So many composers throughout history, "you never even thought of as seeking political asylum," says soprano Olga Lisovska, a soloist with the Refugee Orchestra Project, which performed Sunday as part of Music Worcester.
The collective of displaced and immigrant musicians performs together several times a year, showcasing the music of composers who were persecuted and forced to flee their homelands.
For many in the orchestra, the history they perform is deeply personal.
Lisovska immigrated from Ukraine as a teenager and now lives in Massachusetts. More recently, members of her family came here from Ukraine as refugees.
Sunday, Lisovska performed the joyful and high-energy Je Veux Vivre from Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette."
"Such composers like Gounod, classical composers that we hear every single day in various opera houses. They faced that difficult time in their lives as refugees," Lisovska said.
Gounod fled Paris in 1870 for London during the Franco-Prussian war.
Italy, Ukraine, Afghanistan
An aria from "The Consul" by 20th century Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti pushed the orchestra's story of exile into the 20th century (Menotti may best be known for his one-act Christmas opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors").
Founder and conductor Lydia Yankovskaya recently described Menotti's work on social media as piercing "in this moment."
His libretto tells the story of Europeans fleeing to the US, in the years around World War II — like Menotti himself.
———
"To this we’ve come:
that men withhold the world from men.
No ship nor shore for him who drowns at sea. No home nor grave for him who dies on land.
To this we’ve come:
that man be born a stranger upon God’s earth,
that he be chosen without a chance for choice,
that he be hunted without the hope of refuge.
To this we’ve come.
…
Have you ever seen the Consul?
Does he speak, does he breathe?
Have you spoken to him?
Papers! Papers! Papers!"
———
That sense of despair surfaces vividly in Maria's City, a work for strings by Ukrainian cellist and composer Zoltan Almashi.
"It's about Mariupol," Lisovska explained, a city "pretty much destroyed in the spring of 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine."
The concert stayed in the present with the world premiere of "Humanity" by composer, pianist and visual artist Milad Yousifi, born in Afghanistan in 1995 during the country's civil war; he now lives in the U.S.
The Syrian refugee crisis
The Refugee Orchestra Project first performed in 2016, aiming to unite refugee musicians during the height of the Syrian refugee crisis.
Conductor Lydia Yankovskaya founded the ensemble to raise awareness through music, Lisovska said.
"She had a vision,"Lisovska said, "being a refugee herself [from Russia] and going through a difficult time as a child, moving to a new country and also facing political strife here in the United States," Lisovska said.
When these musicians perform with other orchestras, Lisovska said, the focus is often technical — achieving “the most beautiful vocal line and the longest, sparkling high notes.”
With the Refugee Orchestra Project, the performance transcends precision. There is an added human aspect added; composers' and musicians' personal stories.
For both audience and musicians, Lisovska added, the concerts are ultimately about unity.
“It’s to show that we are all alike,” she said. “We’re all human beings here on this earth.”
