Musical Vigil Will Benefit Ukraine
Kyrie: A Musical Vigil for Peace to Benefit Ukraine will be presented on Saturday, May 21, at the First Congregational Church of Madison, on the Green, 26 Meetinghouse Lane at 8 p.m. The vigil will feature a performance by mezzo-soprano Karoline Wojteczko, a native of the small Polish village of Bagny, which is a few miles from the Belarus border. She is a graduate of the Yale School of Music and interim director of music at St Thomas More Chapel at Yale.
Wojteczko will be joined in the hour-long, candlelit program by composer Julian Revie, cellist Miriam Liske-Doorabdish, and violinists Katherine Arndt and Michael Ferri. The performance will also feature sacred music and pieces sung in Ukrainian, including the Ukrainian Orthodox chant “The Sorrowful Mother.”
Wojteczko created the program due to the devastating attack on Ukraine by Russia.
“I decided to turn my hopelessness and anger into something that can help people in Ukraine,” Wojteczko said. “Most of my family, including my parents and sister and her family, live in Poland. I’ve been hearing from my family there of the horrible stories from this war and it made me very upset. I couldn’t believe something like this could happen right in front of our eyes and we can’t do anything to help.”
This is a public event, open to all. Admission is a donation at the door.
All of the funds raised will go to the following organizations: Center of St. Martin in Fastow, Ukraine; United Ukraine Relief Committee; Province of St. Anthony and St. Jakob Strzemie of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual (Franciscans).
For more information, visit facebook.com/fccmadison or call 203-245-2739, ext. 14.