New York, NY (April 15, 2026) — As Ukraine enters its fifth year of resistance against Russia’s brutal full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra will reconvene for the fifth time under the baton of its founder and music director, Keri-Lynn Wilson, in a cultural riposte to barbarism and in solidarity with the brave people of Ukraine. The 2026 Invincible Tour will span Europe and the United States and presents a program centred on two monumental pillars of the symphonic and choral repertoire: Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony and Verdi’s Requiem, one of the great works of memorial art, and for which the orchestra will be joined by a quartet of exceptional soloists: soprano Ailyn Pérez, mezzo-soprano Natalie Lewis, tenor René Barbera, and bass Soloman Howard.
Alongside these masterpieces will be Strauss’s Four Last Songs at David Geffen Hall in New York, which will be sung by Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen, whose recent performance of Isolde at the Met left the audience “awed by power you almost never hear in the human voice,” according to The New York Times. German soprano Julia Kleiter will perform Mahler’s Rückert Lieder, and there will be a reprise of Ukrainian composer Maxim Kolomiiets’s Suite from The Mothers of Kherson, premiered by the orchestra in 2025 before the opera’s full theatrical premiere later this year. Every venue will also witness a performance of a new commission by the orchestra, a Gloria by acclaimed Ukrainian composer Bohdana Frolyak. The work, Frolyak says, “is dedicated to all the heroes who have given their lives in this terrible war and to all who stand and defend Ukraine from this total evil.”
The 2026 Invincible Tour will begin at the orchestra’s traditional home away from home, the Teatr Wielki–Polish National Opera in Warsaw, before a series of return visits to venues and audiences who have been so supportive of the orchestra since its inception. A concert at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, will be followed by performances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and Dublin’s National Concert Hall, before a third visit to New York City for two concerts at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.
The orchestra’s founder and conductor, Keri-Lynn Wilson, says, “Five years into this terrible war, Ukraine’s spirit remains unbroken and unbreakable. The program for our 2026 Invincible Tour speaks to this courage and to this moment in history. I am proud to once again lead these extraordinary musicians, soldiers of music, across Europe and to the United States to bear witness to an invincible Ukraine and to a culture that will never be silenced. We play for those who are fighting, for those who have been lost, for a better future, and for all who believe that freedom will prevail. Slava Ukraini!”
First Lady Olena Zelenska says, “For five years, the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra has carried out an important mission—to serve as a cultural ambassador of Ukraine on the world’s most prestigious stages. The 2026 Invincible Tour demonstrates that our artistic resilience only grows stronger over time. I invite you to join us on this journey, where every chord is an act of solidarity and every symphony is a reminder that the light of humanity always prevails, even in the darkest times.”
The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra’s performances of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony this summer will represent the latest chapter in the orchestra’s continuing exploration of Beethoven’s works and ideals: from the “Abscheulicher!” in Beethoven’s Fidelio—a passionate plea for humanity in the face of violence—to the Eroica Symphony’s rejection of tyranny; from the orchestra’s unique Ukrainian-language version of Beethoven’s choral cry of liberty, the Ninth Symphony, to his mighty Fifth and its epic transformation from darkness to triumphant light. The orchestra’s live performances of both the Fifth and Ninth Symphonies have been released on recordings by Deutsche Grammophon. The Guardian described “the feverish intensity and commitment of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra’s playing” on the new recording of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony as “the sound of fierce hope, the sound of lives depending on the purpose and possibility of this music as a herald of peace and a call to action.” Now, the orchestra’s rendering of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony joins this tradition.
The Seventh powerfully speaks to today, and not just because it was premiered in Vienna in 1813 at a charity concert for wounded soldiers. Wagner’s famous line about it being the “apotheosis of the dance” points to its exuberance, but the work also charts the darkness of humanity under siege and the struggle against adversity before ultimate triumph. In 1989, Daniel Barenboim chose to conduct the symphony at a special concert at the Berliner Philharmonie just three days after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The only admission ticket was an East German passport for people newly granted freedom of movement. Beethoven’s music, described by one critic as having been heaved out of the abyss to reveal the light, poignantly expressed the joy of unexpected liberation.
