Every Sunday afternoon, the Spreckels Organ Society of San Diego hosts a free concert at the Organ Pavilion located in Balboa Park. The Society has used the concerts as fundraisers for various charities in the past. Currently they are raising funds to support humanitarian relief for Ukraine.
Beginning on Sunday, March 13, San Diego Civic Organist Raúl Prieto Ramírez has decided that he will begin each concert with the National Anthem of Ukraine until the crisis in Ukraine ends. He also dresses in the colors of the Ukrainian flag to show support.
“I think what I can offer, and because I worry and I care about my people here, San Diegans, and all my people here in this country, is to keep playing this national anthem to remind people of what is going on because news cycles may need to move to something else in the future, but this conflict seems it’s gonna go for quite a long time,” Prieto Ramírez said to KUSI News Photojournalist David Pradel.
On March 19 the Spreckels Organ Society held “A Music Tribute to Peace, Dignity & Democracy,” a benefit concert for Ukrainian refugees which was supported by the San Diego Diplomacy Council. Approximately 1,400 people attended the event. Prieto Ramírez told CBS 8 San Diego, “We decided to focus on dignity, on peace and democracy.”
The benefit featured several guest artists, as well as Prieto Ramírez on the organ. There were several singers, including Ukrainian Soprano Anna Belaya and Soprano Laynee Dell Woodward, Mezzo-Soprano Sarah-Nicole Carter and Baritone Michael Sokol. After a brief intermission, the Organ Pavilion Rock Band performed classic rock songs from The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and AC/DC.
All donations received at the benefit concert are given to Operation USA for humanitarian relief for Ukraine. The event organizers were hoping to raise $5,000. They raised more than $14,500, and they continue to accept donations. The Spreckels Organ Society has raised more than $15,800 as of April 13.
Several of the benefit attendees were wearing shirts they had gotten at the House of Ukraine, also located in Balboa Park, which featured the Ukrainian flag and the words, “I stand with Ukraine.” There were even a few Ukrainian flags being waved in the audience.
In his statement to announce the concert, Prieto Ramírez said, “This concert is a call for peace with no political affiliation. We see the current events as an opportunity to call for human dignity and peace. When JD Spreckels donated the organ to the City of San Diego, it was meant to be not just an entertainment tool, but a tool to feed every human soul with deeper and more delicate emotions to grow our human values.”
According to the website created for the Spreckels Ukraine campaign, all donations to this campaign will be fully allocated to Ukrainian relief. “Operation USA is currently responding to the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis with emergency cash grants to community-based partners in Poland and nearby countries, and is working to coordinate the delivery of in-kind material aid in the months ahead.”
Their website also explains the first phase of Operation USA’s plan to allocate the money received: “OpUSA has committed 40% of total funds raised (approximately $295,000 as of March 25th) to the urgent response phase. These funds will be quickly disbursed to community-based partners directly supporting refugees at this time. Emergency grants will allow these partners to increase capacity, meet additional needs and provide necessary support to displaced Ukrainians.”
All over the world, countries are showing their support for Ukraine. One of the most common forms of support is through music. “I believe music is music. It really doesn’t matter. Any music just brings the best of human beings. It brings out emotions. It’s communication without words,” Prieto Ramírez said in his CBS 8 San Diego interview.
Concerts staged for philanthropic purposes have been around since 1749, when composer George Frideric Handel wrote his “Foundling Hospital Anthem,” and put on annual performances of “Messiah” to support a charity for orphans in London. Other composers and performers participated in concerts to raise funds for charitable causes, but it was also common to see musicians in the 18th and 19th centuries staging performances to raise funds for their own work. Ludwig van Beethoven’s 1808 “Akademie” concert is a prime example of this.
Nowadays, the commonly understood definition of a benefit concert is a large-scale event intended to support either a charitable or political cause. The first benefit of the modern era is believed to be the Concert for Bangladesh, two events held at Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1971 organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar. But the most common modern benefit concert format is modelled on Bob Geldof’s Live Aid event in 1985.
The national anthem of Ukraine’s official name is “Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy i slava, i volia,” which translates to “The glory and freedom of Ukraine has not yet perished.” The lyrics were written as a poem by Ukrainian poet Pavlo Chubynsky in 1862. Inspired by the poem, composer Mykhailo Verbytsky set it to music. The first choral performance of the piece was in 1864. On January 15, 1992, “Ukraine has not yet perished” was adopted by Ukraine’s parliament as the national anthem, but the lyrics were not officially adopted until March 6, 2003, when a change was made to the first stanza.
Even now, more than a month after the benefit, Prieto Ramírez continues to play the Ukrainian national anthem and wear the colors of Ukraine. “Every Sunday I’m starting with the National Anthem of Ukraine because of the nation and her people and what that means for the free world.”
At the concert April 24, their Earth Day celebration, Ukrainian soprano Belaya performed again. Members of the audience stood during the song and Belaya had her hand over her heart as she sang.
Before singing the national anthem, Belaya said, “I also want to add that today is Easter for our Orthodox brothers and sisters. On this special day I’m going to ask God only for one thing: to resurrect Ukraine from ruins, to save my nation from suffering and pain, to help us fight Russian invaders and to grant us peace.”
After the Ukrainian National Anthem was another Ukrainian song (listed only as “Ukrainian Song” in the program), which Belaya explained was written for a birthday of Kyiv. She said that it is a very important song to Ukrainians.
And following the two Ukrainian songs, Belaya left the stage while Prieto Ramírez explained what was next on the program: Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
