‘Everyone wants Ukraine to win and is determined to fight until the end whatever is their battlefield’

Even four months after the invasion of Ukraine started, unfortunately the war in Ukraine continues with news of new attacks and millions of people still seeking refuge coming daily, among which a lot of them are performers and CMO community. Now, on occasion of the World Refugee Day marked on 20th of June, we spoke with our Ukranian colleague Natalia Teslia, who told us few months ago about her experience of escaping the war and finding refuge in Poland with the help of the CMO community. But the help didn’t stop there – Natalia is now a proud employee of our member SAWP, working in the international department and continuing to help Ukrainian performers through her work.

It was not easy for Natalia to leave her country, but it was a necessity to keep safe and, since coming to Poland beginning of March, she adapted very well. ‘It was easy and difficult at the same time.’ she says, adding that her colleague Anna Błeszyńska-Drewicz from the Polish CMO was of great help not only with accommodation but also with administrative procedures of getting the documents. ‘No one was ready for this. There were a lot of Ukrainians, and the procedures took time.’ However, the adaptation to Poland went well as, in her own words ‘Poland is mentally very close to Ukraine.‘ though, despite the similarities between the two languages, it still poses a bit of a problem sometimes, which is why she is learning Polish.

To her delight, end of March, SAWP offered Natalia to reinforce their team. ‘I was very happy to accept it and now I work with the international distribution department.’ she says adding proudly that she also arranged the signing of the agreement between SAWP and Ukrainian CMO, Ukrainian Music Alliance (UMA) who collects for broadcasting. ‘Following the events, a lot of Ukrainian music is now broadcasted in Poland. A separate radio station with Ukrainian music has even been launched. With this new agreement, SAWP is entitled to collect remuneration from broadcasters for Ukrainian music.’ Natalia explains adding an incredible story about the CEO of UMA who read and signed the agreement while fighting near Kharkiv in the Ukrainian army.

And though those are positive news, Natalia says that a lot of things changed from March and there is a big difference in the general sentiment. ‘In March there was a hope for a quick victory and now everyone knows someone who died in the war and this changes the attitude totally. In the circle of my friends, it was for example the news of the death of Roman Solonynka, a very talented photographer and dancer.’

But despite the horrible news coming daily and new refugees arriving from cities of Kharkiv, Kherson and other areas under attack, Ukrainian people keep up their spirit. Ukrainian performers are still very active in helping their country in any way they can, mostly through fundraising and now, sometimes it is done through touring of Ukrainian bands abroad and distributing a part of the profit to the army. ‘Our government started issuing short-term permissions to leave the country for men when they have purpose to tour abroad.’ says Natalia.

One of those bands is also Boombox, who have a concert in Warsaw on 26th of August, Natalia’s birthday. She very much looks forward to it, however, her biggest wish is for her birthday plans to change – that Ukraine wins the war by then and she celebrates her birthday at home. We wish her the same.

With Poland being one of the main countries where Ukrainian refugees found their safety running away from the war, our Polish members STOART and SAWP decided to help – free music workshops for Ukrainian children are bringing smiles on the faces of the little musicians.

In the initiative to ensure Ukrainian refugee children can continue to practice music, STOART and SAWP organized free music workshops. The workshops, which started about a week ago, are being held at the STOART premises and will continue for about two months.

Currently there are twenty children enrolled in the workshops learning piano, violin, drums as well as having vocal lessons. ‘We have keyboards for practice but soon we will have a real piano as well.’ says Agnieszka Parzuchowska, one of the initiators of the project adding that many of the children as well as the music teachers, in the most difficult times when they were forced to leave their homes in Ukraine, took their instruments with them. 

 

‘Just the other day, a 10-year old girl from Lviv had a violin lesson.’

 

Besides being able to practice their instruments, the children feel very comforted by the fact that they are being taught by Ukrainian teachers in their native language. And while the classes for children are free, the teacher are of course paid for their work, making these lessons even more valuable for the Ukrainian refugees.

Happy to see that the workshops bring so much joy to everyone, the organisers plan to buy and borrow some additional instruments in the future like tsymbaly (cymbal), an instrument traditionally played in Ukraine that several children expressed a wish to learn to play. Seeing the classes are a success, for the future workshops there are additional ideas like including group music therapy lessons in order to help even more in overcoming this difficult situation.

Applications for the workshops are still open, and children can get enrolled here.

It has been over a month since the invasion of Ukraine started, leaving the world shaken and in disbelief, changing it forever. Over ten million people left their homes in search of safer places for them and their families, many of those are artists and performers as well as many working in related industries.

One of those people is also our colleague Natalia Teslia, who, escaping the war and bombing in Kyiv, found her refuge in Poland, with help of her many colleagues from the CMO community.

