REPEAT: 'Worth living for': Odesa's sunrise piano concert by Black Sea returns after harsh winter

Record ID: 2362882

  • Title: REPEAT: 'Worth living for': Odesa's sunrise piano concert by Black Sea returns after harsh winter
  • Date: 8th March 2026
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) CONCERT SPECTATOR, LILIA PALAMARCHUK, SAYING: “One just wants this (war) to end, to be distracted. Just to listen to music and be glad that Odesa is celebrating this day, or night, you could say, in this way. We are waiting for victory.” VARIOUS OF PEOPLE STANDING NEAR SEA PEOPLE SURROUNDING YANCHUK WHILE HE PLAYS PIANO (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CONCERT
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: Black Sea Russia peace port sea south Ukraine sun war in Ukraine
  • Location: ODESA, UKRAINE
  • City: ODESA, UKRAINE
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe,Military Conflicts
  • Reuters ID: LVA003195408032026RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:    To the soft sound of a piano, hundreds of Odesa residents gathered by the Black Sea to welcome the sunrise on Sunday (March 8) as the city’s Sunrise Piano concert season reopened.
       Ukrainian pianist and composer Igor Yanchuk resumed his weekly dawn performances after a four-month winter break, with the first notes drifting across the waterfront just minutes before the sun rose over the sea.
       Standing beneath the open sky, Yanchuk said the setting created a unique harmony between nature and music. “Here, under the open sky, the live vibration and live wave of the piano string merge with the live wave of the sea and the live cries of seagulls,” he said.
       Spectators said the concerts offered a rare moment of calm as Ukraine enters the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Just over 24 hours earlier, Odesa had come under a Russian drone and missile attack that damaged port infrastructure only a few miles away.
       “In fact, it is very important to devote time in your life, to find an opportunity for moments like these. It heals, it calms,” said Odesa resident Ruslan Smirnov.
       Others said the music helped them briefly escape the strain of war. “One just wants this (war) to end, to be distracted,” said concert-goer Lilia Palamarchuk.
       Natalia Maskolenko, another spectator, added: “This is worth living for. It is everything that brings us joy today. To live every day, to feel this life, to sense it, to love.”
    (Production: Janis Laizans, Felix Hoske, Kateryna Besedina) 
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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