FLATBUSH — Ukrainian musician Daria Maksymova relished the chance to perform a concert at Our Lady of Refuge Church in Flatbush, where she played the organ and the piano for an appreciative audience. However, her joy was tempered with sorrow over the ongoing war in her home country.
“I’m crying after the concert,” said Maksymova, who lives in the city of Kharkiv, less than 20 miles from the Russian border. “It’s hard as a musician. You know that a missile is close to your house. I’m [always] on the phone with my family, and suddenly you want to start crying, but you need to go onstage.”
Maksymova and baritone Andrii Koshman, who is from Kviv, presented the free concert on Nov. 17 at Our Lady of Refuge to promote Ukrainian culture and raise awareness of the plight of the soldiers wounded in the war.
Maksymova and Koshman are currently living in New York and taking part in an internship program at the Metropolitan Opera that was created for Ukrainian artists in 2023. They said they plan to return home in mid-December.
Father Michael Perry, the former pastor of Our Lady of Refuge who organized the concert, said the donations collected at the concert would go to the Ukrainian Catholic University Foundation in Lviv.
The university’s School of Rehabilitative Medicine provides physical and occupational therapy as well as psychological support to soldiers suffering the effects of the war, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Father Perry, who is Ukrainian-American, said Our Lady of Refuge Church is a great place for a concert with its restored organ, new Steinway grand piano, and quality acoustics.
“There’s no place better for them to do it than here,” he said.
In their performance, Maksymova and Koshman brought a taste of Ukrainian culture to a small but rapt audience. The concert, which featured the works of classical and contemporary Ukrainian composers, began with Maksymova seated at the organ in the choir loft while Koshman sang as he slowly walked up the aisle toward the altar.
“Ukrainian music is not something that maybe most Americans hear every day. It is very beautiful music, amazing music, that I will show everyone,” Koshman said before the concert.
He added that he is eager to promote Ukrainian music and hopes Americans will eventually sing the songs in their programs.
Maksymova said the concert was meaningful and an “amazing opportunity … to share my culture and to share my experience.”
Both Maksymova and Koshman talked about how they have been personally affected by the war.
“It is quite a difficult situation because tonight, my mother texted me, ‘Oh, there are a lot of rockets flying to Kyiv,’ ” Koshman said. “Today, it was really a disaster for Ukraine. It is impossible to stay in safe mode.”
Maksymova, who lost two family members to the war, shared the toll it’s taken on her.
“At the beginning of the war, I was like, ‘Okay, what am I going to do?’ I’m gonna study. I need to continue my education. I need to because one day, the war will be over,” she said. “But suddenly, you’ve been through years of war, and now you can realize how it has influenced your life and how you’re losing your friends and we’re losing lives.”
Still, Koshman said, the human spirit is filled with hope, “but at the same time, it is possible to adapt yourself to any struggle that you need to be in and hope that it will end soon.”
Ellen McDonald, a parishioner of Blessed Trinity Parish, said she came from Breezy Point to attend the concert because it was for a good cause.
“If there’s any way to help rehabilitate these men and help the people who have been injured in the war, we should,” she said. “And if we can hear beautiful Ukrainian music, what could be better?”
