06/10/2026
Music: The Inner Anchor ⚓
In a time when Ukrainian reality oscillates daily between anxiety and hope, music has become more than art. It has become a way to endure.
For the women of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, music today is a space for inspiration, processing loss, supporting others, and speaking to the world in the language of art.
Each of them came to this ensemble by her own path, but they are united by a shared desire to create despite the war and not allow darkness to silence the voice of the heart.
Today, we put our focus on Nataliia Zhdanova.
Nataliia has been part of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra and Chorus for ten years. She is a graduate of the Kyiv Music Academy, where she studied vocal performance and bandura, and she is currently a singer in the National Operetta’s choir.
Her first concert with the KSOC was also a Christmas program. These performances remain some of her warmest memories, especially now, when the war prevents her from being close to her family.
Nataliia is originally from Nova Kakhovka, and her loved ones remain in occupied territory. She lives daily with the pain of distance, the loss of home, and the tragedy of the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam by Russian forces, which caused a massive disaster.
Despite everything, this ensemble has become her place of inner peace. Here, music allows her to feel lightness again and regain the ability to experience emotions that the war has gradually dulled.
She believes that art does not fully heal trauma, but it helps one endure and continue living.
Nataliia especially values the tradition of sacred music established by conductor Roger McMurrin. For her, this repertoire is a source of sincerity, truth, and inner strength that only God can give in such fullness.
“To anyone in the audience — both in Ukraine and on international tours,” she says, “I strive not to appeal through pity, but through the beauty of music and Ukrainian culture. It is important to me to show Ukrainians as they truly are: deep, strong-willed, radiant people who, even in the darkest times, do not lose love and hope. And God in all of this is near with each one of us here”.