"Unbreakable Spirit: Music of Resilience" at the Longy School of Music

GRAMMY® Award-winning pianist and Longy School of Music alumna Nadia Shpachenko will perform new compositions by Ludmila Yurina and Ethan Gans-Morse about the war in Ukraine and Chopin-inspired compositions by Ukrainian composers. Composer, clarinetist, bass clarinetist, conductor, teacher and writer Jonathan Russell will join 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. 1st prize winners of the International Ukrainian Music Competition Mondy Gottesman and the Cal Poly Pomona Piano Ensemble will perform music for piano, cello, and percussion by Ukrainian composers Zoltan Almashi, Catherine Likhuta, and Mykola Lysenko as part of their 2025/2026 East Coast tour that also includes performances at Carnegie Hall and the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York.

Catherine Likhuta (b. 1981)
Heirlooms Suite for piano and percussion (2021)
1. Music Box: Caitlin Yang, piano, Kyra Johnson, marimba
3. Where We Come From: Caitlin Yang, piano, Kyra Johnson, marimba
2. Jazz Record: Josiah Kemp, piano, Anai Hernandez, vibraphone, Jesus Aguilera, drums

Zoltan Almashi (b. 1975)
Elegy for cello and piano (2018)
Mondy Gottesman, cello, Nadia Shpachenko, piano

Mykola Lysenko (1842-1912)
Élégie - La Tristesse for cello and piano
Mondy Gottesman, cello, Nadia Shpachenko, piano

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
Introduction and Polonaise Brillante in C Major, Op. 3
Mondy Gottesman, cello, Nadia Shpachenko, piano

Sergii Leontiev (b. 1991)
Postlude (2020)
Nadia Shpachenko, piano

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

Yuri Ishchenko (1938-2021)
Waltz No. 3 from Four Waltzes and Just a Touch of Chopin (2007)
Nadia Shpachenko, piano

Zoltan Almashi (b. 1975)
Arfaria (2023)
Nadia Shpachenko, piano

Ludmila Yurina (b. 1962)
Cuando la sirena se calma… (When the siren goes silent) (2024)
Nadia Shpachenko, piano

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)
Nadia Shpachenko, piano

Myroslav Skoryk (1938-2020)
Melody (1982)
Nadia Shpachenko, piano

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