The weekend of February 24th 2023, sees the anniversary of the war in Ukraine, and Edinburgh will host events to show its solidarity. These will culminate on February 26th at the Usher Hall with a special, one-night-only event, a tribute concert produced by Matthew Zajac and AUGB (Associations of Ukrainians in Great Britain) Edinburgh with support from Usher Hall and Edinburgh City Council called SALUTE UKRAINE!
The show’s ticket price is low. This is not a fundraiser, but a coming together of many hundreds of displaced Ukrainians along with Scots.
SALUTE UKRAINE! will feature video messages from the frontline and from displaced Ukrainians currently living in Scotland alongside a programme of music and poetry from Ukrainian and Scottish artists. It follows the highly successful fundraiser, WITH LOVE TO UKRAINE, which played to a packed Eden Court Theatre in Inverness in November:
Confirmed artists for SALUTE UKRAINE! include:
Lau – 4-time BBC Radio 2 Folk Band of the Year Winners
Karine Polwart – BAFTA Nominated singer/songwriter and Five-times winner at The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards
Elzara Batalova – Crimean singer with her band – Andy Thorburn, Aidan O’rourke, Robin Abbot, Jonny Hardie, Derek Urquhart
Kathleen Jamie – Scotland’s Makar
Oksana Mavrodii – Ukrainian Opera star
James Robertson – with Aidan O’Rourke & Jonny Hardie – 365 – One of Scotland’s greatest living novelists, two of Scotland’s great folk musicians
Toma Butko – Ukrainian Indy singer-songwriter
Jim Mackintosh – the Perthshire Bard
Ross Ainslie – Scottish Piper
Su-A Lee & Hamish Napier – Cello & flute/keyboard duo
Iona Zajac – Rising indy-folk star
Edinburgh Ukrainian Choir
SALUTE UKRAINE! is hosted by Tanya Balanova and actor Matthew Zajac (The Tailor of Inverness).
Further names of participating artists will be released in the coming weeks.
Venue: Usher Hall, Edinburgh
Date: Sunday 26 February 2023
Time: 7.00pm
Tickets: £10
Running time: 140 minutes
Box Office: 0131 228 1155 www.usherhall.co.uk
Irene Brown
Radio Summerhall Arts 