Opera singer Emiliia Mitskevych: My responsibility is to achieve the place for Ukrainian classical music on the European stage

Emilia Mitskevych is a young Ukrainian opera singer who since the start of the full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine has been actively involved in charity events dedicated to helping Ukraine and is building her musical career in Germany. At the end of June, Emilia took a part in the premiere of the Pierrot Lunaire Mondsüchtig project. She performed four works from this musical cycle. Three of them are original from the cycle and one by the composer Julia Janiak – "Mondestrunken". Emilia told Drive Music Media about the difficult path of integration into German society, continuing her musical career, premiere of the project and helping Ukraine in such difficult times.

Interviewer: The first question always remains the same for us. Tell us, what started your passion for music? Let's remember the times when you took your first steps in this field.

Emilia: I have been playing music since I was 4 years old. At the age of 5, I first recorded a song at a children's creativity center. There was a small studio. At the same time, I started playing the violin. I enjoyed the music school so much that I graduated first with violin, then with vocals, and studied guitar for another year. For several years I sang in the Big Children's Choir of the National Radio Company of Ukraine. My parents are also musicians, my mother is a bandura player, and my father is a drummer. They often took me with them to work in the orchestra and theater, to performances in the Philharmonic and various concerts. I have lived in this atmosphere since childhood and realized that I want to continue playing music.

Interviewer: You are currently studying at Hochschule in Hanover. Tell us about the time when you were still in Ukraine and how the events in your creative path developed after such a stormy musical childhood? Where did you study in Ukraine?

Emilia: When I finished school I was only 17 and I was too young to enter the Musical Academy and my voice needed time to develop. My parents insisted that I enroll somewhere and at the same time study vocals and prepared for admission to the Music Academy. That is why I entered the Kyiv Polytechnic University as a technical interpreter of the German language. I studied German at school. It was difficult to combine university courses and vocals so I had to stop studying music. After graduating from the university, I got a job and started preparing for admission to the Music Academy in my free time. I was accepted to the second year of National Academy of Culture and Arts Management.

Interviewer: Full-scale war caught us all on February 24. How has your life changed since that date? How did you enter the Music Academy in Germany?

Emilia: The full-scale invasion began at the end of my fourth year of study and my mother and sister and I decided to evacuate to another country. We did not plan to end up in Germany, we acted instinctively at the time. The fact that I already knew German helped us. We came here in March and in order to cope with the stress and uncertainty, I started writing to all the higher music education institutions in Poland and Germany with a request to continue my studies. Our Ukrainian academy stopped working, no one knew what would happen next. I received a response from Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover and they offered an online meeting. There was a professor who decided to accept me in her class. Her name is Gudrun Pelker. Then, in a few months, I passed the entrance exam and was enrolled as an ordinary student. Also, I had to change "Fach" – I went from soprano to mezzo-soprano. I had to build my repertoire anew. It was really very difficult time: a new country, a different language and culture, war, loneliness, a lot of new material and activities. Also, due to some bureaucratic issues, I had no means of livelihood and housing. Now everything is more or less settled.

Interviewer: Tell us more about the project Pierrot Lunaire Mondsüchtig. When did you start working on it and what is its special feature?

Emilia: We started working on it last October. It was a new experience for many people from our course. There were not many of us who performed modern music before that, especially atonal music. At first we discussed the works from the cycle, tried to understand the meaning or give our own, we tried to understand what Sprechgesang is – the way in which this cycle should be performed. In April we had a trip to Vienna, where we studied with Claudia Barainsky (ed. – a famous Geman opera singer)  and attended various performances by contemporary composers to get to know more about modern music. At the same time, we went to performances in Hanover and nearby. Then we already had musical and stage rehearsals led directed by Mascha Pörzgen and conductor – Martin Brauß. We invited a team of costume designers (Veera Failla, Martine Mairhofer) and people who worked on the concept of stage design (Antonia Scheffka-Rakitina, Kim Surkus). At the end of May and the beginning of June, we had stage rehearsals with the ensemble and finally played our premiere on June 30.

Interviewer: Premiere. How did you feel, being on stage and presenting what you have been preparing for so long?

Emilia: Everyone was waiting because for many of us modern, and even more so, atonal music is something new. We couldn't imagine what the audience's reaction would be. Composers whose works we performed were also sitting in the hall. This cycle is full of allusions, symbolism, double sessions and there is no clear storyline, you don't fully understand whether it is reality or just what is happening in Pierrot‘s head. Our director and we tried to connect the works together. I was determined. We practiced a lot because atonal music is very difficult to perform, especially by heart. But I was sure that everything would work out and the main thing for me was to convey the emotion to the audience. My first two works opened the cycle, when I went on stage, I noticed that the audience was watching very intently and it was clear from their faces that they were trying to understand what was happening and what was going to happen next. It is a very interesting feeling when a hundred eyes are looking directly at you and you seem to be having a dialogue with many people at the same time. You try to appeal to everyone and everyone at the same time. at the same time, I tried not to look at someone for too long, because when you talk to someone – you exchange energy. When you are on stage and there are spectators  this energy is many times more powerful, and if you look into someone's eyes at the same time – then it can be too much and you can lose concentration. I wanted people to be interested. I wanted them to get emotions. This is the main reason why I chose the stage. After the premiere, everyone left with surprised eyes and smiles on their lips. I'm not sure that everyone understood what they saw, but at least they got an emotion and will be able to reflect everything later.

Interviewer: In addition to studying in Hanover and performing on stage, you also actively participated in charity concerts. What was this experience like for you?

Emilia: When my mother and I evacuated, we ended up in a small town. An old friend of my mother has been living there for a long time, he put us up with his friends – a family that makes harps and are musicians. The town is small, everyone knows each other, so everyone was shocked and wanted to help, and organized a charity concert in the Lutheran church. And when they found out that my mother and I were singing, they invited us to participate.Then we performed several times in Lutheran churches with the choir, where we also collected donations. Also, at every exam or performance, I try to include a Ukrainian aria or romance in the program if I have possibilities – it is very important for me to popularize Ukrainian music, because unfortunately, for many people only Russian music exists here. Also as Ukrainian, after 24th of February 2022 I don’t perform works in Russian language or by Russian composers. I think that if I don't perform Ukrainian music abroad and show it to people, then who will do it and how will people learn about how good it is?

Photos courtesy of HMTMH/Nico Herzog