‘Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine’

As a tribute to Ukrainian war victims, the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine presents the world premiere of the oratorio Daddy's Book by Evgeni Orkin. The work is based on texts by Volodymyr Vakulenko, an activist, writer of children's books and poet, who was tortured and killed near Kharkiv in December 2022. In the cantata, two opposite worlds meet: the reality of the military occupation of a small town between Kharkiv and Donezk and the fragile peaceful world children grow up in outside war zones. The narrator will read extracts from Volodymyr Valulenko’s personal diary written during the military occupation. The three soloists represent witnesses describing the events around the author’s death. The children’s choirs illustrate the pre-war world in the colourful language the author used in his poems dedicated to his neurodivergent son. 
​​​​​​​An audio-visual recording of the concert will be realised.

Under the patronage of the President of the European Commission, Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen.