Three outstanding musicians have teamed up with an artist to launch a night of Ukrainian folk music and traditional cuisine in an act of community and resistance.
Award-winning soprano Natalia Gorban will be performing on Saturday with singer and pianist Marichka Marushchak and her mother, pianist Larysa Shelepko, who arrived only weeks ago as refugees from Ukraine.
Stephen Skrynka, the Glasgow-based artist behind The Revelator, has been hosting fundraisers for Ukraine at the impressive handmade wooden structure since the war on the country began.
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The Revelator, located in a warehouse on the Clyde in Whiteinch, is a 16ft high form that looks like a humongous barrel.
Purpose-built as a 'Wall of Death', Mr Skrynka previously rode a motorcyle around it during the first Ukraine fundraiser hosted in the space.
Still in the final stages of completion, the space has become a communal art hub with a purpose of sharing culture as well as hosting a variety of fundraisers for the war effort in Ukraine.
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Ms Gorban, who held her first charity concert in the summer, was approached by Mr Skrynka to collaborate in what they hope to become regular evenings of fundraising and celebrating Ukrainian culture.
She said: “I obviously accepted [the invitation] because I really love everything that connects me to my homeland, Ukraine.”
Ms Gorban recruited international musical laureate Ms Marushchak and her mother, Ms Shelepko, on a social media page she runs connecting Ukrainian refugee women in Scotland.
Ms Gorban told The Glasgow Times: “I started my music journey back in Ukraine with a specialty in traditional folk singing.
“That’s the root of everything, and it’s very symbolic for me.
“And I feel in this difficult time, it’s very special for every Ukrainian to hear a little bit of or feel a little bit of their homeland.
“Being somewhere else and feeling lonely, feeling displaced, feeling lost, I know how it feels because I am an immigrant myself.”
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She added: “This is for everyone from Ukraine to meet new people, to cry a little bit, to have a laugh, to enjoy the time, even being so far away.
“It counts and it’s important to continue doing this because the war is not over.
“And I know the news has this flash effect and then everything starts to get slower and calmer, but us Ukrainians need to focus on the culture and making sure nobody forgets that there is identity in Ukraine.
“And we are not the part of anything else, we are Ukrainians.”
The musicians will sing celebrated folk songs including Oh, I Know I Have a Sin and Oi u luzi chervona kalyna, before serving traditional cuisine like borscht and varenyky.
Ms Marushchak and Ms Shelepko are currently staying in a hotel as recent arrivals to Scotland and echo the feeling that sharing culture through art and food is one of the great forms of resistance to the invasion of their country.
Ms Marushchak said: “Yes, it’s a difficult time for us, for our country, for our people, but we need to be strong, we need to really be here and do what we can do.”
Mr Skrynka hopes that this event will bring together Ukrainians and Glaswegians alike.
The artist said: “This concert and meal is so important for what we do at The Revelator because it’s a hub for artworks, it’s a social hub for people to come together, and it’s completely not commercial.
“It’s about making art that is experimental, it’s about having concerts that are life affirming.
“So, this one is really, really important because the war has been going on for several months now.
“I’m aware that it’s going down the ladder in the news and it’s so crucial that we keep the awareness up.”
He added: “It’s also important that the food and music go hand in hand and people are able to, if they are not Ukrainian, experience Ukrainian culture which they might not have come across that much before.
“And if they are Ukrainian, it’s a sort of get-together for displaced people that are going through a really, really, difficult time.
“I can’t imagine, none of us can imagine, and it’s so important that we keep that up.
“Putin can’t get away with it, he really can’t.
“It’s about democracy for all of us, and we need to keep shouting that out to anyone who will listen.”
More information can be found on The Revelator’s Instagram page.
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