Musical solidarity: Odessa Classics survives in Bonn

Odesa, the city dubbed the pearl on the Black Sea, has been an important cultural capital for centuries. In addition to the city’s grand, neo-baroque National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet and its renowned philharmonic orchestra, Odesa’s famed musical heritage has produced virtuoso pianist Svyatoslav Richter and violinists David Oistrakh and Natan Milstein. (Also read: Restored masterpiece: The Isenheim Altarpiece)

This summer, numerous artists from all over the world had planned to make the pilgrimage to the Ukrainian city for the Odessa Classics summer festival. But the Russian invasion of Ukraine has forced the festival to move to venues in Tallinn, Estonia and Thessaloniki, Greece during May and June.

‘Hope for Peace’

For star violinist and artist-in-residence Daniel Hope, the show must go on. As president of the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, he co-initiated the project “Hope for Peace,” a series of seven benefit concerts that will take place at Beethoven-Haus from July 5 to August 23.

“For many years I have played at the wonderful music festival Odessa Classics, a place that symbolizes the connection between Europe and Asia,” he said of the festival’s importance. Hope’s mentor, the violonist Zakhar Bron, was also trained in Odesa.

Internationally renowned artists who have already performed in Odesa or were scheduled to perform this summer will perform in Bonn, include violinists Michael Barenboim and Pinchas Zukerman, and baritone Thomas Hampson. Daniel Hope will also perform alongside upcoming Ukrainian musicians.

Festival a response to the Crimea annexation

The concert series was also conceived by Ukrainian star pianist Alexey Botvinov, the founder and artistic director of the Odessa Classics festival.

“I believe that the concert series in Bonn is not only a great symbol of solidarity with Ukraine, but also a highly exciting and multifaceted cultural project,” he told DW.

Underlying the importance of the event during the current Russian invasion, he recalls how the festival was founded in response to Russia’s 2014 takeover of Crimea, located close to Odesa on the Black Sea.

“We established Odessa Classics as a European festival for a European city, which was and remains our Odesa,” Botvinov told DW. “This was our response to the Crimean annexation in 2014.”

Botvinov, regarded as among the best interpreters of composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, has now left Ukraine with his family.

“Like many Ukrainian musicians, I was forced to leave my homeland because of the terrible Russian aggression against my country,” he said. “I try to do as much as I can as an artist and use every concert opportunity to raise public awareness about the injustice that is currently happening to Ukraine.”

Ukrainian artists as guests of Beethoven

The director of the Beethoven House and Archive, Malte Boecker, is another co-initiator of the Odessa Classics benefit concert series in Bonn.

“We understand the symbolic significance it has as a cultural city in Ukraine,” Boecker said of Odesa.

“We can make it clear that one dimension of this conflict is also cultural understanding,” he added. “If an entire festival is silenced there, we have a responsibility to show the artists a perspective.”

In addition to the emergency aid program already launched at the beginning of March as part of the Hope for Peace project, Beethoven-Haus is providing housing for refugees.

“In this way, we want to enable the refugee artists to continue working artistically or academically in Bonn and to realize projects that build cultural bridges,” said Boecker.

‘Part of this resistance’

Among the fellows is Anastasia Verveiko, a young theater director from Luhansk who fled Kyiv.

“These extremely difficult times are shaping the identity of Ukraine,” said the 25-year-old. “We are proud to be a part of this resistance,” adding that Ukrainians have also defended Europe and their “common values.”

“The possibility to continue living and developing our culture, also here, in Bonn, thanks to the Beethovenhaus, is a part of this struggle,” she added.

Pianist Alexey Botvinov has also taken up quarters in the Beethovenhaus.

“We hope so much that one day we will meet again in beautiful Odesa,” Botvinov told DW. “Unfortunately, it will not be possible again so soon. Now our task is to preserve our culture in another place.”

This article was originally written in German.