“We did not want to believe it would happen,” Usova says of the weeks and hours leading up to the Russian military attack, “until the moment it actually happened.”

Usova had no choice but to leave her home in Odessa, where she’d grown an appreciation for the beach and the beautiful performing arts center there. She rushed into a small car with her mother, sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. They had to flee the explosions but weren’t sure where to go. They started west before realizing the road would be too dangerous. So, they turned toward Moldova, hoping to find safety (Moldova would be recommended for acceptance into the European Union four months later).

The car had room only for the five of them, their personal documents, and one item Usova grabbed as a lifeline on her way out the door: her violin.

“It’s been a part of me, like my soul, since I was 5 years old,” she says.

After staying one night in a lonely far-away motel, Usova and her family stood in a line of people as long as they could see, all of them trying to cross the border into Europe. A woman happened to notice Usova and the violin and offered shelter in her home. The next morning, after two sleepless nights, Usova pulled out the violin and filled the woman’s home with the same sounds that she’d previously filled venues in Spain, Italy, France, Ukraine and the Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts in Orlando.

“In Ukraine,” Usova says. “Music is part of our education at a very early age. All people, regardless of wealth or status, can enjoy orchestras, operas, and ballets. It is like fresh air for us. At a time of such danger, people needed the fresh air.”

Usova played her violin every day while the rumbling continued. She’d see faces break into uncommon smiles as soon as she’d draw the bow across the strings.

“Music and the arts are markers of national identity in Ukraine,” says Ů��AV professor of history Vladimir Solonari. Identity is not a simple concept in that region. Solonari’s parents are Ukrainian. He was born and raised in Moldova when it was still part of the Soviet Union, so he was educated in a Russian culture. “Ukrainians did not create a highbrow culture, so the arts can be used as a rallying cry. The music touches your feelings. It can serve as a mobilizing tool in public squares and less obvious spaces.”

Tucked deep under the news alerts about Russian raids and rubble in the streets, you could find a social video post of a Ukrainian soldier playing a violin for fellow troops in a small bunker. A luthier sent out a newsletter saying he was still hand-crafting violins even as alarms resonated across his neighborhood, not to keep up with demand but for “the sake of art and for stress relief.” With the ground rumbling, music rehearsals and performances played on in places where you’d least expect them.

“For us, the arts can provide moments of peace and harmony,” Usova says. “They remind us of our love for our culture and country. The people performing are seen as messengers of goodwill.”

She says this as she prepares for her next performance in another unexpected venue: the St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Oviedo, Florida. On Thursday, Aug. 25, at 2:30 p.m., Usova and other acclaimed musicians will perform in the sanctuary, chosen for its near-perfect acoustics, to raise awareness and financial support.

Who better to raise awareness of the conditions in Ukraine than the young woman who fled her home in the darkness, clutching a violin?

History and Music Repeat
Just talking about the war tires Usova and makes her understandably sad. Most of her family is either in Europe or Ukraine. It’s easy to suggest that they leave, but Usova reminds everyone that it wasn’t easy for her to part from the people and country she loves.

“It’s home, and our freedom is at stake,” she says.

She talks about her circumstances more comfortably when they intersect with the subject of music. She describes first hearing a violin note at the age of 5, when she says, “everything inside me turned at once, like magic.” During her earliest lessons, she imagined herself playing on stage. She earned international awards and several music degrees in Ukraine before learning of a sunny campus in America with highly regarded music instructors, a place called UCF.

One of those instructors, Ayako Yonetani, saw hints of herself in Usova.

“I could see she was very passionate, very driven,” Yonetani says. “She even shared her love for violin by teaching younger people.”

While working toward her master’s degree in music, Usova gave lessons to Natalie Morris, a daughter in her host family. When Usova’s visa expired in 2016 and she returned to Ukraine, she continued giving lessons via Skype. As the threat of war grew, she used the connection as her outlet from reality. Then, three months after Russia’s initial attack, while still in shelter, Usova learned that the Morris family had been able to sponsor her return to Central Florida.

