First concert of “Cold Winter-2026: Kyiv and Seattle Together” project held at Kyiv’s Central Railway Station

This is according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

“This is a Ukrainian-American solidarity project. Our partners from Seattle initiated it. We are launching this project to warm Kyiv residents spiritually at Points of Invincibility,” said Herman Makarenko, head of the Kyiv Classic Orchestra and People’s Artist of Ukraine.

He noted that in 2024 the Kyiv Classic Orchestra gave a charity concert in Seattle, with the funds raised transferred to Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital.

Makarenko has also recalled that the orchestra has been performing for Kyiv residents since March 2022. The first such concert in support of Ukrainians took place on Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) on March 9, 2022, amid air-raid sirens and explosions.

According to the orchestra’s director, at least six concerts are planned in Kyiv by the end of February – at Points of Invincibility, at Okhmatdyt Hospital, and possibly in the Darnytskyi and Desnianskyi districts.

During Friday’s concert at the Central Railway Station, air-raid alerts were announced twice, forcing the musicians to stop playing. Nevertheless, the audience was able to hear music by Semen Hulak‑Artemovsky from the opera Zaporozhets beyond the Danube, the dance Kozachok, the famous Summertime from Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin, Jazz Legato by Leroy Anderson, and Libertango by Astor Piazzolla.

The program also included the Ukrainian folk song Oi na hori dva dubky, Chornobryvtsi by Volodymyr Vermenych, Shchedryk by Mykola Leontovych, Bozhe velykyi, yedynyi by Mykola Lysenko, and Oi u luzi chervona kalyna.

The musicians dedicated Melody by Myroslav Skoryk to the warriors who gave their lives for Ukraine.

The project is organized by The Humanity Funds and the Kyiv Classic Orchestra.

As previously reported, Ukrainians in Finland are also organizing a charity concert, with proceeds to be directed toward urgent humanitarian aid for Ukraine.