SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane Symphony concert attendees immediately rose to their feet when conductor James Lowe announced the orchestra would be playing the Ukrainian National Anthem.
Conductor Lowe said he discussed playing the anthem with orchestra members and concert sponsors. He said everyone agreed to the idea.
The tribute was a surprise for concert goers. Originally, the concert was set to open with the first notes ever played by the symphony in 1945.
Lowe said the first night the symphony played the anthem, audience members stood, clapped, cheered and cried.
"Music, I think, reminds us of the best of humanity and at times like this, I think we really need to be reminded that we are, as a species, creative and beautiful and that we are a community," Spokane Symphony conductor James Lowe said.
Before playing the anthem, Lowe shared with the audience a quote from legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein who once said, “This is our reply to violence—to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than before.”
Lowe said this quote speaks to the duality of the human race.
"The Bernstein quote tells us that the best of humanity has to respond to the worst of humanity," Lowe said. "The same species that creates war and chaos is also the same species that creates great art, community and love."