I Know the Plans I Have for You Choral Anthem

HONOLULU (KHON2) — On Monday, Russian forces shelled Kharkiv, Ukraine'southward second-largest city, with video showing flashes of fire and ascension smoke coming out of residential areas.

"They are bombing one of the cities where I lived for several months. My friends are terrified," said Erica Glenn, a visiting professor at Brigham Immature University–Hawaii (BYU-Hawaii).

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The 35-year-old choral usher is originally from Utah but has lived all over the world, spending several years in Eastern Europe. She lived in Ukraine in 2008 and returned in 2015 and 2018.

In fact, she was supposed to exist in Ukraine now.

"I was awarded a Fulbright grant to Ukraine in 2020, merely the grant was delayed due to the pandemic," Glenn explained. "I had to move back to Utah and brainstorm carving out a new niche for myself as a choral conductor in a globe where singers were considered COVID super-spreaders."

Glenn took this time to develop a system for rehearsing choirs online, which defenseless the attention of BYU-Hawaii. In late 2020, the university hired her to conduct their concert choir virtually for a semester.

"After a semester of working with these remarkable students, I felt strongly compelled to come and work with them in person in Hawaii," said Glenn. "I arrived final August and accept now presented 3 total concerts with the choirs with several more on the immediate horizon."

At BYU-Hawaii, Glenn is teaching her students about how pop music in Ukraine is used as a tool of protest. Singing, she said, has always constituted a powerful means of identity expression in Ukraine.

"I accept researched the way popular music has functioned as a tool of political protestation during state of war that broke out on the Eastern front in 2014," said Glenn, "and I am also conducting research into the life and works of Ukraine'due south get-go female composer, Stefania Turkevych, who had to flee the Soviet Union when her works were banned for not complying with Socialist Realism."

Glenn, who started teaching music and opened up her first piano studio at the historic period of 12, conducted the U.Southward. premiere of one of Turkevych'due south Ukrainian operas at Arizona State University in 2019. Before that, Glenn was the Director of Performing Arts and the conductor of half dozen choirs at the American International Schoolhouse of Utah.

On Friday, March 4, Glenn'due south BYU-Hawaii students will be belongings a virtual benefit concert to enhance money for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. The program entitled "Songs of Solace" volition get live at this link at 5 p.m. HST. This will be viewable to the public, fifty-fifty for those without a Facebook account.

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  On Friday, March iv, 2022, BYU-Hawaii students will be holding a virtual do good concert to raise money for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. (Courtesy: Erica Kyree Glenn)

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  On Friday, March 4, 2022, BYU-Hawaii students will exist holding a virtual benefit concert to raise coin for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. (Courtesy: Erica Kyree Glenn)

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  On Friday, March 4, 2022, BYU-Hawaii students volition be property a virtual do good concert to raise money for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. (Courtesy: Erica Kyree Glenn)

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  On Friday, March 4, 2022, BYU-Hawaii students volition be holding a virtual benefit concert to raise money for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. (Courtesy: Erica Kyree Glenn)

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  On Friday, March 4, 2022, BYU-Hawaii students volition be holding a virtual benefit concert to raise money for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. (Courtesy: Erica Kyree Glenn)

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  On Friday, March 4, 2022, BYU-Hawaii students volition exist holding a virtual benefit concert to raise money for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. (Courtesy: Erica Kyree Glenn)

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  Erica Glenn is a visiting choral instructor at BYU-Hawaii. She plans to go to Poland in April 2022 for her Fulbright research and to aid in humanitarian efforts for the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees who are projected to cantankerous into Poland seeking asylum. (Courtesy: Erica Kyree Glenn)

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  On Fri, March iv, 2022, BYU-Hawaii students will exist holding a virtual do good concert to heighten coin for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. (Courtesy: Erica Kyree Glenn)

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  Erica Glenn is a visiting choral instructor at BYU-Hawaii. She plans to go to Poland in April 2022 for her Fulbright research and to aid in humanitarian efforts for the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees who are projected to cantankerous into Poland seeking aviary. (Courtesy: Erica Kyree Glenn)

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  On Fri, March four, 2022, BYU-Hawaii students volition be belongings a virtual benefit concert to enhance money for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. (Courtesy: Erica Kyree Glenn)

"So far, all of my friends in Kyiv and Kharkiv and Mariupol are safe, but they tin hear active bombing, and many of them are sheltered in underground stations," said Glenn. "The families I knew in Kyiv have abandoned their homes within the concluding few days and moved away from the urban center to areas where things are safer."

Glenn was supposed to begin her Fulbright research in Apr in Lviv, a little boondocks on the western border of Ukraine, but then the emergency evacuation happened. Her swain Fulbrighters who were already in Ukraine had to go out for Poland within a affair of days.

She's been attending all of her Fulbright meetings nigh but plans to join her peers in Poland this spring.

"My promise is that, in addition to my Fulbright enquiry, I tin can assist in humanitarian efforts for the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees who are projected to cross into Poland seeking asylum," Glenn said.

Almost a week into its invasion, Russia finds itself facing a fierce resistance in Ukraine, which has solidified its ties to the West by applying to bring together the European Wedlock. It'south a symbolic move that won't sit down well with President Vladimir Putin who is at present dealing with economic havoc at habitation.

In makeshift shelters across Ukraine, families are trying to protect the young and the erstwhile. In the seaside resort town of Berdyansk, The Associated Printing on Tuesday reported dozens of protesters chanting angrily in the main foursquare against Russian occupiers and singing the Ukrainian national anthem.

Glenn said her research leads her to believe that Ukrainian song operates as a compelling means of reclaiming space in both public and private settings, and that there is a fluid and culturally rich Ukrainian identity distinct from Russia and Europe.

In a 2019 article, Glenn wrote: "By entering the political arena at such a volatile time, contempo Ukrainian protest song not only functions as a divisive window into dichotomized perspectives but acts as a cogitating mirror, revealing Ukrainian identity to composers and performers themselves in a continuing process."

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To scout "Songs of Solace" in person, visit the BYU-Hawaii McKay Auditorium located at 55-220 Kulanui St, Laie, HI 96762. The event is free, and everyone is encouraged to clothes in yellow and bluish, the colors of the Ukrainian flag.

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Source: https://www.khon2.com/local-news/hawaii-students-to-hold-benefit-concert-for-ukraine/