On February 15, the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra performed on the stage of the famous Carnegie Hall. As part of a two-month tour, the collective held a concert in the top music scene of America, full of listeners.

“A great historical event took place. It has been a century since “Shchedryk” premiered at Carnegie Hall, and now the Lviv National Philharmonic and a symphony orchestra from Ukraine have performed here. We saw the warm acceptance of the public and its high class. We became participants in a large-scale representation of Ukraine, saw our president addressing the audience and felt the support of multinational guests, guests of the world because New York is the centre of it.

We witnessed these bright emotions not only because Ukraine is now the centre of attention because of the war and everyone feels this connection with us, but also because we, Ukrainians, are carriers of high culture, and national identity, and today it was especially observable. I am proud of the fact that we are Ukrainians, of the way we presented ourselves today in New York,” said the general director of the Lviv National Philharmonic, Volodymyr Syvohip.

The host of the evening was the famous actor and screenwriter Liev Schreiber. The general atmosphere was complemented by the speech of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, which the visitors heard before the concert.

“The orchestra has given a tremendous impression – this is from the words of the listeners and the president of Carnegie Hall. After the performance, I was called to the stage with applause 5 times, until we played an encore – and after that I went on the stage for 5 times again. I am sure that soon everyone will realize that tonight is much more important than just performing Stankovych, Brahms and Dvořák – in fact, it is perhaps the most important evening in contemporary Ukrainian history. It was a great evening in the context of everything that Carnegie Hall presents and turns out, that the Lviv National Philharmonic also presents,” said the principal conductor Theodore Kuchar.

The performance opened with Chamber Symphony No. 3 by the prominent Ukrainian composer Yevhen Stankovych. The next piece of the program was the Piano Concerto No. 1 by Johannes Brahms, with a solo performance by the famous Ukrainian-American pianist Stanislav Khristenko. The third piece on the program was Antonin Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony “From the New World”, which became world-famous right after its world premiere here at Carnegie Hall.

Soloist of the evening, flautist and director of the orchestra Mykhailo Sosnovskyi: “The orchestra has been striding to this moment for 120 years, and now we are on this stage – it is a joyous and exciting moment at the same time. This is direct air for us. I am happy to congratulate each musician on this performance and am extremely proud of all of them.”