New Deutsche Grammophon Release
Deutsche Grammophon (DG) will release the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra (UFO) and conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson’s emotionally charged performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 on February 24, 2026, to mark the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The recording, captured live in Vilnius, Lithuania, during the UFO’s 2025 Resilience Tour, is dedicated to the Ukrainian people and their struggle. It follows the success of the orchestra’s unique Ukrainian-language version of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, which DG released in 2024. Beethoven’s Fifth is accompanied by the premiere of a powerful new work by Ukrainian composer Maxim Kolomiiets, Suite from The Mothers of Kherson. This suite is a moving tribute to the Ukrainian women who made a 3,000-mile journey behind enemy lines to rescue their children forcibly detained by Russian authorities. The suite has been adapted from a new full-scale opera by Kolomiiets and librettist George Brant, which will have its world premiere at the Teatr Wielki–Polish National Opera in Warsaw in October 2026, before its Metropolitan Opera premiere in New York in the 2027–28 season.
The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra was created as a cultural response to the Russian invasion, and on December 22, 2025, the orchestra was appointed as an Honorary Ambassador in the Field of Cultural Diplomacy and recipient of the 2025 Cultural Diplomacy Award by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska. The towering musical masterpiece of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 was written amid the turmoil of war and personal crisis and has been a cultural touchstone for the journey from darkness into light and of triumph over adversity. As orchestra founder and conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson points out, “our four summer tours have been in support of Ukraine’s right to be free. Those iconic opening four notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, amongst many other things, came to symbolize allied resistance to Naziism during the Second World War. Let them now be a symbol to the world of our resistance today.”
Wilson formed the UFO was formed in 2022, in coordination with the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, Metropolitan Opera in New York, and Polish National Opera in Warsaw. The orchestra brings together the finest Ukrainian musicians from ensembles across the country, Ukrainian musicians who had become refugees abroad following the invasion, and Ukrainian members of European orchestras. Its four acclaimed tours have taken place in leading concert halls and cathedrals across Europe and the United States, showcasing contemporary Ukrainian composers such as Silvestrov, Skoryk, Stankovych, and Poleva alongside works of the wider European musical tradition. They have been met with a rapturous and emotional public response, critical acclaim, and an abundance of media coverage. “On the day Putin invaded, I was angry and appalled and immediately determined to do something to oppose this barbarism,” says Wilson. “Not just because I am of Ukrainian Canadian heritage or because I have cousins who live in the country, some of whom have fought on the front line in Donbas, but because this assault on a nation and its culture demanded a response in kind. I could not take up arms, but I could take up my baton as my weapon.”
The orchestra is under the patronage of Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska, who describes it as “the musical voice of Ukraine,” adding that its performances proclaim “the timeless message of liberty contained in the eternal classics of their program. Music will speak to silence aggression.”
The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy has been a staunch supporter of the project and has assisted in ensuring Ukrainian-based male members of the orchestra can leave the country and deploy their musical excellence as part of the wider war effort in a remarkable demonstration of the power of art over adversity.
The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra will re-group in the summer of 2026 to tour again throughout Europe and the United States. “Ukraine needs our support now more than ever,” concludes Wilson. “I’m proud to join the brave musicians of the orchestra once again as we defend Ukraine’s cultural legacy and to assert that a nation’s culture can never be silenced or erased.”
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