Yonetani was among the first people to reach out to Usova. The two of them met for tea near the UCF campus.

“Five days earlier she’d been in Ukraine. I could tell she was very sad to be without her family, so we talked about music to keep her mind busy.”

Yonetani knows very well the heavy toll of war on civilians and how music can provide hope during recovery. Her own parents introduced her to the violin when she was a 5-year-old in Kobe, Japan. They’d come out of WWII with absolutely nothing. Music and the arts became integral in rebuilding the country.

“Parents in Japan knew that music could expand the minds of their children, allow a better education, and lead them out of poverty,” Yonetani says. “My violin became my identity. I would never want to lose it.”

When Usova and Yonetani met in May, the UCF campus was the opposite of Ukraine: quiet and safe. Usova shared how she’d escaped home with her violin. Yonetani mentioned a trove of music that had been donated to her. They talked about doing a concert together. This time it would be for a cause.

“My mother is in her 90s now,” Yonetani says. “She still has nightmares about being a young girl during war, hungry and alone. People who have never had that kind of experience need to be aware. We also need to understand the peace that music can bring to such a situation.”

On Aug. 25, barely six months after the first bombs forced Iryna and her family from a home they might never see again, she’ll perform with the same violin she carried to safety. There will be performers from Honduras and Iowa. UCF’s Pegasus String Quartet will play. Yonetani will play. Natalie Morris will play. And so will masters student Ekaterina Iskhakova, who arrived at UCF earlier in August from Russia.

“The country you are from doesn’t matter,” Usova says. “What is in your heart is what matters. When music is in your heart, it builds bridges and brings people together like few things in life can do.”

A Ballet to Remember
On Saturday, Aug. 27, two days after the concert at St. Luke’s, the Ukrainian National Ballet will perform a sold-out event at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. Marc McMurrin of the Ginsburg Family Foundation raised the funds for the company to travel and share their artistry with the world during this tumultuous time for Ukraine. McMurrin’s interest in Ukrainian arts is personal; his father Roger McMurrin was the founding conductor of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra in 1991. Then, on Monday, Aug. 29, the ballet will perform a free exhibition in the UCF Pegasus Ballroom, followed by a conversation with the dancers about their artistry and experiences. This event is open to the public.

An Important Discussion
On Wednesday, Sept. 7, UCF Global and the UCF Center for the Study of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery is hosting a discussion on the current humanitarian and human rights situation in Ukraine. Shawn Sullivan, president of Mission 823, an organization actively involved in the reduction and elimination of human trafficking that has provided humanitarian assistance following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The event is held in room 101 of the Barbara Ying Center at 10 a.m.

Here are their top picks for uplifting music along with a little bit of history about each piece.

From Scott��Lubaroff,��director of��bands

• ��by Percy Aldridge Grainger (performed by the Dallas Wind Symphony)

Percy Grainger was one of the most significant composers in the early history of the modern wind band and a champion of the ensemble. He contributed dozens of works to what has since become the core band repertoire. �ѴDZ�������On��the Shore was written in 1907 as a birthday present to Grainger’s mother. It is a setting of two contrasting reels, “�ѴDZ�������On��the Shore” and “Temple Hill,” and most prominently features the woodwind sections of the ensemble.

• by Robert Jager (performed by the United States Marine Band: The President’s Own)

Esprit de Corps is something of a “fantasy-march,” and a tribute to the United States Marine Band, who actually originally commissioned the work. It is based on and is full of contrasting styles, energy, and drama, including a light quasi-waltz in its middle section.

• from the opera Schwanda, the Bagpiper by Jaromir Weinberger, arr.��Bainum��(performed by the United States Marine Band: The President’s Own)

Schwanda��the Bagpiper was a classic opera in two acts from the early part of the twentieth century��—��a standard story of love found, love lost, and love found again. Through its use of familiar Czech folk tunes, it earned significant popularity upon its initial release, nearly 2,000��stagings��in its first decade. While staging of the complete opera are rare since World War II, the instrumental Polka and Fugue is still a very popular part of orchestra and wind band concert programs to this day.

