Seven Ukrainian troopers — all esteemed skilled musicians earlier than their nation’s warfare with Russia — are concluding a two-month-long “Tour of Gratitude” throughout the USA with concert events within the Los Angeles space on Monday and Tuesday and in Northern California from Thursday by way of Sunday.
Consisting of two bandura gamers, an opera singer, a violinist, a pianist, a rustic singer and a poet, these artists are all members of Ukraine’s Cultural Forces, based by Mykolai Sierga throughout the first 12 months of the warfare. On Sunday, The Occasions spoke by telephone with Sierga and nation singer Oleksandr Bulich, who goes by the stage identify Sasha Boole, as hypothesis mounted over what Donald Trump’s victory within the current presidential election would imply for Ukraine. Beneath are excerpts from that dialog, edited for size and readability.
The artists and workers of Cultural Forces, the Ukrainian ensemble touring the U.S. as a manner of sustaining help of the warfare effort in opposition to Russia. The group’s founder, Mykolai Sierga, is within the white shirt, and the nation singer often known as Sasha Boole is third from the left.
(Cultural Forces)
Are you able to inform us in regards to the Cultural Forces and its mission?
Mykolai Sierga: The Cultural Forces is just like the American USO [United Service Organizations]. The distinction is that the USO is made up largely of volunteers, and we’re all troopers who joined the military as fighters. In the course of the warfare, our group of over 80 artists, poets, musicians and puppeteers has given greater than 4,500 concert events on the entrance strains.
We got here on this tour to say thanks, and to share our tradition with the American individuals. We’re individuals who don’t simply discuss defending our nation. We put our life on that. We’ve got a couple of on our staff who have been wounded. For instance, our violinist, Olha Rukavishnikova, misplaced her eye on the entrance line. Singer Yurii Ivaskevych misplaced his leg.
You might be fairly well-known in Ukraine. What was your life like earlier than the warfare?
Sierga: I used to be a celeb TV host, musician, comic and actor. In 2007 I received the most important comedy competitors in Russia. Really, I grew to become widespread first in Russia, then in Ukraine. I had a preferred Ukrainian TV present about touring. After which I studied psychology. For the final two years earlier than the warfare, I used to be a psychotherapist.
That’s why we educate our artists to have a psychological background, so we could be efficient. They find out about habits and battle, about working with the viewers and group dynamics. That is helpful on the entrance strains as a result of it’s been virtually three years of warfare, and individuals are exhausted. To seek out the correct phrases to provide them, you want a excessive degree of professionalism.
What do you miss most about residence if you are right here?
Sierga: It’s not about lacking within the classical sense of this phrase. As a result of we perceive that proper now our nation is bleeding, and what we’re doing right here is a crucial mission. However we need to be nearer to our households and to our brothers in arms, as a result of on daily basis we’re dropping them. Two weeks in the past, I misplaced my pal. He died on the entrance line. And it was very painful for me that I’m right here and I can’t go to the funeral.
One essential a part of your group’s mission is to spice up the morale of your fellow troopers, even by way of tough losses.
Sierga: Sure, as a result of tradition prevents rust on the soul. Possibly it is not going to heal the soul fully on this sense, however it is not going to let rust go deeper within the soul.
Are you able to inform us a few notably memorable entrance line efficiency?
Sierga: I cannot neglect any of these performances, since you see exhausted, drained individuals in entrance of you. I cannot neglect their faces. It’s like they’re in 2-D. Then you definately start to talk with them, they start to smile, someone begins crying, and it’s like they turn out to be 3-D. You see their soul get up inside their eyes.
It’s very painful if you get a variety of messages on social media from the wives and daughters of the troopers telling you that their father or husband was proud to fulfill you if you carried out, and that he died two days in the past. It’s tough for me to discuss this proper now due to tears.
Performing right here within the U.S. have to be a really totally different expertise. What recollections will stick with you out of your concert events right here, and what’s going to you’re taking again to Ukraine from this tour?
Sasha Boole: For greater than 10 years, I used to be doing nation and western people music in Ukraine, making an attempt to mix that with the Ukrainian soul and discover new formulation. I heard issues like, “It doesn’t make sense, it is not going to work.” And now, I carried out for American individuals and met some American musicians and we performed collectively. They fall in love with Ukrainian music and we discover so many issues in widespread between our cultures. So I’m actually impressed and positive that I’m on the correct [path]. Additionally, I’ll carry residence some souvenirs. We purchased boots and Stetson hats [in Texas] and have turn out to be like Ukrainian cowboys.
Sierga: What I didn’t anticipate is the help of the American individuals is so enormous. It’s not simply the Ukrainian warfare. It’s the warfare for good on this planet, for freedom and democracy. [This support] is giving us wind in our kites, like we’re hawks and it’s giving us the breeze [to fly]. I need to say thanks to your readers for that. We’ve got already received this warfare as a result of Ukraine exists. For Putin, the primary objective is to destroy Ukraine. It’s not simply in regards to the land. It’s about destroying our tradition.
Ukrainian musician Taras Stoliar performs the bandura throughout a cease within the Cultural Forces ensemble’s U.S. tour.
(Cultural Forces)
Two performers in your group play the bandura. Are you able to inform us about that instrument?
Sierga: The bandura is essential as a result of it’s the image of the Ukrainian soul. That’s why it has 62 strings. With this quantity of strings, it’s attainable to share the depth of the Ukrainian soul. In 1934, the Soviet Union authorities invited bandura gamers to a pageant. Then they killed everyone and burned all of the devices. So proper now, in the USA, to see individuals on their ft applauding, meaning it’s not attainable to destroy the Ukrainian soul.
Many Individuals are tense and emotional due to the election. What was it like so that you can be right here throughout this time?
Sierga: We at all times inform those that they’re the bosses of this nation, not politicians, as a result of it’s a democracy. Sure, will probably be totally different politics upstairs now, however the individuals are the decision-makers who create the current and construct the long run.
What message do you need to ship?
Sierga: We hear a variety of Individuals telling us that they’re occupied with Ukraine and praying for us. We would like you to know that in Ukraine, lots of people are additionally occupied with the USA and wishing all the very best to this nation. As a result of proper now you’re additionally going by way of some struggles and tough occasions. We pray for you. We perceive how tough it’s if you cease trusting your neighbor due to one thing from the skin designed to seed battle. Every little thing that you’ve right here in the USA, you might have thanks to one another and because of your variations. If everybody have been the identical, you’d have communism. Your distinction is your magnificence.
Cultural Forces concert events
Monday: 1:30 p.m. on the Ronald Reagan Presidential Basis and Institute, 40 Presidential Drive, Simi Valley. www.reaganfoundation.org
Tuesday: 3 p.m. on the Wende Museum, 10808 Culver Blvd., Culver Metropolis; wendemuseum.org. Additionally at 6 p.m. on the VFW Submit 2828, 1000 N. Catalina Ave., Redondo Seashore.