CLASSICAL
The sound of freedom
On my own phone, there’s one to pay for car parking, another for identifying recorded music – and bird song – along with a tube map and various streaming platforms. But Roman Oleksiienko, trumpeter and deputy director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, has an app with far more serious implications.
The 35-year-old’s mobile plays a loud warning if Kyiv is coming under attack, alerting its user to head magazine, Oleksiienko and colleagues have shared unsettling details about life in war-torn Ukraine. While several members of the orchestra are now on active service, the rest of the ensemble continues to work in the capital, fitting rehearsals around all-too frequent rocket attacks. It’s not the only group determined to keep playing: the – formed last year in collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera and the Polish National Opera – is currently on a European tour that culminates with two UK concerts (Snape Maltings, Suffolk, 2 September and Barbican, London, 3 September).