From Alex��Burtzos,��assistant��professor of��composition

• (Mvmt. II Adagio assai) by Maurice Ravel

Ravel begins the second movement of this seminal work with an expansive, vocalistic line that blends elements of jazz with rhythms drawn from the waltz. When asked about what many consider his most beautiful melody, he responded, “That flowing phrase! How I worked over it bar by bar! It nearly killed me!” None of that strain is apparent in the melody itself, which floats effortlessly from moment to moment, sustaining almost three minutes before the entrance of the orchestra.

• ��by Gorillaz

The cheerful funkiness of this track disguises its sophistication. To create the constantly shifting sensations in��5/4, Damon��Albarn��(also known as��Gorillaz) layers rhythmic ostinatos of different lengths over one another. This results in a constantly surprising metrical scheme, and results in 5-bar phrases, which is��unusual in this style.

•  by Richard Wagner

Wagner’s overture is a masterclass in how to transform material over time. The simple, chorale-like melody first heard in the woodwinds in the opening bars of the piece returns multiple times, and is subjected to various transformations of meter, orchestration, and dynamics. Every iteration is different, but each one is effective; and taken together, they make for an emotional tour de force.

From Tommy Harrison,��associate��director��of the��School of Performing Arts and��professor of��music��business and��technology

• ;��;��and����by Tommy Harrison Group

Tommy Harrison Group was a band that I was in when I first came to Ů��AV in 2017. Though the band is currently on a hiatus, it includes two fantastic musicians: Peter Mosley, the bassist from the multi-platinum group��Yellowcard, and noted session drummer,��Eric Bailey.

The record was recorded earlier in 2017, but not released until October of the same year. The three songs I selected from the group’s only release were inspired by my��new position��at UCF. Coming back to UCF was one of the happiest events of my life, and these three songs have always reminded me of that happy time.

I had always been a fan of UCF Athletics, dating back to my previous appointment from 2005 to 2006. ��Knight Time��was inspired by the football team, while��Spectrum��was inspired by the��men’s��basketball team. The Pegasus��has been a long-standing symbol associated with UCF, especially when I was in my previous appointment.

From Jeffrey Rupert,��director of Jazz Studies

• by Mel Torme

One of the greatest jazz singers of��all time��swings with a velvet tone, and sings about love in the most joyous fashion.

• ��by��Billy Strayhorn��(performed by��Ben Webster)

As the title suggests, this Billy Strayhorn composition is about enjoying the finer things in life. Ben Webster has a glorious��tone, and��provides more information in one note than most can convey in an entire performance.

• ��by��Stan Getz

The most moving��third stream or perhaps jazz composition about a woman. The improvisation by Getz is beyond imagination.

• by David��“Fathead”��Newman (performed by Ray Charles)

Fathead is about swing, sound and��storytelling. Jazz and Blues musicians were far ahead of therapists��—��they’ve known for quite a long time that the way to get over sadness is to go through it. Hard Times is a joyous pronouncement of the cathartic process.

A collaboration with the UCF Music Department, Symphony stands as one of the Office of Student Involvement’s longest-standing traditions. Set to the theme of “Spring,” Chung Park, director for Orchestras and String Music Education, treated audience members to classics by Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Verdi and Sleeper. This year’s orchestra included students, Orlando community members, faculty and alumni.

“I am so proud of all the work that went into this incredible event,” said Lucy Sanchez, senior Biomedical Sciences student and CAB Fine Arts director. “Having the opportunity to bring campus and the Orlando community for such a beautiful evening is truly an honor.”

Symphony Under the Stars occurs every year on the third Thursday in April.

