“After fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries, a number of musicians have come together to set up an orchestra in New York,” writes Gabriel Elizondo at Aljazeera.com on Sunday (6/26). “The Refugee Orchestra Project includes refugees from Syria to Russia who hope to communicate their experience through music, raise funds for those in need, and highlight the importance that refugees play in American culture and society…. The orchestra also performs works by composers who were refugees. A recent concert was held on World Refugee Day [June 20] in Brooklyn. ‘We are a country of immigrants,’ says Lidiya Yankovskaya, the artistic director and conductor of the orchestra. Yankovskaya, who fled Russia when she was a child to seek asylum in the US … came up with the idea of the orchestra in the wake of the Syrian refugee crisis. ‘I was hoping that this project would showcase the importance that refugees continue to play in our culture and society while also raising funds for those in need,’ Yankovskaya said.” Yankovskaya is music director of Boston-based Juventas New Music Ensemble and assistant conductor of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras. She was a participant in Dallas Opera’s inaugural Institute for Women Conductors Institute in 2015.
Posted June 27, 2016
Pictured: Lidiya Yankovskaya leads the Refugee Orchestra Project in performance on World Refugee Day, June 20, 2016.
