What is happening in Ukraine is hitting close to home for Tucson pianist Alexander Tentser and his violinist wife Anna Gendler.
Tentser, a native of Kyiv, Ukraine, said a second cousin was airlifted out of Kyiv to Cyprus. Another cousin still remains in the battle-ground city.
βWe know a lot of people who have relatives and friends in both countries, in Russia and Ukraine,β said Tentser, who grew up in Kyiv and met his wife when both attended music school in Gendlerβs native Moscow.
On March 19, the couple, who havenβt been back to Russia in a decade, will headline a benefit concert hosted by Rincon Congregational United Church of Christ for the victims of Russiaβs weeks-long invasion of Ukraine.
It is one of two concerts planned in the next three weeks to benefit the people of Ukraine.
The couple will share the βUkrainian Emergency Relief Benefit Concertβ stage with several musician friends, including colleagues of Gendler, a longtime member of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. It will be held March 19 at Rincon Congregational, 122 N. Craycroft Road, where Tentser is the longtime music director.
βI think we need to help to raise money. I get emails from people I know very well, some who play in the (Tucson-based) Arizona Balalaika Orchestra, who have family in Kyiv,β said Tentser, who with his wife and family emigrated to the U.S. in 1990 just before the collapse of the Soviet Union. βThe reports we received, the civilians are now fighting with no military training. Teenagers and kids. They are given a gun. Civilians are getting killed. These are not military targets. These are civilian targets. What we can do is raise money.β
Tentser said that while he knows the history behind Russian President Vladimir Putinβs unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, he was dumbstruck when Russian troops entered his homeland on Feb. 24.
βIt is really, really surreal and nobody expected that that could happen and the violence would really erupt,β he said. βThey are destroying the historic buildings right now. β¦ Itβs inconceivable that the Russians would do it.β
In addition to Tentser and Gendler, the lineup for the March 19 concert includes TSO principal flutist Alexander Lipay, TSO principal clarinetist Dario Brignoli and the TSO String Quartet with violinists Gendler, Laura Casarez and Ann Weaver and cellist Anne Gratz.
The program will feature classical chamber and contemporary works including Brahms’s Clarinet Sonata No. 2 with Brignoli, and Schubert’s String Quartet. For details or to donate online, visit rinconucc.org, select “donate” then choose “Ukraine.”
Admission to the concert is free, but donations will be accepted. All proceeds will go through the United Church of Christ to the Reformed Church of Hungary, which has 1,200 congregations in Hungary and will use the funds to buy medical supplies and equipment for those injured in the Ukrainian fighting.
On April 3, Dove of Peace Lutheran Churchβs resident piano trio will perform a concert of works by Shostakovich and Ravel, with proceeds from a goodwill offering benefiting Ukrainian war victims.
Doveβs Music Director Eric Holtan said money raised at the concert, the finale of the churchβs annual community classical music series, will be distributed to Ukranian victims through the Lutheran Disaster Relief.
The Oracle Piano Trio will perform at the church, 665 W. Rollercoaster Road, beginning at 2 p.m. April 3. For details, visit doveofpeacetucson.org.
