Since Russia attacked Ukraine almost three years ago, Tetian Martyniuk-Bahria, a violinist in the Kiev Symphony Orchestra, lived the life of the refugee and moved from the apartment to the apartment with her husband and fourteen-year-old daughter Olesia.
She watched the war developing from a distance, worried about the safety of her family at home, and believed that she was to play a role as a champion of Ukrainian culture.
The musicians of the orchestra were welcomed in the German city of Gera for two years, and when it ended, she was lucky that MONHEIM AM RHEIN, the city of about 40,000 along the Rhine River, invited them to a two -year cultural stay. It provided much -needed refuge for 73 musicians and their families at the moment when the support of Western governments seemed to soften for Ukraine and many places seemed less welcome to refugees.
More than 1,000 days after she and her fellow citizens, Martyniuk-Bahria, 44 were first displaced, she said she got used to uncertainty.
“It’s life, but I can’t say it’s a completely happy life,” she said. “Who knows what to do next?”
In Germany, migration was a hot problem before parliamentary elections this month, with some politicians Call pass through hard new restrictions. Some proposed shortening assistance to asylum seekers, including those from Ukraine, as a way to encourage them to find work.
Martyniuk-Bahria said she tried not to think of her future in Germany because it was helpless to control her laws or politics.
Her daughter is enrolled in a local school, studying German and plays the violin as her mother. When her parents talk about the war, she covers her ears.
Martyniuk-Bahria focuses on the security of friends and families in Ukraine, accepts alerts of air attacks on her phone and searches headlines for devastation reports.
“My body could be here,” she said, “but my heart is in Ukraine.”
In the monheimThe Ukrainians had a warm welcome, although some inhabitants initially questioned whether the city could afford to help others when they face their own social and economic problems. Musicians organized benefit concerts, recorded works by Ukrainian composers and traveled in Europe.
Martin Witkowski, the intention of Monheimer Kulturwerke, a cultural center that invited Kyiv SymphonyIt made sense to employ Ukrainians as full -time musicians and said they wanted to show that they contribute to the economy. The city expects to spend up to 3 million euros (about $ 3.1 million) this year for salaries and other benefits for Ukrainians.
“They are our brothers and sisters,” Witkowski said. “The war is not in our streets, but that doesn’t mean she could never come here.” We have to think, “How would we like to treat if we were refugees?”
Oleksii Psheneychnikov, 25 years, a violinist in the orchestra, said it was difficult not to know how long the orchestra could stay in Germany or when musicians could return to Ukraine.
“It’s a whole soup of anxiety,” he said. “At some point you will start to think,” Will we ever go home? “”
In Monheim, musicians describe a friendly atmosphere. But in Gera, a city with about 96,000 in the eastern German state of Thurning, sometimes felt dazzles of foreigners. Gera was occupied by the Soviet forces after World War II and still has a pro -Russian contingent. Sometimes a small group of demonstrators marched in the streets and criticized German politicians for the support of Ukraine.
“It was the last thing I was expecting,” said Denys Karachevtsev, 32 years, a cello in the orchestra. “I can’t explain these nostalgic feelings.”
Karachevtsev, which dreamed during the war Bacho in the middle of the debris and destruction In his Ukrainian hometown in Charkiv, he said he understood why some Germans could initially be skeptical about migrants. “The closer you have to live together,” he said, “the more questions you have.” However, he said that music can help disperse stereotypes.
“I just play a few notes,” he said, “we can open the eyes of people.”
On the days Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Kiev Symphony was deep in the tests. The orchestra founded in 1979 was Wagner’s concert planningIncluding excerpts from “The Flying Dutchman”, “Tristan und isolde” and “Die Walküre” in the National Opera of Ukraine in Kiev.
Then, at the end of February, the missiles fell on Kyiv. The orchestra canceled its obligations and its players hid.
At home, musicians turned to their instruments for comfort. But they missed the show together.
Psheneychnikov, who joined the orchestra in 2021, fled with his family in the suburbs of Kiev, where he tried to avert from the constant boom of the artillery fire.
“I couldn’t sleep; I couldn’t eat,” he said. “And suddenly we were all cut off from the other.”
In April 2022, with continuing concerts of war and personal concerts, which are still based on the question, the leaders of Kiev Symphony announced plans for the “Voice of Ukraine” tour, with stops in Warsaw, Berlin, Hamburg and else.
The orchestra would work on the fight against “Russian aggression in every possible way” said at that timeAnd “become a powerful voice of Ukraine in the world”. He gained permission of Ukrainian cultural and defensive officials so that male military players could leave the country.
