Opera singer to perform in Carlow town

A CLASSICAL singer who fled the horrors of war in Ukraine is about to perform a series of  special concerts in Carlow town to raise funds for a local food bank and for a charity back home in his native city.

Maksym Lozovyi is an acclaimed opera baritone singer from Kherson, a city about 65 kilometres from the Crimean border. With the help of Ollie Hennessy as musical director, Maksym will perform two special concerts in the Methodist Church, Carlow tonight Friday 18 October, which is completely sold out  and again on Saturday 26 October. 

Doors open at 7.30pm, concert is at 8pm.

The money raised will be split between the church’s own food bank – a charity that gives out food parcels very discreetly to those who need them – because he uses the church as a rehearsal space. The other half of the funds raised will be donated to a church-run organisation in Kherson that’s helping the citizens who are still living in the war-ravaged city.

“When I have money, I like to share it with people who need it more than I do,” Maksym told The Nationalist. “Our region is now destroyed and the people who have stayed there have no money to leave now.” He’s been living in Ireland for the past two years, having fled the war with his wife and child. Kherson was one of the first areas to be occupied when Russia invaded Ukraine because it’s so close to Crimea. The city and the region have been blown up, with its people killed, maimed or else forced to leave. Out of a population of 300,000 people, only 50,000 remain.

In order to tell his story, before this interview Maksym wrote a brief outline of what his life was like before the war.

‘Kherson is an absolutely beautiful place. Our region had everything we needed for a comfortable life: fertile soil and sunshine, which means a lot of high-quality vegetables and fruits, and incredible nature with vast areas of wildlife reserves. There are two seas: the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. So we Kherson residents were happy people and unfortunately did not realise it until trouble knocked on our door,’ he wrote.

Maksym had a hugely successful career as an opera singer with the Kherson Philharmonic Orchestra and he and his family believed that they would be able to stay living in the city that they loved.

However, when the philharmonic’s conductor Yuriy Kerpatenko refused to co-operate with the Russians, he was killed. That was when Maksym and his family fled the city and headed towards Ireland.

‘Yuriy’s death was an irreparable loss for all of us who lived and worked in Kherson in the music field. He was a brilliant man, and as it turned out, very famous, because in many countries of the world, concerts were later dedicated to him. I know that he arranged music for the whole world. The entire Ukrainian repertoire that I have is all his work,’ wrote Maksym.

He and his family are still trying to come to terms with what has happened to their beloved country.

“When I open the newspaper, I despair. A lot of my friends have passed away, a lot of great people have died. It’s continuing and we don’t know when it’ll be over,” he told The Nationalist.

Maksym is slowly carving out a career as an opera singer here in Ireland. He’s a member of the Irish National Opera and has performed Faust, La Traviata and La Boheme, among other works with them.

He also sang at the Rose of Tralee contest, accompanied by Ollie Hennessy, its musical director, and has performed in Carlow several times.

“I have been living in Ireland for two years now. And during this time I realised that the greatest treasure this country has is its people. Irish people are extraordinary. I realise, of course, that not all of them are. But at least everyone I’ve met, and there have been a lot of them over these two years, they have been wonderful people. And if not for the war in Ukraine, I would say that I am happy here in Ireland,” said Maksym.

“I live one day at a time and try to do everything I can to make sure that while I am in Ireland, my voice is heard in every corner of this blessed country.” 

Tickets cost €25 and are available on www.gr8events.ie /maksymlozovyi.