The former dean of UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences sang with the Ukranian Freedom Orchestra on the last performance of its summer 2024 tour in Washington, D.C.
A familiar Tar Heel voice helped fill the Kennedy Center’s concert hall with music as part of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra’s tour in early August.
Terry Rhodes, professor emerita of music and former dean of UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, joined singers from around the globe in the “Slava!” Chorus — or Ukrainian Freedom Chorus — for the ensemble’s “Ukranian Freedom Tour.”
The concert was part of a summer tour in cathedrals and music halls across the U.S. and Europe, including in Warsaw, Paris, London, Gdańsk and New York.
Rhodes ’78 was joined by Carolina music alumna and Ukrainian-American Marika Kuzma ’81, who served as the concert’s chorus master. Other choir members included fellow UNC alumni as well as alumni of the University of California, Berkeley and Indiana University; members of Kuzma’s chorus, Ensemble Cherubim; and several singers from Ukraine.
Rhodes, a soprano, was a senior at Carolina when Kuzman was a first-year student. The accomplished musicians and friends have stayed in touch for over 40 years.
Alongside the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, Rhodes, Kuzman and the “Slava!” Chorus performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the lyrics to “Ode to Joy” sung in Ukranian. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the renowned classical composition.
The concert also featured Ukrainian composer Victoria Vita Polevá’s Bucha. Lacrimosa, a work for solo violin and orchestra, performed by concertmaster Marko Komonko.
The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra brings together “leading musicians based in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Odesa and elsewhere in Ukraine alongside Ukrainian musicians forced into exile by the war and Ukrainian members of European orchestras,” according to the Kennedy Center website.
Rhodes joined Carolina’s faculty in 1987. She served the University in a variety of roles, including as a member of the voice faculty, UNC Opera director and chair of the music department, senior associate dean for fine arts and humanities, and interim dean and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. She retired in June 2022.
By Jess Abel