Carnegie Hall gathers stars for a benefit concert for Ukraine
Headliners from the fields of classical music, jazz, and Broadway joined forces to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine and show solidarity with its victims on May 23, 2022.
The Ukrainian Chorus Dumka, an amateur ensemble specializing in secular and sacred music from Ukraine, opened the concert with the Ukrainian national anthem. Diplomats, foreign and domestic, offered thanks and spoke about the power of the arts in times of crisis.
The evening included more than a dozen artists and ensembles. There were performances by the jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, the violinist Midori, the singer Michael Feinstein, the soprano Angel Blue and the Broadway singer Jessica Vosk. Mr. Kissin appeared toward the end of the program — first with the violinist Itzhak Perlman to play John Williams’s Theme from “Schindler’s List” and then to play Chopin’s Scherzo No. 2 alone.
In an interview with The New York Times before the concert, Mr. Kissin said that playing in the benefit felt “so natural for me that I can’t even call it a decision.”
Carnegie Hall was one of the first cultural institutions to fire artists with strong ties to Mr. Putin. Next season Carnegie plans to host the Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine.
