Ukrainian cellist plays somber musical tribute amid the rubble of Kharkiv

“I am a cellist and a citizen of Kharkiv. I love my heroic city which is now struggling to survive the war,” he wrote on Facebook.

“I am launching my project in the streets of Kharkiv to raise funds for humanitarian aid and restoration of the city’s architecture. Let’s unite to revive our city together!” he added.

This is not the first musical moment for Kharkiv.

Last month, as Russian troops were closing in on the city and people were attempting to flee, a young boy sat at a glossy white piano in a hotel lobby and began to play.

A video of him captured by a Washington Post correspondent went viral online, attracting the attention of the world, especially composers Philip Glass and Paul Leonard-Morgan, who said they never imagined their music would become the haunting soundtrack to a war.

As Russia invaded, a young boy played piano in Ukraine. Philip Glass says he never envisioned this soundtrack.

The piece he played is titled “Walk to School” and was written in 2020. Composer Leonard-Morgan, 48, who lives in Los Angeles, told The Post at the time that the young boy’s playing “in the face of adversity” moved him to tears. Glass said living in New York’s East Village, an area of which is known as “Little Ukraine” because of the large number of Ukrainians there, has broadened his knowledge of Ukraine’s culture and his love for its people.

“I have come to know and become friends with many of my Ukrainian neighbors,” Glass said. “I sympathize with them, their families, and all the innocent citizens and people of Ukraine. They are living through difficulties we all hope to never face.”

Ukraine’s second-largest city has faced intense Russian shelling and was an early target in Moscow’s advance.

Before the war, Kharkiv was known as Ukraine’s intellectual capital. With more than 30 universities, it brimmed with students and was a well-known scientific and cultural hub. But today, the 19th-century architectural gems in its center have been ravaged by missile strikes. Around half the population, some 700,000 people, have fled, according to the regional administration.

On Sunday, British soccer star David Beckham made headlines when he gave control of his Instagram account — and its 71.5 million followers — to a Ukrainian doctor caring for pregnant women in the war-torn city, sharing a glimpse of life there.

In Ukraine’s second-largest city, a furious rain of bombs and rockets takes a toll: ‘There are no coffins left’

Elsewhere in the country, music continues to offer respite.

Earlier this month in the capital, musicians from the Kyiv Classic Symphony Orchestra performed a defiant concert in freezing temperatures and under the threat of bombs in the city’s Maidan central square — the focal point of protests in 2014 that ousted a pro-Moscow president and helped define Ukraine’s Western political path.

Musicians are among the 10 million people who have fled or been displaced in Ukraine since the Russian invasion, while those who stayed behind endure shells and missiles, nights hiding in underground bunkers and days waiting in lines to stock up on food and medicine.

Jennifer Hassan and Sudarsan Raghavan contributed to this report.