Inventions of Hope: Fundraiser for Ukrainian Music and Medicine

A collaboration between composer Anna Pidgorna, pianist Anna Sagalova and the Holy Eucharist Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, Inventions of Hope is your chance to take part in the creation process while raising money for the medical needs of Ukrainian defenders.

Anna Pidgorna will compose a collection of little piano pieces – inventions – for Anna Sagalova inspired by folk music from regions of Ukraine temporarily occupied by russian forces. Your donations will get your name into the musical manuscript and help us keep Ukrainian defenders alive.

On October 5 you'll be the first to hear the beginning of Anna Pidgorna’s new composition and have a chance to contribute to our fundraising. The complete Inventions of Hope project will be presented in February 2025 along with beloved inventions by J.S. Bach and contemporary inventions by Ukrainian composer Volodymyr Ptushkin and Canadian composer David Jaeger.

We have received 50% of the commissioning funds from the SOCAN Foundation to fund Anna Pidgorna's composition fee. We are raising matching funds of $2200 to satisfy the requirements of this grant. Anna Pidgorna will donate these matching funds towards the purchase of emergency medical supplies for Ukrainian defenders. So, everything we raise at the concert after expenses will go towards purchasing medical supplies.

We have also received generous support from the Shevchenko Foundation to present the complete Inventions of Hope project in a concert in February 2025.

Get a ticket to the concert and if you choose to be identified, your name will be included in the list of donors who commissioned the work in the published musical score. You will be remembered as a patron of the arts.

In addition to the Supporter benefits, enjoy a glass of wine and snacks at the post-concert reception where you can interact with the musicians and view artwork by Ukrainian artists.

In addition to the Connoisseur benefits, you will receive a signed copy of the complete musical score when we premiere the entire piece in February 2025.

In addition to the Music Lover benefits, you'll get your name next to one of the pieces in the collection as its commissioner and influence the composition. Choose an occupied region of Ukraine that is particularly dear to you and Anna Pidgorna will work with a folk melody from that region in her original composition. Choose a person or group to whom you want to dedicate the work. The piece will have a dedication like this under the title: “Dedicated to [name] with generous support by [name] with inspiration from [region].”

All donations will receive a tax receipt from the Holy Eucharist Cathedral.

Anna Sagalova is a renowned Ukrainian pianist and Honoured Artist of Ukraine. She completed her Master and Doctor of Arts degrees in Kharkiv I.P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts (Ukraine) and also a postgraduate course in the University of Music Franz Liszt in Weimar (Germany). Anna is an internationally recognized artist and a laureate of many musical competitions in Italy, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Canada and Germany. She frequently plays as a soloist with symphony orchestras throughout Ukraine with conductors from Ukraine, USA, Switzerland, Great Britain, Austria, etc. She has participated in a number of festivals, including the Days of Ukrainian Culture festival in Poznan (Poland), Music festivals in Vigo (Spain), Trier (Germany), the International Music Festival in Lubostron (Poland), the International festival of chamber music in Shanghai (China), Kiev-Music-Fest (Ukraine), and Kharkiv Assemblies (Ukraine). Her performances have been broadcast on radio and television. She has recorded two compact discs. Since arriving in Canada in the summer of 2022, she has given numerous fundraising concerts in Vancouver, Ladner, Surrey, Toronto, Halifax, Moncton, Parksville, and Nanaimo. Her aim is to support Ukraine and to popularize Ukrainian classical music.

Hear Anna Sagalova play.

Anna Pidgorna is a Ukrainian-Canadian composer, vocalist and multi-media artist who combines sound, visual arts, video, theatre and writing in her work. She works extensively with opera and voice, draws inspiration from Ukrainian folk singing and the natural soundscape, and incorporates visual elements into some of her manuscripts. She travelled through rural Ukraine to record local singing practices in 2012 and 2013, this research culminating in numerous instrumental and vocal works. Along with writer Maria Reva, Pidgorna holds a Canada Council for the Arts grant to conduct research in Ukraine during the war. The duo are recipients of the Mécénat Musica Prix 3 Femmes 2020 Award, and have written two operas together: “Our Trudy”, commissioned and premiered by the Ad Astra Festival in Russell, Kansas in 2021, and “Plaything”, developed by Musique 3 Femmes and premiered at UfaFabrik in Berlin in 2022. Pidgorna holds a PhD from Princeton University.

Learn more about Anna Pidgorna and her music.

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