Concert of Hope
One of the brightest surprises of the evening came with the highly accomplished violin playing of Alana and Lottie Griffiths. Firstly, Alana gave a moving solo performance of J S Bach’s Allemande in D minor. The audience was entranced by her heartfelt and flawless playing.
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The concert then turned its focus more sharply to Ukraine, with an address by Olena Nizalova who spoke of the work of C4U, Canterbury for Ukraine. It was good to hear more about the organisation which had settled “our” Ukrainian family in Minster, this family now supporting us in the audience. Her address was followed by Andrei Walton’s reading of the poem by the Ukrainian poet, Hrihory Skovoroda:
“Spring has come in its full bloom,
Winter leaves behind its gloom”.
Words to be understood with the heart on this dark wintery day.
“My soul is like a blossoming tree,
Full of joy and bursting free.”
The message of Hope was coming through to us in the audience.
Then came the piece by Jacob Bride, specially commissioned for our concert and receiving its première. This was the first piece to bring us the sounds of Ukrainian music, both familiar yet also containing something of the far-away and the yearning in Ukrainian culture. The music was superbly rendered by the young women on their violins, Jacob on the viola and Chris Randall on the keyboard. The length and warmth of the applause reflected how moved and awed we were to have heard this stirring music, conveying such a depth of emotion.
A married couple from the local Bruderhof community, Jacoub and Layla Sheghram, gave us a fresh insight into living in a war-torn country. Jacoub spoke from the heart about being faced with weapons in the Iran/Iraq conflict and how it was a turning-point in his life to realize he could on no account kill another human-being. He left his native country of Iraq and travelled across Europe before settling in England and devoting his life to Christ and peace.
Mattei, another member of the Bruderhof community sang most movingly in Italian “Brother Sun, Sister Moon”.
A lively piece, Toccata on Ukrainian Cossack Dance, was played by the versatile Chris Randall who had lent his keyboard skills unobtrusively throughout the concert, and now put the audience once more into mind of Ukraine’s unique cultural gift to the world.
And we ended our feast of music with two thought-provoking songs, You raise me up, given by St Mary’s choir, and the Orthodox chant, Song of Hope, which sealed the end of the concert, given by our Sisters. The consoling words reminded us that:
“The life-giving Light brightens the world,
Promise of the light which has no end.”
These two inspiring songs, with an upbeat thank you from our local MP, Sir Roger Gale, sent us out with much to ponder about the war in Ukraine, and our souls uplifted by so many stellar gifts to our Minster community of both words and music.