By KEIICHIRO INOUE/ Staff Writer
April 19, 2022 at 16:58 JST
Ukrainian cellists Tetiana Lavrova, left, and her daughter, Iana, perform at a concert on April 18 in Tokyo’s Suginami Ward, where they live as evacuees. (Hiroyuki Yamamoto)
Two Ukrainian evacuees in Tokyo played the cello at a Japan Philharmonic Orchestra concert on April 18 in the capital while praying for peace in their homeland.
They received warm applause from about 150 spectators.
Tetiana Lavrova, 53, a cellist for the National Opera of Ukraine, and her daughter, Iana, 30, also a professional cellist, performed as guests at the concert in the Suginami Ward office’s lobby.
After playing the Japanese children’s song “Furusato” (Hometown) with members of the orchestra, the Lavrovas told the audience they are thinking of their own hometown.
Tetiana used to live in Kyiv while Iana resided in Chernihiv. They came to Japan, where some of Tetiana's fellow musicians live, via Poland at the end of March.
At the concert, the Lavrovas performed four songs, including one from "Ten Duets for Two Cellos" composed by Reinhold Gliere (1875-1956).
Among the pieces was “El cant dels ocells” (The song of the birds), a traditional Catalan song, which became popular after the internationally acclaimed Spanish cellist Pablo Casals (1876-1973) frequently performed it to send a message of peace.
Tetiana told the audience that she wants to listen to the song of birds, not the song of destruction, as humans were not put on this world for such acts.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
