Marika Kuzma ’77 says she cannot build a drone, fight on the front lines in Ukraine in its war with Russia, or lobby Congress, but what she can do is “give witness to this culture and raise funds for those most vulnerable during this time — the children — so that they might have a brighter future.” 

Marika, who in early 2027 will lead benefit concerts for Ukraine in New York and Boston, recently came back from the country, where she attended a conference on the Ukrainian History Global Initiative. That project, led by Yale historian Timothy Snyder (pictured with Marika), works to put Ukrainian history in a global context. In January Mr. Snyder asked Marika to write a piece about Ukraine’s music history for the project and join the conference in Ukraine. She grew up in Hartford, Conn., in a community of Ukrainian-Americans.  

“Scholars from all over assembled in Kyiv,” Marika says. “Discussions were interspersed with air raid alerts. The trip was scary, exhausting, fascinating, inspiring all at once.”  

Mr. Snyder found out about Marika, a professional conductor, in 2024 after she published a book on Ukrainian carols, Carols of Birds, Bells, and Sacred Hymns from Ukraine. “Through friends it caught Snyder's eyes,” Marika says.  

She said she was reluctant at first to travel to Ukraine “given the reports of constant bombing ... I was scared and at first declined. Then it hit me: music won't be part of the conversation unless you're in the room.” 

She left on September 10, flying from the U.S. to Warsaw in Poland, then took a train to Kyiv in Ukraine. 

She had not been in Ukraine since 2016, before the war started. “Before flying, I was afraid that I would see Kyiv in shambles,” Marika says. “En route, the overnight train from Warsaw stopped for nine hours before the Polish-Ukrainian border. Though I could have slept, I couldn't. A delay like that meant that there was trouble ahead. When we finally reached the border, my fellow international scholars and I learned that a gas station had been hit by a drone.”  

The same day that Marika was traveling on those train tracks, so too was former U.S. Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the opposite direction. It was widely reported that a Russian drone hit a train near the border shortly after Mr. Johnson had passed through.  

And, at one point during her trip, the train Marika was on was evacuated for a drone threat. 

“The war became instantly clear,” she said. “As the Canadian journalist and American scholar in my car commented: maybe we should have thought twice.” 

Marika said everyone was “exhausted and fried” when they arrived, but those feelings were made better by what she heard and saw. “A familiar Ukrainian song was playing on the PA system to welcome us,” she said. “When I walked out of the station, I saw Kyiv fully functioning, vibrant, beautiful. And I cried in relief.” 

She said she was struck by how calm everyone around her was as they have become accustomed to life in war times. “Our discussion sessions at the hotel were often punctuated by air raid alerts through an app on our cell phones,” she said. “The Ukrainians shrugged: ‘It's just a yellow alert. No worries.’ When the threat was lifted, the voice on the app would say ‘Shelter alert lifted. May the force be with you.’ During one discussion, I heard loud booms. My Canadian journalist friend and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows, and the Ukrainian scholars informed us, ‘That's just our artillery shooting down missiles. All good.’"  

For several years Marika has been leading various concerts for Ukraine, including the two scheduled for early 2027. 

Ensemble Cherubim, a chamber choir of artists that she directs, will perform concerts of traditional Ukrainian winter carols in Boston at St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Church on January 7, 2027, at 7:30 p.m.; and in New York at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on January 9, 2027, at 7 p.m. More information is available here. 

“The music is glorious and our cause is vital,” Marika says. 

The Boston concert will raise funds for Doctors United for Ukraine, which works toward the health and well-being of Ukrainians; and pediatric care at the Lviv Okhmatdyt, a regional children’s hospital. The New York concert will raise funds for the Olena Zelenska Foundation and its safe school program, which builds shelters in elementary schools so that children can keep learning even during times of alerts and stay warm in the winter if power sources are attacked. 

Ensemble Cherubim, a chamber choir of artists directed by Marika, released the album Carols of Birds, Bells, and Peace from Ukraine, in August.