukrainian community, including in London with the Songs for Ukraine Chorus, established last year as part of the Royal Opera House’s Creative Exchange programme. All concerts will begin with Bucha. Lacrimosa for violin and orchestra written by Ukrainian composer Victoria Poleva as a commemoration of the victims of Russian atrocities in the town of Bucha during the early weeks of the war. Additionally, the orchestra will present two fully-staged performances of Turandot at the Baltic Opera Festival.

Under the patronage of First Lady Olena Zelenska, the 72-piece orchestra is made up of leading musicians based in Ukraine alongside Ukrainian musicians forced into exile by the war, and Ukrainian members of European orchestras. It is led by Ukrainian-Canadian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson.