Photo/Illutration Hirofumi Yoshida, left, principal guest conductor at the Odesa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, talks to Yoshihiko Okabe, honorary consul at the Honorary Consulate of Ukraine in Kobe, in Kobe's Chuo Ward on Feb. 5. (Momoe Harano)

For maestro Hirofumi Yoshida, bringing his Odesa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater orchestra from war-torn Ukraine to Japan means a lot.

The 56-year-old principal guest conductor of the opera house will lead a 60-member orchestra on a concert tour in three Japanese cities in March.

He wants to spread knowledge of the ongoing war in Ukraine to the audience through music.

"In Japan, we have a saying that goes, 'I know you'd do the same for me,'" Yoshida said. "I want you to know what's happening there by learning about Ukraine's issues through music."

After moving to Europe in 1999, Yoshida served as principal guest conductor and other positions at the Opera House of Bologna in Italy.

In 2020, he conducted a production of "Madame Butterfly" for the first time at the invitation of the Odesa opera house, Ukraine's oldest theater founded more than 200 years ago.

Unlike Italian music characterized by its cheerful and surging rhythms, to which the conductor had grown attached, Ukrainian music is somber, majestic and cultivated, according to Yoshida.

In 2021, he was appointed as principal guest conductor at the request of the Odesa theater.

He was thinking about conducting concerts in Ukraine after the COVID-19 pandemic.

But in February 2022, when he was in Italy, Yoshida was dumbfounded to learn that Russia had invaded Ukraine.

"I was like, this can't be happening in the 21st century," he recalled.

At the time, well-known musicians in Europe were forced to make it clear which side they were on.

"If not, they'd lose their credibility as human beings," he added.

Believing that music has universal power, Yoshida sent a message to the orchestra, saying that he would continue playing with his fellow musicians in Odesa.

With the evacuation advisory issued by the Japanese government in place, the conductor could finally enter Ukraine in September 2023, one and a half years after Russia's invasion started.

While he conducted the orchestra at the opera theater in wartime Odesa, the number of its members had decreased from 108 to 80 as some had died in battle, were drafted by the military or evacuated from the country.

Still, the orchestra continued rehearsals as air-raid sirens blared throughout the streets.

Meanwhile, seeing Ukrainian soldiers shed tears as they listened to the orchestra playing, Yoshida couldn't help but want to bring the orchestra to Japan and let the audience learn about the ever-worsening war situation.

When the maestro began a crowdfunding campaign to cover the expenses of the orchestra's concerts in Japan, it raised more than 20 million yen ($131,700).

The orchestra will perform in Yokohama, Kobe and Hokkaido's Kitami in March.

At the advice of Yoshihiko Okabe, 51, honorary consul at the Honorary Consulate of Ukraine in Kobe, the concert will open with the overture to "Taras Bulba" by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko.

It is an epic opera about the founding of Ukraine, and the piece represents the culture of Ukrainians who place importance on independence, according to Yoshida.

The Kobe concert will start at 7 p.m. on March 7 at the Kobe Asahi Hall in the Hyogo prefectural capital's Chuo Ward.

S seats sell for 12,000 yen, A seats for 10,000 yen and student seats for 3,000 yen.

Patronage seats cost 50,000 yen, of which 38,000 yen will be donated to the orchestra.

For more information, visit the official website at (https://www.kobe-asahihall.jp/events/eid-1237/).

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