Cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras to Play Benefit Concert for Ukraine in Kyiv

The French cellist will perform with the Kyiv Camerata on August 19, 2024

On August 19, 2024, the French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras will travel to Kyiv and perform a benefit concert in support of Ukraine. Alongside the performance, he will also visit the Recovery Ukraine rehabilitation center to speak with soldiers who have been wounded in the conflict, and a similar clinic for children traumatized by the war.

Queyras will perform with the Kyiv Camerata, condutor Dmytro Login, and violinists Kornii Sheldunov and Bohdana Pivnenko. The concert features works by the Ukrainian composers Yevhen Stankovych, Yakiv Stepovy, and Myroslav Skoryk, as well as two works by Saint-Saëns and Fauré's Elegy.

As part of the project, Queyras is requesting that listeners donate to charities including the government-run United24, the rehabilitation charity UNBROKEN, and the child trauma recovery charity Voices of Children.

A past winner of the Glenn Gould Protégé Prize, Queyras is presently a professor at the Musikhochschule Freiburg and the artistic co-director of the Recontres Musicales de Haute-Provence.

Queyras is an extensive recording artist and has released discs of the concerti of Dvorak, Elgar, and Ligeti — as well as the complete cello suites of Johann Sebastian Bach and Benjamin Britten, and the complete Beethoven piano-cello duos with pianist Alexander Melnikov.

"Despite logistical complications, I felt an urgent need to express my solidarity in my own way with a nation that shows us incredible resilience in the face of adversity every day," Queyras said.

"By playing in Kyiv, I wish to support and connect with the local Ukrainian music scene, celebrating the rich cultural heritage that Ukrainians continue to keep alive despite the daily threats."

"I firmly believe that in times of conflict, artistic expression has its place, offering comfort and strength in its own way."

You can read more about the concert here.