Music Education Under Siege
Music has proven to be a powerful force of hope and resilience for Ukrainians at home and abroad as they face the full-scale invasion of Russia.
The 1991 Project, founded and led by Anna Stavychenko, promotes Ukraine’s musical repertoire and supports musicians affected by the war. In addition to organizing concerts and preserving Ukrainian sheet music, the project with its partners—the Ukrainian Association in Finland and the Philharmonie de Paris—has successfully delivered dozens of instruments to young musicians and schools in Ukraine striving to preserve their cultural heritage.
Delivering Instruments to Ukraine’s Young Musicians
In 2022 a young girl’s home was destroyed by the Russians in Motyzhyn during occupation of the Kyiv region. This has been the fate of many since the actual beginning of Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine in 2014 and even more so after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In addition to losing her home, this girl also lost her instrument: a harp, lent by her school. In 2023, Finland-based flutist and activist of the Ukrainian Association in Finland Iryna Gorkun-Silén received a request from the young musician’s mother. After rebuilding their life from scratch, the family was still missing an essential element: the harp. Gorkun-Silén asked Anna Stavychenko if there was any chance to find help in France. Together, they helped the young Ukrainian harpist procure a new instrument, and decided to extend this initiative to as many people as possible.
During the war, music students in Ukraine have faced uncertainty about their futures. Entire families lost their homes, becoming internally displaced persons forced to rebuild their lives. Parents often fight at the front, getting wounded and giving their lives for the free future of their children and Ukraine. Countless instruments and facilities have been destroyed in air attacks, occupation, or ground combat. Economic instability has made financing music studies difficult, and many schools have shifted to online classes, disrupting education.
“Of course it’s a real material help,” says Stavychenko, because buying a musical instrument is a challenge for many families. “But for many kids, being able to practice music is often the only good thing left in their lives. When that was taken from them, it was unbearable. In a time like this, giving them hope and the possibility to keep playing—to do what they love—is very important.”
The first step was to identify the school’s specific needs. “As musicians ourselves,” said Stavychenko, “we didn’t want to send them random instruments and equipment. We wanted it to be customized with each school and family.” Collaborating with musicians, including Iryna Gorkun-Silén, as well as the participants of the Philharmonie de Paris mission project—violinists Hanna Voievodkina and Polina Chaika, and violist Sofiia Savchuk—Stavychenko identified the specific needs of Ukrainian schools. She built a network of musicians, educators, and associations to adapt the instrument donations to the schools’ requests.
By summer 2023, Stavychenko had compiled a detailed list of schools and their needs. The demand far exceeded her resources, but she pressed on.
Crossing Into Ukraine With 165 Instruments and equipment
The initiative expanded significantly with support from the Philharmonie de Paris, when their education department and children’s orchestra, Démos, got involved. They contributed 165 instruments and pieces of professional equipment, including violins of various sizes, cellos, violas, trumpets, trombones, electric guitars, and even a digital harpsichord.
Delicate instruments and heavy equipment would have to be transported through Europe and across the Ukrainian border, and delivered to schools in cities that had survived Russian occupation, schools damaged during shelling, as well as schools where children from the occupied territories now study. The logistics were complex, and required the collaboration of many volunteers.
In late November 2023, the Paris-based Polish Wisniewski family, who have been full-time volunteers since the war began, partnered with the Teploenergies company to deliver instruments to Ukraine. They transported the instruments in a truck from the Philharmonie in Paris to Lviv, crossing the Polish border. Drivers Igor Wisniewski, Victor Elie, and Antoine Evain reached customs during snowfall and spent four and a half hours with Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service to review the paperwork for each school, prepared with assistance from Les convoys d’Irina, led by President Émilie Loisel and Vice President Svitlana Dementieva. Once in Lviv, the instruments were sorted and delivered to 20 schools across 13 cities. Ukrainian courier company Nova Poshta transported them free of charge, with coordination by Iryna Tovarianska.
The shipment arrived in record time: instruments left Paris on a Thursday evening, and reached the first schools by that Sunday.
News from the Schools: Baroque Enthusiasts and Rock Bands
In October 2024, Stavychenko visited Ukraine and witnessed the profound impact of the initiative. She delivered a new batch of aid, including strings and other instrument equipment from Finland, to Olena Voievodkina, a teacher at Kyiv Music School No. 27. The school now serves children from occupied territories and those whose parents are soldiers defending Ukraine. One student, a guitar player, had spent a month in 2022 trapped in a basement in the then-occupied Kyiv region, venturing outside only to collect snow for drinking water.
