Cultural Front. As Ukrainian choirs sang with The Rolling Stones, they gave a concert in an Italian grotto and raise money for the Armed Forces
On July 15, 2022, two Ukrainian groups - a choir of boys of the bell and a choir of girls Light - performed on the same stage with the legendary band The Rolling Stones in Austrian Vienna. They performed one of the hits of British rockers - a song of you canish Always Get What You Want.
In an interview, the head of the Choir of the Bells, Chormaster, Honored Artist of Ukraine Ruben Tolmachov tells about the invitation from The Rolling Stones, European tours and young singers, whose votes are conquered by a foreign audience. - Recently, you and the teams have returned from European tours. Tell us how this tour passed? - In fact, it was our second tour. And we plan the third.
With the onset of a full -scale war, when the first weeks of being in such a shocking state, I have a question: I need to either take a machine gun, or do something that you can do better than others. In the early days, our foreign colleagues offered help us. But we refused because it was not clear what this help could be. But then it came to understand that it is necessary to help - Ukraine, children, our young artists.
In order not to lose the information struggle with Russia, the head of the girl's choir Light, my wife, Olena Solovey, addressed our numerous European colleagues, with whom we met at festivals competitions and sat together in a multinational jury, with ideas. Initially, we recorded several motivational videos that were broadcast in Poznan, in Leipzig, in the Baltic countries in the central squares of cities, at rallies in support of Ukraine.
There we talked about our teams, that with the beginning of a full -scale war, children were scattered from Portugal to Sweden. Then the first round was designed. It lasted almost a month. In total, we gave 19 concerts in Germany, Poland, in Lithuania are Vilnius and Kaunas. They performed in a very wide range: from concert halls and cathedrals, to weekly rallies in support of Ukraine. They collected great attention to the press.
Almost every concert had speeches on regional or central channels of these countries. The cultural front that is raging now should last at least in 2014, but then, in my opinion, it happened rather sluggish. But now everything has changed. - How exactly did you represent Ukraine during these speeches? What about war with Russia? - The main message we carried: Ukraine is part of Europe. Ukraine is a country with an ancient and very developed culture, it is a culture that should be protected.
It is a country for which Europe has a little sacrifice to its comfort, its safety, its economy, because we are part of Europe. We are the first protective wall of Europe. In Poland and Latvia, this is understood very well, there is no one to convince anyone there. They understand that they are the following, so they help sincerely. Next Germany, Austria. Unfortunately, not all foreigners understand that if you give Ukraine as a victim, the war will not stop.
Like the Second World War, some countries now hope that they are far from it and that "deep compassion and anxiety" will be enough. No it is not. Our general opinion was not just arousing our singing or pity because of our condition, but to carry this message. In mid -June we returned to Ukraine and received invitations from our colleagues in Italy. It was a small festival as well as concerts in Sardinia.
- How did you manage to arrange a speech with The Rolling Stones? - During our first tour, I was approached from the company that organized the concert of The Rolling Stones in Vienna. Somewhere on the network, they saw our performances and wondered if we would like to perform at the Ernst Huckpel stadium with The Rolling Stones. During the preparation, we had very difficult organizational moments related to the history.
But the performance took place - July 15, at the full stadium, which is about 60 thousand spectators. I must say that The Rolling Stones audience is tens of millions of followers on the network and just like that. Already an hour after Mick Jagger's speech, a joint video with compliments in honor of our teams. I believe that such an event is very powerful to work on the image of Ukraine. So thank God we had this opportunity and used it.
After that, we went to Sardinia and sang six more concerts in ancient churches, also in various tourist locations, nature reserves. For example, in the European Grota di ispinigoli. We had a lot of attention from the local press, television, and several articles were published. For me, the influence of Russian propaganda on Italy is quite noticeable since Berlusconi. So we needed to convince the Italian audience enough that we sing not just for peace, but for peace after our victory.
The moods were there: it took immediate peace at any cost. However, we know with you for sure: peace at any cost with Russia now is a new war for a year, two or three. So we had to explain it. At each concert we sold our disks, raised money for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. So purchased for 24 separate mechanized brigade tactical equipment, for the platoon of Valery Miroshnichenko - glasses of night vision. Of course, the shelter does not compare it.
But this is important for our children to understand that they do not just sing good music - they are the ambassadors of their country, culture. - You gave Mica Jagger Embroidery - tell us about it. - When this whole idea about Rolling Stones was realized, we thought to give it. Of course, Ukrainian embroidery is the best thing that can be. There were some fears whether they would give us, as they say, "access to the body", because after the rehearsal there was a distance.
But when the musicians heard our singing, this distance was very declining. They gave us their disks, the paraphernalia from The Rolling Stones. We took a common photo with three musicians - not every partner is awarded. The Rolling Stones messages to their audience are very transparent and strong. They support Ukraine in our struggle, it is a very strong partner.
- Tell us about the choir participants - who are they? - Both the fire and the bell are the teams of the Kiev Palace of Children and Youth. Our children are the people of Kiev by taking Kyiv as a large agglomeration. Both teams for more than 50 years, we work in a wide repertoire: from ancient to popular music. Both teams have victories in European competitions. One girl from Nikolaev, Tatiana Varenik, daughter of our girlfriend, also took part in a speech with The Rolling Stones.
On the eve of Vienna's speech, it turned out that one child had a positive test for KOV. So we were looking for a replacement. They knew that Tatiana was singing well. Like half of Ukrainian families, Tatiana and her mother were forced to go to Europe, now they live in Bratislava. Knowing that we were in Vienna, they came just to see us. We warned Tatiana about the performance less than a day - she studied the musical material we sent to her on the way.
- What creative plans do you have for the next future? - We plan another trip to Europe. We have perennial partnerships with the Netherlands, we have been on tour in this country 28 times. With the spread of Kovid, this tradition has been broken, but now we will try to restore it. These are our plans for October - the beginning of November. In addition, we pray that we have the opportunity to start normal work at the Kiev Palace of Children and Youth on September 1.
We really want to make a new set of students. Our teams are large, in each - several age groups, these are children from six years. Every year we need new singers and singers. But in order for schools and out -of -school educational institutions, they need peace. Of course, we think about online learning options, but that's all-imitation of activity, this is not a job.