The program comprises two pieces, Delibes’ Coppélia Suite and Franck’s Symphony in D-Minor, played without intermission. Dancers from Theatre UCF will join for the first piece. They will perform a movement piece with kites in the Reflecting Pond.

A team of creative directors from the Theatre Department has been working with community professionals, graduate students, alumni, dancers, and designers to create what they call a “Site-Specific Theatrical Event: Chance Choreography with Performance Objects.”

The choreography includes 20 performers including professionals and students who will incorporate dance puppetry and objects in their performance.��Vandy Wood and Julia Listengarten, theatre faculty and members of the creative team, are thrilled to collaborate across the disciplines on many production levels. “We are excited about the opportunity to integrate��a visual performance��in the live symphony concert. This creative process challenged us in many unexpected ways, but, most specifically, in how we develop a shared vocabulary across disciplinary boundaries and between different communities.”

Marosi, director of Instrumental Ensembles, said he��is excited to be partnering with the Theatre Department. “I try to come up with different ideas for the event. And this year, I conducted Theatre’s production of The Music Man, and now they are participating in our event.”

The annual concert occurs outside for two reasons. The first, Marosi said, is lack of an on-campus performance hall big enough to accommodate the symphony and patrons. The second is that “this symphony exists for the community. We provide a break at the end of the semester for all UCF students. The students in the orchestra get to play beautiful music for all of their classmates and friends, and everyone walking by can see, and hear, that UCF has a symphony orchestra.”

“It’s a very challenging program,” says Marosi, “and not all the performers are music majors. There is a wide range of majors represented in the orchestra.”

Guests are invited to bring chairs, blankets, and picnic baskets. In the event of inclement weather, the concert will be held in the Pegasus Ballroom in the Student Union. Parking on the UCF campus will be free for patrons from 7-10 p.m. (Visitors parking in 24-hour reserved spots will be ticketed.)

This event is sponsored by the Campus Activities Board. For more information, contact cabarts@ucf.edu or call 407-823-3294.

Composed by UCF’s Stella Sung, the opera will debut next week at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Sung, director of UCF’s Center for Research and Education in Arts, Technology and Entertainment, has written about 100 compositions, but this is her first opera – and she says it won’t be her last.

“In doing the research, I discovered that I could develop a story – based in historical fact or at least what we know of Marco Polo and Kublai Khan – that would make a good opera plot,” she said. “Dashing world traveler plus a young and beautiful princess gives us the love element, but the thrust of the story has two central themes: one of fate and one of transformation, and this is really where the depth of the story is found.”

The tale follows the Italian merchant on his travels to China, where he meets the Mongolian emperor and his daughter. The project took about nine months to complete with librettist Ernest Hilbert.

The story came about because Sung said she wanted to expound on the Chinese proverb that says “people who are meant to be together will also be connected by an invisible ‘thread’ – a feeling of being connected to those whom we are fated to meet.”

The story line also interested her because her parents are from China. They met at UF and still live in Gainesville.

Sung joined ��AV in 1987 as a visiting instructor in the Music Department. She soon became a full-time professor, teaching music theory, composition, piano, singing and other courses. In 2006, she became a professor of digital media in the , and in 2007 was named to her current post, where she develops multidisciplinary research-driven initiatives.

Drawing from that multidisciplinary background, she used digital technology to create a virtual set with projections.

“Our set has been designed by a local group from Ninjaneer Studios, a small group of former UCF students who graduated from our character-animation program – Joe Rosa, Heather Knott and Chris Brown,” Sung said. “They have worked very diligently to produce some spectacular virtual sets with slight animations, so that the set will feel like a ‘living’ set. The ship scene will have some shimmering water, billowing sails, etcetera. I am incredibly excited to see these projected!”

An ensemble cast of performers from the UF Opera Theatre, directed by Beth Greenberg, will be joined by the UF Symphony Orchestra led by Raymond Chobaz. From UCF, Thomas Potter, an associate professor of voice in the Music Department, will play a lead role of Kublai Khan.

