In face of ongoing war, Ukrainian musicians sing out against sorrow

By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news 

Iryna Kudielina warned her audience they may feel a little bit of loneliness or despair after she was done at the piano. 

“But this is how I feel when I’m thinking about Ukraine,” she said.  

Kudielina was speaking from the stage at the Ashland High School amphitheater Sunday as one of several performers for an Ashland-Sviatohirsk Aid Project (ASAP) fundraiser. She said whatever those heavier emotions, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. 

As she played Prelude in D flat minor and Nocturne in C minor opus 48, her face showed her thoughts were in Ukraine. She left the stage before the applause was over. 

Ben Stott, one of the founding members of ASAP, stood in the audience as his short film played. The footage of Ashland’s sister city featured interviews with several of 55 residents trapped while the city was occupied by Russian troops. 

One older man acknowledged it was scary to live without heat but credited surviving the winter to two cats who sleep close and keep him warm. One woman remembered her family spent a month hiding in their basement. 

Two teenage girls talked about fleeing, then watching videos posted online by those who remained and feeling the shock of “places where you’ve walked,” becoming rubble. Both returned home as soon as they could. 

Stott took the stage and encouraged the audience to consider being very generous for needs like a large kilowatt generator to keep the city’s cell phone tower operational and to support the city’s water system after losses in federal funding left a gaping need. 

“We have been asked to help fund a 5,000-liter water truck to provide water for 13 settlements that (sister city) Sviatohirsk is the administrative center for,” Stott said in an email to Ashland.news after the event. “We are working in collaboration with Easton, Conn., which has raised $16,000. We need to raise an additional 16 to 18 thousand. UAI will purchase the truck and deliver it. The 16kw power generator is to provide back up power for Sviatohirsks cellphone communication system because there are frequent power outages due to Russian attacks on Ukrainian electrical infrastructure. The generator will cost $12,000.”

Denise Crosby said Uniting for Ukraine has helped around 25 families come to Ashland, of the 6 million Ukrainian refugees worldwide. 

“This war, unfortunately, goes on. … With this administration and its cruelty, we don’t know what comes next,” she said. 

The organization is working on fortifying itself for what legal challenges may lie ahead in continuing to assist Ukranians attempting to flee. 

Senator Jeff Golden was listed as a guest speaker on the program, but could not make it due to a scheduling conflict, said ASAP Board President Jim Nagel in a conversation after the performance. Uniting for Ukraine asked to participate in the ASAP fundraiser and was welcome. 

Councilor Jeff Dahle took the microphone with an explanation that, for emotional topics, he prepares his remarks. He began by reading from notes asking the audience to consider the power of hope. Ashland’s City Council is proud to be a part of a “community devoted to human flourishing,” he said. He apologized for Mayor Tonya Graham’s absence as she was delayed in traveling. 

Then he paused and said he would “riff for a little bit.” 

“People often ask me, ‘What have you learned being on council?’ I always say, ‘The things we take for granted,’” he said. 

It’s easy to forget the value of turning on a faucet and clean water comes out, he said. He reminded the audience how easy it is to take for granted a comfortable, friendly life in Ashland with all its natural beauty and relative peace. It could be some take for granted the power of agency all their peace and prosperity gives them. 

“Everywhere on this planet is local to someone and we are all connected. Agency — all of us here have the power to make change, starting right here,” he said. 

In a shoulder-to-shoulder packed vestibule after the performance, four women were beaming in mostly red traditional Ukrainian costumes. The group sang folk songs — a 200-year-old love song about a dark haired girl and a dark haired boy and a song about a woman who ties her husband up and takes him to sell at the market only to keep him after many women inquire about the price. 

Natallia Gutierrez Zhiets said after the war began, her husband and son flew to Romania to bring home family including her sister and her mother. To her right the oldest woman in the group — Valentina — pointed to her left and right and said “My daughter, my daughter.” 

When Ukrainians began coming together in the Rogue Valley, singing was natural. 

“We were first Ukrainian woman who love to sing, we sing of family and everyday life, because that’s what we do,” Gutierrez Zhiets said. 

Then Liudmyla Sokol — the group’s most petite member — suggested they become a singing group and made traditional Ukrainian dress for performances. They performed that day with Gutierrez Zhiets’s daughter-in-law at the piano. Her son met his wife, Iryna Kudielina, after she became a refugee in the Rogue Valley. 

Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected].