"Unbreakable Spirit: Music of Resilience" at Amherst College

Amherst College Music Department presents

Unbreakable Spirit: Music of Resilience

GRAMMY® Award-winning Ukrainian American pianist Nadia Shpachenko performs beloved works by Frédéric Chopin paired with Chopin-inspired pieces by Ukrainian composers. The program includes the Massachusetts premieres of new compositions by Ludmila Yurina and Ethan Gans-Morse about the war in Ukraine. 

Composer, clarinetist, bass clarinetist, conductor, teacher and writer Jonathan Russell joins Shpachenko in Russell’s Still Here for clarinet and piano commissioned by a consortium of 52 clarinetists, inspired by the resilience of the Ukrainian people during the current Russian invasion.

Frédéric Chopin
Nocturne in D-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 2 (1836)

Sergii Leontiev (b. 1991)
Postlude (2020)
Massachusetts Premiere

Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912)
Impromptu in the Style of Chopin, Op. 38 (1900)

Yuri Ishchenko (1938-2021)
Waltz No. 3 from Four Waltzes and Just a Touch of Chopin (2007)
Massachusetts Premiere

Zoltan Almashi (b. 1975)
Arfaria (2023)
Massachusetts Premiere

Ludmila Yurina (b. 1962)
Cuando la sirena se calma…(When the siren goes silent) (2024)
Massachusetts Premiere

Ethan Gans-Morse (b. 1982)
Bomb Shelter Variations based on Ukrainian song Ніч Яка Місячна (What a Moonlit Night) as performed by Vira Lytovchenko (2024)
Massachusetts Premiere

Myroslav Skoryk (1938-2020)
Melody (1982)

Jonathan Russell (b. 1979)
Still Here (2022)
I. Slow and Stately
II. Scherzo
III. Lyrical and flowing
IV. Defiantly joyful
Jonathan Russell, B-flat clarinet, Nadia Shpachenko, piano