Keri-Lynn Wilson speaks to the Telegraph’s “Ukraine: the Latest”

Keri-Lynn Wilson interviewed at St Paul's Cathedral, London during rehearsals for the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra's performance of Verdi’s Requiem as part of its 2026 Invincible Tour. Wilson speaks about founding the orchestra and bringing together 75 Ukrainian musicians in the days following the full-scale invasion, her own Ukrainian roots, the resilience of Ukrainian music and culture under attack, and the emotional power of Verdi's Requiem. https://www.ukrainianfreedomorchestra... ***** The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra concludes its 2026 Invincible Tour “White hot intensity as Verdi Requiem shakes St. Paul’s vast dome…Wilson leaned in towards the musicians, her focus on them seemingly total, their sound overwhelming.” The Guardian The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, under founder and conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, concluded its 2026 Invincible Tour with two triumphant concerts at Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center in New York City. On 25 August they were joined by Lise Davidsen - the most celebrated soprano of her generation - in Strauss’s Four Last Songs as well as presenting the US premiere of Bohdana Frolyak’s Gloria, in honor of soldiers who have died fighting at the front, and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. The following evening, Maxim Kolomiiets’s “Suite from The Mothers of Kherson”, ahead of its full operatic premiere in October, was followed by a tumultuous Verdi’s Requiem with the orchestra joined by a stellar quartet of soloists: soprano Ailyn Pérez, mezzo-soprano Natalie Lewis, tenor René Barbera, and bass Soloman Howard. The tour, the UFO’s fifth, had commenced on 16 August at the orchestra’s home from home in the Teatr Wielki-Opera Narodowa in Warsaw with the world premiere of Frolyak’s Gloria, Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder sung by soprano Julia Kleiter and Beethoven’s Seventh. Two days later, St Paul’s Cathedral in London witnessed a monumental Verdi’s Requiem with the Guardian describing orchestral climaxes that “would surely have registered on a seismometer as they gathered into a thrillingly elemental roar before dissipating as a series of echoed convulsions into the vast dome above.” With soprano Emily Pogorelc joining for the Rückert-Lieder, three more packed out halls with three more standing ovations followed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the National Concert Hall in Dublin before the orchestra travelled to New York for the tour’s climax. The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra will reunite for its sixth tour in the summer of 2027.