Ukraine's Kyiv Camerata Names Keri-Lynn Wilson as Music Director

The Canadian Ukrainian conductor will be only the second music director in the ensemble's almost 50 year history

As announced by Bohdana Pivnenko, the Kyiv Camerata’s General and Artistic Director, Keri-Lynn Wilson has been named the Music Director of Ukraine’s leading chamber orchestra.

The Kyiv Camerata was established in 1977 by Valery Matyukhin, who was its sole previous conductor who died in 2023. It was created with the support of Ukraine’s Union of Composers to champion and commission works by leading contemporary composers, including Valentin Sylvestrov, Yevgeny Stankovych, and Myroslav Skoryck.

In her new position with the Kyiv Camerata, Wilson will lead the chamber orchestra in concerts in Ukraine and abroad. In early October, they will perform at the annual contemporary music festival in Kyiv and, in a combined concert with the National Philharmonic Orchestra, will perform in Kyiv on Nov 23rd in honor of the war victims.

More performances in Ukraine will follow in the spring and early summer of 2025 as well as a concert in Berlin in April 2025.

As a direct response to Russia’s 2022 invasion, Wilson founded the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra with the assistance of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Polish National Opera, and Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture. Under the patronage of Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska, Ms. Wilson has led the Orchestra on three international tours and released a Deutsche Grammophon recording of their unique Ukrainian language version of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Last month on Ukrainian Independence Day, President Zelensky awarded Ms. Wilson the Order of Princess Olga in recognition of her contributions to Ukrainian culture.

She has conducted most recently are the Royal Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, the Paris Opera and the Deutsche Opera Berlin — while the orchestras she has most recently led are the NHK Symphony, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, and the Bruckner Orchestra of Linz.

As a staunch supporter of Ukrainian liberty, Maestro Wilson conducted the Kyiv Camerata in Ukraine and in New York, and at the Lviv Opera House performed the Verdi Requiem to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in the Ukrainian performance version she created.

“We chose Keri-Lynn because of her musical strengths and her commitment to Ukrainian contemporary music,” said Ms. Pivnenko. “In Ukraine, she is now regarded as one of our cultural heroes.”

“The musicians of Ukraine are the artistic soul of this brave country, fighting for its future,” said Ms. Wilson. “It’s my duty to do all I can to help defend them in their struggle for freedom.”