Performances for The Red Silk Thread, which will be sung in English, will be 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 17,��and Saturday, April 19, at Phillips Center on the UF campus.

Tickets range from $25 to $40 and can be purchased from the box office at 352-392-2787.

Playwright Meredith Willson wrote the musical in the 1950s and it depicts his childhood in Iowa. The well-known musical features favorite songs like “Seventy-Six Trombones,” “Goodnight, My Someone,” and “Till There Was You.”

Kate Busselle, a first-year master’s Theatre student and dramaturg for the production, has been researching life in early-20th century Iowa in order to help director Mark Brotherton and the students working on the musical recreate Willson’s world.

Busselle said: “At the time, Iowa was one of the most progressive states of the union and that is well-reflected in the casting of the show. Iowa abolished slavery 39 years before the Emancipation Proclamation. In our production, the mayor and his wife are African-American, which would not have happened in most of America at that time, but could have happened in Iowa.”

This production has a set and costumes, but was scaled back slightly in order to accommodate the 24-piece orchestra on the stage.

“We are extremely excited to present this collaborative production of The Music Man,” said UCF School of Performing Arts director Jeffrey Moore. “This show is a tangible example of the ongoing merger that demonstrates the growing levels of cooperation within the Music and Theatre units. Building on the previous success of our collaboration on 2012’s production of��Ragtime, faculty and students are interacting and interfacing like never before.”

Moore also thinks that joint productions such as this one create benefits for patrons.

“When UCF made the decision to create a School of Performing Arts, we knew that our students would benefit from collaborations between the Music and Theatre departments. In this production of The Music Man, the community also benefits: an orchestra provides a fuller experience for theatre-goers, especially when it is a musical about music. We won’t have quite 76 trombones, but there will be plenty of brass, reeds, and percussion alongside the singers.”

Production at a glance

Meredith Willson’s The Music Man

Book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson

Story by Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey

Directed by Mark Brotherton

8 p.m.: Feb., 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, March 1

2 p.m.: Feb. 23, March 2

Price: Standard $20, Senior $18, Student $10; Group discounts available.

Address: 4000 Central Florida Blvd., Orlando

Box Office Phone: 407- 823-1500

Box Office Hours: Monday through Friday:�� noon to 5 p.m. and 2 hours before performances

Moore��will be responsible for overseeing the music and theatre departments and advancing the development of a new Performing Arts Center on the main Orlando campus. Moore was appointed after a national search.

“Jeff Moore is a visionary leader who brings dedication and a strong sense of mission to the School of Performing Arts,” said Jose B. Fernandez, dean of the College of Arts & Humanities. “His leadership style fosters a sense of stability while also encouraging people to think outside the box.”

Moore is tasked with completing the merger of the two departments into one school, which includes creating a unified governance structure for more than 50 faculty and staff members. His responsibilities also include identifying opportunities for integration and innovation in program delivery and curricular design. He is collaborating with the UCF Foundation to continue to secure the funding for the new performing arts center, which is currently designed to have four performance venues, costume and scenic shops, as well as rehearsal spaces. As a campus arts leader, he is charged with building awareness of the arts and relationships with the ��AV partners and within the UCF and Orlando communities.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to lead the UCF School of Performing Arts. Throughout my career, I have always enjoyed collaborating with faculty, students and our partners,” said Moore. “This new position affords me the ability to expand on those activities while continuing to enhance our presence in the community and beyond. When you add the construction of Phase II of the UCF Performing Arts Center to this environment, it is a very exciting time for the performing arts at UCF.”

Moore received his master of music performance degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds a bachelor of music from the University of North Texas. He joined the UCF music faculty in 1994 where he taught and served as percussion coordinator. Active in all facets of percussion, he is an international lecturer, clinician and soloist. He is a contributing author to the third edition of Teaching Percussion and has published more than 30 arrangements and compositions including a method book and CD package.