The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra was formed in 2022 by Canadian Ukrainian conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson in direct response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The orchestra unites leading musicians based in Ukraine alongside those forced to leave the country as refugees and Ukrainian artists from premier international ensembles elsewhere across Europe in a powerful symbol of cultural solidarity. It was created in collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Teatr Wielki–Polish National Opera in Warsaw, and the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. The orchestra’s four summer tours have taken in some of the most prestigious venues across Europe and the United States, such as the BBC Proms and the Barbican in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Lincoln Center in New York City, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. They have also performed in great cathedrals on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as in a special concert in the Polish shipyard that was instrumental in the birth of the Solidarity movement. Their one-off concert in Warsaw to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion was televised across Europe by Arte and in the United States by PBS.
The orchestra is honored to have been able to showcase contemporary Ukrainian composers such as Silvestrov, Skoryk, Stankovych, Poleva, and Kolomiiets alongside the greats of the wider European musical tradition. Their concerts have prompted an emotional public response, critical acclaim, and unprecedented media attention for an artistic venture of this kind. Performances have received live television and radio broadcasts and attracted significant television news attention and extensive coverage in newspapers all over the world, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Times, Le Monde, Die Welt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and many others.
On December 22, 2025, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine appointed the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra as Honorary Ambassador in the field of Cultural Diplomacy
The Metropolitan Opera and the Teatr Wielki–Polish National Opera—under the leadership of General Manager Peter Gelb in New York and Waldemar Dabrowski and Boris Kudlička at the PNO in Warsaw—are proud to have founded and facilitated the orchestra and are delighted to support the orchestra once more in its 2026 tour. Both the Met and the PNO continue to play leading roles in the cultural world in standing up to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and in expressing support for the war’s victims.
The 2026 Invincible Tour is supported by the Government of Ireland as part of the Cultural Programme of Ireland’s 2026 Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
The tour is managed by the Teatr Wielki–Polish National Opera in association with Askonas Holt.
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Maestro Keri-Lynn Wilson is the founding conductor and music director of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra. She has led the orchestra on their four tours to date, a special one-off concert to mark the fourth anniversary of the war, and on their Deutsche Grammophon recordings of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and of her unique Ukrainian-language adaptation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony that has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. As a staunch supporter of Ukrainian liberty, Wilson has visited Ukraine on numerous occasions to lead performances in solidarity. In 2024, she was appointed music director of the Kyiv Camerata, Ukraine’s leading chamber orchestra, to lead concerts both inside and outside of Ukraine. Her international career as a conductor of opera and symphonic music has taken her to many of the world’s leading opera houses and symphony orchestras. Among the opera companies she has conducted most recently are Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, the Paris Opera, Staatsoper Berlin, the Canadian Opera Company, and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Among the orchestras she has most recently led are the New York Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, and Bruckner Orchestra Linz. On August 24, 2024, Ukrainian Independence Day, she was awarded the Order of Princess Olga by President Zelensky for her contributions to Ukrainian culture.
Bohdana Frolyak is a Ukrainian composer whose work has established her as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary classical music. Born in 1968 in western Ukraine, she studied composition under the celebrated Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk. Her output spans chamber, symphonic, and choral music, characterised by lyrical intensity and meditative depth. Her catalog includes three symphonies, a piano concerto, a clarinet concerto, a violin concerto, a cello concerto, and a wide range of chamber works—many rooted in literary or poetic programs drawing on Ukrainian and international texts. Frolyak has been recognised with Ukraine’s most prestigious cultural honors, and her music has been performed across Europe and North America, including at the BBC Proms—where her orchestral work Let There Be Light received its world premiere in July 2023, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Dalia Stasevska—as well as numerous contemporary music festivals in Ukraine and beyond. Let There Be Light was most recently performed In November 2025 by the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center.
Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen has just completed a triumphant run as Isolde in Tristan und Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera and in Barcelona. This season has also seen her sing Lady Macbeth in Macbeth in concert at the Royal Danish Opera, a concert in Santa Monica, and recitals in Girona, London, and at the Bergen International Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, and Carnegie Hall. Other recent performances include Leonore in Fidelio, the title roles of Tosca and Ariadne auf Naxos, Leonora in La Forza del Destino, and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalierat the Met; Ariadne at the Vienna State Opera; Tosca at the Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, and Staatsoper Berlin; Senta in Der Fliegende Holländer at the Norwegian National Opera; the title role of Salome at the Paris Opera; and Giorgetta in Il Tabarro and Lisa in The Queen of Spades at the Bavarian State Opera. She has sung the title role of Jenůfa at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Leonora in concert at the Norwegian National Opera, and Elisabetta di Valois in Don Carlo at Covent Garden. She has also appeared at the Bayreuth Festival, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and Glyndebourne Festival, among others.
Since her debut as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the Paris Opera, German soprano Julia Kleiter has appeared at the Bavarian State Opera, Vienna State Opera, La Scala, Semperoper Dresden, Metropolitan Opera, and Salzburg Festival. She has worked with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Christian Thielemann, Philippe Jordan, Riccardo Muti, and Andris Nelsons. Her operatic repertoire includes Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Ilia in Idomeneo, Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Agathe in Der Freischütz, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, and the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. During the 2025–26 season, she tours with Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem under Andris Nelsons, sings Strauss’s Four Last Songs in Spain, and performs Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and Ruckert-Lieder in Granada. She makes her role debut as Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann at Staatsoper Berlin and appears as Donna Elvira in a new production in Munich. She also joins Christian Thielemann for a Strauss lieder tour in Berlin, Vienna, and Munich. A dedicated recitalist, she performs regularly at Wigmore Hall, the Schubertiade, the Heidelberger Fruhling, Berlin’s Boulez Saal, and Schloss Elmau.
Chicago-born soprano Ailyn Pérez’s 2025–26 season has seen her sing Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera; the title role of Tosca at Covent Garden, the Hungarian State Opera, and in concert at Canada’s National Arts Centre; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at the George Enescu Festival; Desdemona in Otello in concert, Nedda in Pagliacci, Tosca, and Marguerite in Faust at the Bavarian State Opera; Verdi’s Requiem with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; the title role of Aida in Dresden; and a recital at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Since her 2015 debut as Micaëla in Carmen, she has established a long relationship with the Metropolitan Opera, returning in subsequent seasons as Mimì and Musetta in La Bohème, the title characters of Florencia en el Amazonas and Thaïs, Alice Ford in Falstaff, Blanche de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites, Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, and Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro. Recent performances elsewhere include Countess Almaviva at the Santa Fe Opera, Mimì at Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Vienna State Opera, Cio-Cio-San in Barcelona and Madrid, Leonora in Il Trovatore at Houston Grand Opera, Tosca at Staatsoper Berlin, and Magda in La Rondine with Washington Concert Opera. She was the 2016 recipient of the Met’s Beverly Sills Artist Award, established by Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman.
American mezzo-soprano Natalie Lewis began her 2025–26 season as a new member of the ensemble at the Bavarian State Opera, after finishing two years in the Opera Studio as an Opera Foundation recipient. In her first year as an ensemble member, she reprises the role of Mary in Der Fliegende Holländer during the company’s tour to Shanghai and debuts the role of Emilia in Otello. Other roles this season include Grimgerde in Die Walküre, Annina in La Traviata, the Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte, and Giovanna in Rigoletto. Last season, she appeared with the Bavarian State Opera as Erda in Das Rheingold, the Voice in Respighi’s Lucrezia, the Governess in The Queen of Spades, and Frugola in Il Tabarro. On the concert stage, she has sung Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the London Philharmonia Orchestra and Neue Philharmonie München, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Bremer Philharmoniker, and Tippett’s A Child of Our Time with the Munich Radio Orchestra. In 2025, she won Second Prize Overall for Female Voice, as well the Birgit Nilson Award, in the prestigious Operalia competition. In 2023, she earned first place and the online audience favorite award in the Houston Grand Opera Concert of Arias and was a Grand Finals Winner in the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition.