The tour reunited musicians and gave them a mission: promotion of Ukrainian culture. The Inauguration concerts In Poland, it included works by prominent Ukrainian composers such as Borys Lyatoshynsky and Myoslav Skoryk.
The tour was “a miracle,” said Martyniuk-Bahria, who fled the lion in Western Ukraine with her husband, sound and video engineer for the orchestra and her daughter.
“Cultural life was frozen in Ukraine,” she said. “And then we could finally play again.”
When a tour A few months later in the summer of 2022, musicians were exhausted. Some lost friends and relatives in the war and felt guilty that they were protected from riots.
Kateryna Demianchuk, 24 years old, a violinist, tried to cope with the death of her uncle, who was killed in March 2022 in Buka, a suburb of Kiev, who got under a strong attack.
“Russia decided that they could only take our lives at one point,” she said. “Suddenly he was gone.” And I couldn’t do anything. It was scary for me. ”
Every time she played the violin, she cried. She felt bad, said she lived in a privileged life, while her loved ones had no running water or electricity.
The musicians were a rupture. Some wanted to return to Ukraine. But they also felt an effort to maintain the struggle of Ukraine in the center of attention. (Kiev Symphony is one of several Ukrainian ensembles trying to promote Ukrainian culture abroad; others include Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra Ukraine and Ukrainian orchestra of freedom.)
With the help of German officials, the Kiev symphony orchestra settled in Gera. They became a symbol of the German embrace of displaced Ukrainians, visited parliament and performed for the highest officials. (Germany hosts about 1.2 million Ukrainian refugees – Most of any European country.
But after two years, the financing in Gera began to dry out. And some musicians felt more and more disturbed for the Russian population of the city.
“Every time you said you were from Ukraine, people changed a little,” Demianchuk said. “They looked at you in another way, as if only one too many Ukrainians came.”
When WitkowskiThe cultural leader in MONHEIM, last year heard that the Kiev Symphony was looking for a new home, thinking it would bring them to Monhe, about 280 miles west of Gera on the banks of the Rhine. The city is working to become a cultural center; AND A new complex of works of art It will be opened next year inside the renovated oil plant.
“The war is theoretical for most Germans,” Witkowski said. “But face to face when you have these human beings beside you, it suddenly becomes very real.”
In July, 120 people arrived – musicians and their families – by bus in Monheim, their tools in the curtain. Their arrival caused some stir. Pro-Russian news falsely reported That the musicians of the orchestra were looking for asylum in Germany and that men in the group acted as a way to avoid military service.
A few weeks later, however, Kiev Symphony debuted in Monheim and played an outdoor concert representing works by Schumann, Max Richter and Ukrainian composer Levko Revutský. More than 1,000 people picked on the lawn.
When she bowed to the stage, Martyniuk-Bahria remembered that he felt a feeling of relief.
“For a moment,” she said, “we could breathe.”
On the gloomy December night musicians gathered in the auditorium in Monheim to practice the holiday program. They played Waltz, Polkas and traditional Ukrainian carols – a kind of cheerful music to welcome the New Year.
But during the break, the mood became grim when players checked their phones on news about Russian attacks: drones’ strikes near Kiev, bombs in the eastern city of Zeporizzhia.
Karachevtsev, who after every attack gets used to friends and family sending messages, said the distance from Ukraine has worsened her concern.
“The most frightening moment,” he said, “is when you see a rocket warning and don’t know where it is.”
As the third anniversary of the war is approaching, the Kiev Symphony is planning a concert in Monheim, which will have the opportunity. It will be guided Oxive LyivivThe famous Ukrainian Maestro, who was recently appointed the main visiting conductor of the orchestra.
In the housing complex in northern MONHEIM, where she and her colleagues live, Martyniuk-Bahria prays every morning and night. Sometimes her daughter joined her, who maintains a prayer book in her backpack, one of the few items that the family brought from Ukraine.
Martyniuk-Bahria said he would often be lost in memories of Ukraine: ChristMastime celebrations, summer hikes in the mountains and the taste of stuffed cabbage and Borscht.
After a New Year’s Eve concert, Martyniuk-Bahria invited several friends for champagne in her apartment. They watched the speech of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelsky and roasted the New Year, praying for peace in Ukraine.
Martyniuk-Bahria said she was afraid that the world had moved away from the war. But she said she hoped musicians could play a small role in developing Ukraine.
“The world is tired; we are tired,” she said. “But we need victory and need justice.” Everything we can do is hope and pray. “