After receiving a generous donation from the Philharmonie de Paris—including a digital harpsichord—kids, parents, and teachers have become Baroque lovers. The instrument has become a superstar of the school: all of the students want to play Bach on the harpsichord, rather than on the piano.
Other students come from a school in the Kharkiv region severely impacted by the occupation. Tetiana Sherstiuk, director of the Balakliia music school, recounts: “During the occupation, the Russian occupiers were based right in our school. Everything was looted and destroyed, everything. The Russians even stole the electric kettles. The building itself was in terrible condition. For a year and a half, we could not conduct the educational process. But now the school is finally up and running again.”
Stavychenko collaborated with Andrii Shipunov, a guitarist friend, and the Guitar Association of Ukraine, to distribute upward of 30 guitars donated by the Démos children’s orchestra in schools who needed them. Students of those schools play in rock bands, such as CATCH (from Sumy Specialized Arts School No. 29) and Гурт Будяк (from Sumy Children’s Music School No. 4), both of whom received high-quality electric guitars and combo amplifiers.
“Lisa Dmitruk is a student who plays the violin and tambourine,” said teacher and band leader Denis Fedchenko. “One of the girl’s dreams was to master the electric guitar. When she first held one, she turned it upside down. It happened automatically. I smiled and said she must have British roots because that’s where the fashion was. She said that she was not comfortable playing her right hand, and asked if there were guitars for left-handed people.” Fedchenko told her that they existed, but it required a special order and was very expensive. But then, they discovered that one of the guitars delivered was a left-handed guitar, and no one else had claimed it. “Now the dream of a violinist-guitarist is coming true!”
The Kravchenko family, which has three musician children, was forced to move to Odesa when the Russians captured their native Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region. The family received a ¾ violin from Fance, which will be played by Oleskii, until his younger sister Alisa grows up. They are both students at Odesa art school #7. “After we lost all we had, we were left without a home and everything,” says Iryna, the childrens’ mother. “We didn’t even think that our children would be able to continue studying music.”
A Second Wave Shipments
Despite the Philharmonie’s support ending in mid-2024, Stavychenko continued her work. In fall 2024, a new shipment—this time spearheaded by Iryna Gorkun-Silén in Finland—delivered more instruments and supplies. Along with some schools that the initiative already supported before, instruments and equipment were also given to new institutions, including the Lviv Kids Orchestra.
Stavychenko leveraged her network to secure additional equipment. A teacher from a school in Shostka, the Sumy region, which had received instruments the previous year, contacted her directly. Over the past few months, the area had suffered severe attacks. Due to the dangerous conditions, classes could no longer take place in the school building. Instead, teachers and students were forced to work from home or from shelters. The teacher shared that her family had only one computer, which was being used both for her teaching and her daughter’s schoolwork. In response, the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination secured a laptop, which Stavychenko personally delivered to Ukraine.
Stavychenko revisited schools from the first round of shipments, meeting students and teachers. One highlight was seeing violins from the previous shipment in use and reconnecting with the harpsichord school’s community.
Looking Forward
The demand for instruments remains immense. More schools are being destroyed, and displaced children often lack access to music. For growing students, new instruments are necessary every few years. But each instrument also requires accessories—strings, bows, cases, sheet music—making upkeep costly.
Stavychenko hopes to continue this initiative. She still has the ever-growing list of schools and families. “We didn’t want to focus on only one school, but also you can’t help everyone at once,” she said. “Demand is insane, and more schools are being destroyed and damaged, and more people are displaced, including kids—and kids who play instruments.” The need is clear, and the recipients are earmarked, but donations and shipments are logistically complex.
Anna Stavychenko’s message is clear: anyone can help.
“I hear people say, ‘I want to help but don’t know what to do, so I give up.’ But in fact, if you want to help, you always can.
To inquire about how to donate instruments, please reach out directly to Anna Stavychenko.
Anna Stavychenko, former executive director of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, has been working tirelessly since her arrival in Paris to support Ukrainian musicians and promote Ukrainian musical repertoire. Initially, she led the Philharmonie de Paris mission project, which provided Ukrainian musicians exiled in France with temporary contracts in prestigious French orchestras such as the Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, and Orchestre National de Lyon. During this time, Stavychenko also founded the 1991 Project.
1991 Project is led and inspired by Anna Stavychenko, a musicologist, music critic and classical music producer.
The 1991 Project is a non-profit association whose purpose is to safeguard and promote Ukrainian music, by helping Ukrainian musicians preserve their artistic skills in France and in the Western world. The production of concerts, cultural and educational events gives visibility to the Ukrainian musical repertoire, in its tight connections to the European cultural traditions.