American tenor René Barbera was the first-ever recipient of all three top awards of the Operalia competition in 2011 and was also a 2008 winner of the Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition at the Metropolitan Opera, where he returned to sing the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier and Lindoro in L’Italiana in Algeri. During the 2025–26 season, he sings Rodolfo in La Bohème in Rome and Naples, Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia in Florence, Nemorino in L’Elisir d’Amore in Hamburg, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor in Naples, Alfredo in La Traviata at the Paris Opera, and Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola at the Bavarian State Opera. On the concert stage, he also sings Verdi’s Requiem with the Orchestral dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Detroit Symphony Orchestra and a gala concert in Prostějov. In past years, he has also headlined productions at Dutch National Opera, LA Opera, San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, La Scala, the Dallas Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Austin Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Pesaro’s Rossini Opera Festival, the Santa Fe Opera, and in Tokyo, Turin, Palermo, Genoa, Stuttgart, and Zurich, among others.
American bass Soloman Howard made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2014 as the King in Aida and has since appeared with the company as Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Sarastro in The Magic Flute, Timur in Turandot, and the Marquis of Calatrava / Padre Guardiano in La Forza del Destino. During the 2025–26 season, he sings the Commendatore in Don Giovanni at the Met, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte and Fafner in Siegfried at Covent Garden, Fafner in concert with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Hunding in Die Walküre with the LA Phil, and Ramfis in Aida in Dresden. Recent performances include Colline in La Bohème, Hunding, and the Commendatore at the Santa Fe Opera; Hunding at Covent Garden and in concert with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra; Banquo in Macbeth and the Lion in Jeanine Tesori’s The Lion, the Unicorn, and Me at Washington National Opera; Sparafucile at Lyric Opera of Chicago and in Hamburg; Fafner at Covent Garden and the Dallas Opera; and Muhammad Ali in D. J. Sparr’s Approaching Ali at Opera Las Vegas. He has also appeared at San Francisco Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival, LA Opera, English National Opera, North Carolina Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival, and in Montreal, Bordeaux, Barcelona, Madrid, and Santiago.
CONCERT ITINERARY and programs
August 16, 2026: Teatr Wielki, Warsaw, Poland
Frolyak: Gloria
Mahler: Rückert-Lieder, with Julia Kleiter (soprano)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
August 18, 2026: St Paul’s Cathedral, London, United Kingdom
Frolyak: Gloria
Verdi: Requiem, with Ailyn Pérez (soprano), Natalie Lewis (mezzo-soprano),
René Barbera (tenor), Soloman Howard (bass)
August 19, 2026: Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Frolyak: Gloria
Mahler: Rückert-Lieder, with Julia Kleiter (soprano)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
August 20, 2026: Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Germany
Frolyak: Gloria
Mahler: Rückert-Lieder, with Julia Kleiter (soprano)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
August 22, 2026: National Concert Hall, Dublin, Ireland
Frolyak: Gloria
Mahler: Rückert-Lieder, with Julia Kleiter (soprano)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
August 25, 2026: David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, NY
Frolyak: Gloria
Strauss: Four Last Songs, with Lise Davidsen (soprano)
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92
August 26, 2026: David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, NY
Kolomiiets: Suite from The Mothers of Kherson
Verdi: Requiem, with Ailyn Pérez (soprano), Natalie Lewis (mezzo-soprano), René Barbera (tenor), Soloman Howard (bass)
Find more information about Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra at www.ukrainianfreedomorchestra.org
