Dalia Stasevska: "Russia is trying to destroy the Ukrainian identity"

All is serene when I slip into the Conductor’s Room at Maida Vale Studios to meet the Finnish maestro Dalia Stasevska, who has been recording an International Women’s Day concert with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. 

The 39 year old, who is the band’s principal guest conductor and chief conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in Finland, and has played both the First and Last Nights of the Proms in recent years, is tucked into the corner of a sofa, feeding her unfeasibly cute four-month-old daughter Aurora. The odd satisfied gurgle is the only peep from the latter for the hour we spend together.

This idyllic scene belies the turmoil that Stasevska is suffering. On the day we meet, it’s approaching the two-year anniversary since the most recent invasion of her father’s homeland of Ukraine – she speaks the language with her siblings. 

Her younger brother Lukas, a cellist and filmmaker, has been in the war-torn country since