Since the New Year when the news of a possible Russian invasion came out, Natalia, who is working on international agreements and international distribution in Ukrainian largest CMO ULCRR – Ukrainian League of Copyright and Related Rights, has been living in fear. Remembering what happened in Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014, she started preparing for the worst, but hoping for the best. Unfortunately, her deepest fears came true when on 24th of February she was woken up by the sound of the explosions and realized she needed to leave.

She made her way to Kremenchuk, to meet with a friend with whom she decided to seek safety at a countryside as they considered it to be safer than the city. They already had some food supplies with them as well as power banks and other necessities, once there, they were collecting wood for cooking and heating, however, being constantly under alarms and danger, they realized they weren’t safe there either and decided to make their way to the Polish border.

By that time Natalia was already in contact with colleagues at several CMO’s. In 2021 ULCRR became a member of SCAPR and everyone was asking how she was doing and offering support.

“That was really touching, and it really matters, that kind of communication and support.”, she explains, remembering the hardships like endless lines, strict curfews, bomb alarms while attempting to reach the Polish border but also incredible displays of solidarity and support like help with free accommodation and food which truly gave her inspiration and strength to continue to safety.

And one of the most inspiring and welcoming communities was that one of the CMO’s as people really showed they cared and wanted to help: ‘I had a contact with Bogusław Pluta from Polish CMO ZPAV (Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry) who was a volunteer meeting Ukraininans on the border, helping them find accommodation. And he was not the only one helping – Anna Błeszyńska-Drewicz from the Polish CMO SAWP offered accommodation for her and her friends.

“I can’t find even words, for all the care, support and welcoming.” she added.

During all this time, Natalia stayed in contact with her colleagues – some of which, like herself, managed to escape to safer areas and others, mostly men, staying in Ukraine. And though ULCRR CEO Oleksandr Nikin formally suspended their activities as of 1st March, with employees being able to receive some help from the state and all the collections have stopped, ULCRR still managed to make a distribution even in these times of war. Natalia’s colleague from the distribution Sergiy Smirnov joined the army two days before the start of the invasion, and beginning of March, while being in the army during the day, he still managed to do the distribution during the night knowing many artists were depending on it. “I don’t know how he managed to do it. We are all very proud of him.”, she says.

A great help has also been Agnieszka Parzuchowska from STOART, who is in close contact with both Natalia and colleagues from other CMO’s and SCAPR trying to find possibilities to help not only their colleagues but also Ukrainian performers and young musicians. Many of them are trying to ease the difficult everyday reality of their fellow Ukrainians. “For example, our member Maria Burmaka is in Kyiv and posts every day, she does online evenings for children, playing guitar, singing songs, just to make children feeling better.”, says Natalia deeply moved by everything her colleagues are doing. “Everyone just wants that Russian troops were defeated as soon as possible and Putin’s regime received an assessment in international law and that children would never been killed and terrified anywhere else in the world.”, she concludes.

Other performers, like Tina Karol, who managed to escape to safety to other countries are trying to help by participating in concerts and events raising funds to help for Ukraine.

“Everyone is doing the most they can.”, agree Natalia and Agnieszka. And though the activities of ULCRR are currently suspended, Natalia continues to work for the performer’s community now shifting her tasks to ones related to war – identifying the performers both in Ukraine and abroad who need help.

The world has come together to show support for Ukrainians. On 8th and 9th of April, the European Commission is organizing ‘Stand Up For Ukraine’ a social media rally in partnership with international advocacy organisation Global Citizen, with performers worldwide such as Billie Eilish, Chris Isaak, Radiohead and many more joining to raise funding in support of people fleeing the invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a member of the performers’ community himself is also a part of the campaign saying in a statement: “On April 9, the biggest online ‘Social Media Rally’ ever will support people who were forced to flee Ukraine. I’m inviting everybody: musicians, actors, athletes, businessmen, politicians, everybody. Everyone who wants to join this movement and stand up for Ukraine.”

For more details on the rally and how you can support, please see here. We can only hope that this senseless war ends soon.

 

AEPO-ARTIS fully condemns the current acts of war committed on Ukrainian territory and calls upon the leaders of this world to stop this immediately.

“Within the AEPO-ARTIS community we work together to improve the situation of performers in Europe and abroad. Our organisations have close relations to our sister-organisations in Ukraine and in Russia. As such we believe in the power of international cooperation” said Tilo Gerlach, President of AEPO-ARTIS.

Sadly enough, we are once more confronted with the reality that peace is a fragile concept. Even in Europe.

Our thoughts are with our Ukrainian colleagues, the Ukranian performers and all Ukranian people whose lives are at stake.

May this senseless war be stopped immediately and the independence and sovereignty of a peaceful European nation restored.