Ensemble Cherubim Brings Ukraine's Winter Carols to Boston to Benefit Children's Medical Care

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Amanda Sweet, Bucklesweet | amanda@bucklesweet.com

Ensemble Cherubim Brings Ukraine's Winter Carols to Boston to Benefit Children's Medical Care

Ensemble Cherubim, with soprano Dominique Labelle and violinist Daniel Stepner, performs a January 7 benefit concert in Boston for children's medical care in Ukraine

BOSTON, MA (October 20, 2026) – Ensemble Cherubim, the acclaimed professional chamber chorus dedicated to Ukrainian choral music, presents Carols of Birds, Bells, and Peace from Ukraine on Thursday, January 7, 2027, at 7:30 PM at St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Church (12 Belvidere Street, Boston). Artistic director Marika Kuzma conducts, with soprano Dominique Labelle and violinist Daniel Stepner as guest artists. The benefit concert will donate every dollar of ticket sales and additional gifts to Doctors United for Ukraine (DU4U), supporting pediatric training and care at the Okhmatdyt maternity and children's hospital in Lviv.

Ukraine has thousands of winter carols. A country known across centuries for its plentiful harvests of grain, it is equally bountiful in song. Its Christmas carols express joy and wonder at the Nativity, and its New Year's carols give thanks for all Creation: birds of many feathers, fields, land and sky, and bells that ring.

The program unfolds across the full range of the holiday season's repertoire, from early chant to carol fantasies by contemporary composers, with spoken poetry between the pieces. Ensemble Cherubim will sing carols and lullabies in Ukrainian, Yiddish, and English in the resonant acoustic of St. Cecilia Church. Supertitles will provide translations. Together with the music, projected images will immerse the audience in this rich culture.

Mary and Adrian Pryshlak and Daria Pryshlak are sponsoring the benefit concert in memory of their parents, Peter and Stephanie who were avid choral singers and supporters of Ukraine. DU4U, a humanitarian nonprofit, has delivered precision medical aid and training to Ukrainian doctors since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.

According to Dr. Bruce Rubin of DU4U, a distinguished pulmonologist and leader in pediatric education who has visited Ukraine several times, one of its greatest and least visible medical needs in the country is support for the pediatricians who are caring for children during the current war. Writing about his recent visit to Lviv, Rubin reported: “I consulted on more than 50 patients at the University Clinic and at the Lviv Okhmatdyt and spent a day in the OR with a pediatric pulmonologist I have been mentoring, as we performed flexible bronchoscopies with newly donated equipment. We also consulted with hospital administration about starting a pediatric home ventilator program, the first in Western Ukraine.”

Touring the facilities, Rubin found moldy walls, cracked floors, dysfunctional plumbing, and a “simulation center” with mostly broken manikins and equipment held together with tape, rubber bands, and glue. Even so, the students and mentors show enthusiasm and an indomitable resolve to serve the children in their care as best they can.

Artistic Director Marika Kuzma has visited Lviv many times, the city where her own mother grew up, and recently traveled to Kyiv.

“During an air raid evacuation, I saw a mother holding her baby,” Kuzma recalls. “The baby's huge eyes were looking at me, and I asked the mother her name: Vira, which in Ukrainian means faith. As a musician, I can't invent a drone or fight on the front lines, but I can create a beautiful concert and raise funds so that these innocent, vulnerable children can have a bright future.”

Ensemble Cherubim offers a second benefit concert on Saturday, January 9, 2027, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, supporting the Olena Zelenska Foundation.  Both are vibrant concerts for a vital cause.

Kuzma, a Ukrainian-American conductor, has drawn praise from critics who have called her work with choirs “first-rate” (New York Times), “exceptionnel” (Le Devoir, Montreal), and “stirring and spectacular” (San Francisco Classical Voice). Ensemble Cherubim's singers, among the most coveted choral artists in America, come from diverse backgrounds and share a common passion for Ukraine's language, poetry, and music. Its concerts have earned standing ovations coast to coast, and its recordings on prestigious labels have reached more than a million listeners.

Concert Details

Thursday, January 7, 2027, 7:30 PM

St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Church, 12 Belvidere Street, Boston, MA

Tickets and information: ensemblecherubim.org/events

Ensemble Cherubim: Carols of Birds, Bells, and Peace

Marika Kuzma, conductor, with soprano Dominique Labelle and violinist Daniel Stepner

Benefit for Doctors United for Ukraine, supporting pediatric care at Okhmatdyt hospital in Lviv

About Ensemble Cherubim

Ensemble Cherubim is a professional chamber choir of artists from across the United States. It aims to bridge Ukrainian culture with global audiences through choral music and innovative performance, introducing audiences to treasures long hidden from the international sphere. Its singers, of diverse ethnicities and backgrounds, share a deep interest in Ukrainian culture.

The ensemble's 2013 Naxos recording, Bortniansky, I cried out to the Lord: Hymns and Choral Concertos, has reached more than a million listeners worldwide through CD and streaming. Voix des arts wrote, “With performances of this quality... the music of Bortniansky seems poised for rediscovery.” Its new album, Carols of Birds, Bells, and Peace from Ukraine, released in August 2026, is available on major digital platforms.

Ensemble Cherubim has performed at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York, Berkeley Festival and Exhibition, New Haven Festival of Arts and Ideas, and Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, DC, and most recently for Cal Performances at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, CA, and at St. John's Episcopal Cathedral in Los Angeles. Large, diverse audiences have welcomed these performances, which have illuminated and reframed perceptions of Ukrainian culture.

About Marika Kuzma

Artistic director Marika Kuzma was born in the United States to Ukrainian parents and draws equally on the music of her ancestors and on international repertoire. She has conducted works as diverse as the Monteverdi Vespers, Bach's B minor Mass, Britten's War Requiem, and Reich's Tehillim, along with premieres of new works. As a chorusmaster, she has worked alongside Gustavo Dudamel, Nicholas McGegan, Kent Nagano, and Keri-Lynn Wilson at prestigious venues and in landmark concerts. Her research on Ukrainian and international composers has been widely published. Critics have called her work with choirs “first-rate” (New York Times), “exceptionnel” (Le Devoir, Montreal), “stirring and spectacular” (San Francisco Classical Voice), and “leaving no musical marvel unexplored” (San Francisco Examiner).

###