Involved in national and international societies, he served as an associate editor of Percussive Notes, the Percussive Arts Society’s scholarly journal. and was recently elected to the board of directors of that organization. A recognized expert in marching percussion, Moore has served as the percussion director of the internationally acclaimed Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps, and as program consultant/percussion arranger with several European, Japanese, Thai and Indonesian drum corps and bands. He serves as a consultant and artist endorser with several companies including Yamaha and has designed signature products with Pro-Mark.

The department developed a two-part strategy that includes social networking tools and an announcement on the Music website. Information provided on the website form goes into a database monitored by the department, while the Facebook group functions as a way for current and former students and faculty to connect directly with each other.

“The department felt we were losing touch with our alumni, so we created a way to reconnect and find out what they’re doing, where they are and how they are,” said Dave Schreier, UCF’s assistant director of bands.

Schreier is spearheading the effort along with Department Chair Jeff Moore. Since it launched less than a month ago, the Facebook group has gathered more than 200 members. The online form has gotten responses from more than 100 alumni as recent as this year’s graduating class and as far back as alums from 1986.

Music alumni who responded to the outreach have ended up in a variety of music-based careers, from becoming educators at the elementary, secondary and collegiate levels to performing in symphonies around the world. One alumnus who responded is a currently a freelance composer and musician in California and has performed on Dancing with the Stars, as well as several award shows.

Schreier, who earned his bachelor’s degree in music education and his master’s in music conducting from UCF, believes�� giving former students the opportunity to connect is a great way to showcase the successes of the Music Department and provide new opportunities for current students.

“We have a lot of alumni in the area who are still involved in music education. We want them to know what’s going on so they can share it with their students and attend events themselves,” he said. “We also have a lot of alumni that take interns from UCF. And if some of them are looking for jobs, we usually get phone calls about that, so we can help them be aware of what’s out there.”

To learn more about the Music Department, visit .

The horn section of the Tower of Power, the high-energy funk and soul band that has performed together more than four decades, will present a free clinic April 11 at the ��AV for anyone that would like to attend.

John Almeida, associate professor of trumpet studies, scheduled the clinic while the band is in Orlando for a concert. The Orlando stop is the group’s first performance back in the United States after a three-week tour in Europe, playing to fans from Amsterdam to Zurich, and other stops in between.

“Tower of Power has been playing and touring for 43 years. They are the soul band – they wrote the book,” Almeida said.

Trumpet player Adolfo Acosta said the horn section likes to stop while on tour and present clinics to aspiring musicians.

“We talk about our personal musical backgrounds as well as answer questions from those attending the clinic,” Acosta said in e-mail from Italy. “Those who attend the clinic can expect to hear many horn section excerpts from the band’s repertoire.”

Others in the Tower of Power horn section are: Emilio Castillo, tenor sax; Stephen “Doc” Kupka, baritone sax; Tom Politzer,�� tenor sax, and Sal Cracchiolo, trumpet. Along with Castillo and Kupka, original band members are bassist Rocco Prestia, and drummer Dave Garibaldi.

The visit by Acosta will be a reunion of sorts with UCF’s Jeff Rupert, director of jazz studies in the Music Department, who used to tour with Acosta when they played in Maynard Ferguson’s jazz band in the late ‘90s.

“I was in the band eight years and remember the day he [Acosta] came in,” Rupert said. “We made a live recording that night, and he was great.”

Almeida said part of the clinic will be about the band members’ views on playing together as an ensemble, which is one of their trademarks.

“The sound that this five-man horn section makes is easily recognized by their tight harmony and hard-driving style of playing. No other horn section sounds like them, he said. “Their presence and their playing should really inspire our music students to work towards attaining perfection as musicians. These guys are great examples of that.”

The clinic will be 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. April 11 in Studio 1 of the Theater Building. The visit is made possible in part by grants from Yamaha Band and Orchestral Instruments, Gerry Lopez Music, and the Horn Section.

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