Church raises £4,500 in one night for Ukraine

The committee of the festival wanted to do something to support Ukraine, and to raise money for humanitarian work in the country.  

Roman Lopatynskyi, who lives in Kyiv in Ukraine, was invited by Nicholas Walker, the musical Director, as he had seen Roman play in an international piano competition in Israel. Roman applied for his visa seven weeks before, and it came through with only 48 hours to spare! 

On the night, the church was full and the atmosphere was quite emotional with a large contingent of Ukrainian refugees, the youngest being only a year old. 

Roman played brilliantly and especially wowed the audience with his interpretation of Bach-Brahms Chaconne for left hand. He then talked to the audience in perfect English and Ukrainian. It was his first visit to the UK and he was going back to Ukraine three days later having been playing a series of charity concerts throughout Europe to help raise money, and to keep Ukraine on the front pages of newspapers. 

 The evening raised an unbelievable £4,500 for ACNUK.ORG - a church charity helping to feed and house those in Ukraine who have lost everything.