Today the members of the orchestra arrived safely in Ljubljana on two coaches. The musicians are aged between seven and twenty.

Owing to the fighting in Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of people have to leave their homes. People are facing a humanitarian catastrophe in the middle of Europe. So far more than a million people have already fled across international borders. Many of them were able to take only what they could carry with them.

The Slovenian Youth Orchestra (SMO), with Živa Ploj Peršuh, conductor of the Slovene National Theatre Opera and Ballet Ljubljana and artistic director of SMO, has responded to the urgent request for help from the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (YSOU), led by the internationally renowned conductor Oksana Lyniv, who is also artistic director of the Teatro Bologna. The Ukrainian youth orchestra was founded in 2016.

The evacuation of sixty-two young musicians and their chaperones, members of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, was initiated by the Slovenian Youth Orchestra.

The first members of the orchestra arrived safely in Ljubljana today on two coaches. As adult young men are not allowed to leave Ukraine, it is mostly girls who have come to us. They travelled for two days from their homeland to Záhony railway station on the Hungarian-Ukrainian border. In Záhony they were captured on camera by Delo photographer Jure Eržen.

The musicians are aged between seven and twenty. 95 people were expected, but only 67 arrived. Those who travelled by car will try to reach Budapest today.

20-year-old Miroslava Bundziak, a violinist from Kyiv, told journalist Boštjan Videmšek: »I was told that in Ljubljana we would be able to carry on with music in peace. But my thoughts are in Ukraine.«

Media: Delo.si
Authors: A. I.
Date: Mon, 7 March 2022
Link: Photo story: Evacuation of young musicians from Kyiv to Ljubljana – Delo