Our First Ukrainian Orchestra!

When you live in another country, you expect things to be a little different. The language, the food, the holidays, etc. At the same time, there are things you expect to be similar: parks, some brand name items, etc. We recently discovered that orchestra concerts are not in the category of things that are consistent. However, we also learned that trying as many different activities as you can lead to some amazing stories.

One of our friends here in Ukraine asked us if we wanted to go see a orchestra concert and showed us the poster. It was called “Lords of the Sound” and it seemed interesting enough, a Ukrainian orchestra playing movie soundtracks. We said sure, bought the cheapest nose bleed seats we could find and waited.

The day of the concert we get there and struggle to find the staircase to take us to the balcony, where our nose bleed VIP seats awaited. We get up there and hand the lady our tickets, she doesn’t ask if we need help finding our seats. At first I found that a bit odd, until I looked at the balcony. There were four rows with about 20 seats per row and that was all. Needless to say, we did NOT need help finding our seats anyway. We sit down and get ready for the experience.  

**To make this easy to follow, we are going to describe the rest of the events in bullet format**

Things we noticed that made us a bit nervous about what to expect:

• A small stage (too small for a full orchestra)
• Four guys at a sound mixing booth
• An only half filled auditorium
• An abnormal amount of lights mounted to the stage.

What made us realize this was not what we expected:

• The smoke machine
• The electric guitar
• The costumes complete with fezes
• The laser and strobe lights
• The DVD main menus of the movies repeating in the background
• The double encore

Things that blew our mind:

• The singer for the Lord of the Rings segment coming out barefoot with elf ears on
• The counter tenor who sang opera
• All the singers singing in English
• The encore song “Pump It” by the Black Eyed Peas
• The performance being set to scenes from the movies
• The other major observation was that everyone is the audience gives rounds of applause in sync. They clap in simultaneously with other members of the audience. 

It was not what you expected but that didn’t make it bad, it just makes it different. Also, the best part of the whole concert was seeing people who love their jobs. The conductor was dancing on stage, he was passionate and you could tell he created a fun loving environment for everyone who worked for him.

Our recommendation:

If you are in Ukraine, go see an orchestra concert.