How do we move forward from here?
It is often said that this is a small world. Since the war in Ukraine, the world has gotten smaller again. We look at the conflicts in the world between countries, each one representing one less place, one less culture that we can interact with, closing a door, burning a bridge. It all seems so foreign, so alien to our day to day existence. Whatever is happening in those places, somehow people adapt and we too must. It’s always for reasons that seem so unreasonable and the suffering is unimaginable.
We tell ourselves that music is like the water that slowly wears down the walls that divide, and that eventually culture will filter through and reconnect us. We see it happen in places that have resisted change—music in its most ethereal quality cannot be stopped by physical barriers.
Music travels where perhaps we cannot—it has always been an information delivery system, carrying stories and messages embedded in rhythm, color, and timbre.
Musicians themselves are the ambassadors of meaning. Wherever they go, they bring hope and empathy. When they say that music heals, it is really the musicians themselves that are the healers.
Musicians are messengers of light; while that may sound over the top spiritual, it is in fact true. Being connected to a higher purpose, that is being a musician.
We caught up with Margaryta Grynyvetska, in exile from Ukraine and from her home theaters and orchestras.
On this road, we travel together, wherever it leads…
Kathy Geisler What is your current job in the field of classical music?
Margaryta Grynyvetska I am a conductor, now working on many benefit concerts and performances for Ukraine and promoting Ukrainian culture all over Europe.
KG What were some of your early lessons or experiences in classical music?
MG I started my musical education at the age of five and it was then that I attended a concert of the orchestra at the Odesa Philharmonic Hall for the first time. It made a huge impression on me and since that day I dreamed to stand on that stage as a conductor. That dream has since come true!
KG What is one of your favorite places and why?
MG I am so in love with Vilnius! This city is a mix of my lovely Odesa, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv and so many aspects of European architecture and lifestyle. The Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre is one of the best theaters I have ever worked in. I’m absolutely in love with the people there!
KG What is one of your favorite pieces and do you have a favorite performer or experience of it?
MG Whatever piece I am working on is my favorite! As a conductor, if you are not in love with the piece then how can the audience fall in love with it?
One of my super-fave pieces is the cantata for soprano and orchestra Love Death by the modern Ukrainian composer Alexander Rodin. It’s absolutely one of the most wonderful pieces I have ever conducted!
KG Is there an artist no longer living who somehow made an impression on you?
MG Herbert von Karajan and Maria Callas.
What people! What destinies!
And what a feeling of music!
KG What is one thing you think will be different about classical music 100 years from now?
MG I hope that it won’t be too digitized and that music halls will be totally full in 100 years.
I hope there will be opportunities to explore more and more new composers—not only modern composers, but maybe also forgotten composers of the past.
KG What is something about your work that you think most people have no idea about?
MG It is sooooo difficult to conduct in heels! 🙂
KG Did you have any life-changing experiences that put you on the path that led you to be doing what you’re doing today?
MG I always say that it was actually not my choice to be a conductor—the profession chose me.
I had many opportunities in my life that I couldn’t say no to. Studying with both of my absolutely great professors, moving to Kyiv, a work offer in Odesa Opera at the age of 23, moving to Europe and an offer to conduct the Berliner Philharmoniker at the age of 28. How could I say no?
KG Is there anything else you would like to say about yourself, your work, or classical music?
MG I think that classical music is something that resets you, recharges, cleanses, harmonizes, and teaches you new emotions and feelings. This is especially magical when you can touch history through the score. You feel like you are touching the soul of composer, you start to think the way he was thinking during composing, you can feel everything that he felt many years or even centuries ago… Truly magical! And our task as conductors is to share all this with the performers and with the audience.
It is a gift all the way around! M
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