Fine Arts Center to Premiere Documentary and Concert Film on Ukraine’s Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra at UMass

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A new documentary centered around a February 2023  performance at UMass Amherst by Ukraine’s Lviv National Philharmonic Orchestra will premiere in Bowker Auditorium on Thursday, Sept. 14. A companion concert film will also be shown, followed by a panel discussion.

“Reclamation: The Legacy of Thomas de Hartmann” examines topics including the importance of the arts in establishing national identity. It will be presented along with a companion concert film that captures the Lviv Philharmonic’s performance of composer Thomas de Hartmann’s “Violin Concerto (Op. 66).” The premiere event also will feature a panel discussion featuring the Lviv Philharmonic’s conductor, Maestro Theodore Kuchar, along with history and music history faculty from UMass and experts from the Thomas de Hartmann Project.

The premiere event will take place starting at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free, but advance registration is encouraged.

The Fine Arts Center (FAC) undertook production of “Reclamation” on learning that the Lviv Philharmonic’s concert in the Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall on Feb. 10, 2023, would include the first-ever live performance of de Hartmann’s “Violin Concerto” in the Americas, and the first live performance of the piece anywhere in the world in nearly 70 years. Performing Arts Curator Michael Sakamoto chose the concerto from the orchestra’s repertoire because of its connection to current events. The Ukrainian-born de Hartmann wrote the concerto in 1943 in response to the Nazi occupation of Ukraine. It was thought to be a good fit for a performance by the national orchestra of a country that has once again been invaded by a neighbor.

“The decision to create a record of this moment was simple,” says Sean Glennon, FAC director of marketing and communications, who produced and directed both Reclamation and the concert film. “There was so very much wrapped up in this performance. There’s a connection to current events. There’s this fascinating effort to introduce the world to a composer who was in some interesting ways ahead of his time. And there’s this powerful connection between art and identity, in this case national identity. With all of these things coming together on the UMass campus, and in light of the educational aspects of the Fine Arts Center’s mission, it only made sense for us to document the concert and find a way to cast it in context.”

Registration for free tickets can be completed on the FAC website.