PRESS RELEASE | A highlight on this year’s Kultursommerfestival event calendar: The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra to perform on the grounds of Schönhausen Palace in Berlin
On 24 August, as part of the Kultursommerfestival event series, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra will mark Ukrainian Independence Day with a concert held in the gardens of Berlin’s Schönhausen Palace. Among the distinguished guests set to deliver welcome addresses prior to the concert are Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Federal President of Germany, Joe Chialo, Berlin’s Senator for Culture, and Oleksii Makeiev, Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany.
On its current European tour, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra sees every performance as an opportunity to take a decisive stand against war, allowing their music to do the talking instead: the overture to Verdi’s opera La forza del destino (The power of fate), which premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre in St. Petersburg in 1862, is followed by Violin Concerto No. 2 by the great Ukrainian composer Yevhen Stankovych. The highlight of this special performance will be Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, including a choir singing the Ode to Joy by Friedrich Schiller in Ukrainian. The main theme of the last movement of Beethoven’s ninth symphony – now one of the most popular works of classical music in the world – was adopted as the official anthem of the European Union in 1985. The Kultursommerfestival invites all Berliners and guests to attend this special concert on 24 August, which will be held outside and free of charge. Join in and celebrate Ukrainian Independence Day in Berlin.
Programme
Giuseppe Verdi: Overture to La forza del destino
Yevhen Stankovych: Violin Concerto No. 2
-Intermission-
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (with choir)
Conductor: Keri-Lynn Wilson
Soloist: Valeriy Sokolov
Date: Thursday, 24 August 2023
Time: Doors open from 6:15pm to 7:15 pm, concert from 7:30pm to 9:45pm
Event location
Schlossgarten Schönhausen (Schönhausen Palace), Kastellanswiese (Castellan Meadow)
Tschaikowskistraße 1 (visitor entrance)
13156 Berlin
Please make sure to obtain press accreditation at the latest by 12 noon on Tuesday, 22 August 2023 at the following site: https://kulturprojekteberlin.typeform.com/ENpress. It will not be possible to obtain accreditation afterwards, and there will be no on-site accreditation, for example, by means of an annual accreditation.
Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra
The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra is an initiative of New York Metropolitan’s Opera and the Polish National Opera. It enjoys the patronage of Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska, and receives support from the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture.
Kultursommerfestival
1 summer, 100 events, outdoors and free of charge: the Kultursommerfestival will continue to make culture accessible to all Berliners and visitors free of charge until 3 September.
Kulturprojekte Berlin was created on the initiative of the federal state of Berlin and receives funding from the Berlin Senate Department of Culture. The team at Kulturprojekte is responsible for developing and coordinating the Kultursommerfestival as a joint project with almost 100 cultural partners. The Kultursommerfestival is part of the DRAUSSENSTADT initiative.
For more information on the Kultursommerfestival and the overall programme schedule, please visit www.kultursommerfestival.berlin and www.kulturprojekte.berlin/projekte/kultursommerfestival-2023