Refugee musicians bring a message of empathy to Worcester performance

Milad Yousufi remembers the struggles he had learning how to play the piano in Afghanistan, when the country was led by a Taliban regime that forbade music or any artistic pursuits.

“Me pursuing music and arts in Afghanistan … is like a miracle,” Yousufi said.

His first piano was a set of keys drawn on a piece of paper. A few years after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, he was finally able to learn and play with others. By the age of 12, he was enrolled in the country’s only music school. He would go on to teach and play in and around his country for years, including at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music.

A little over a decade ago, he visited the United States, fully expecting to go back home.

“ The day that I wanted to go back, the political situation and the security got really worse and I got a call from my family and friends that I have to seek asylum here,” Yousufi said.

While Yousufi was forced to give up his home, he held onto his music. Now living in New York City, he joined the Refugee Orchestra Project, a collection of musicians representing the more than nearly 52 million immigrants living in the U.S, including refugees.

The group highlights the music of refugees and immigrants, played by musicians who are also refugees or immigrants. The orchestra is slated to perform Sunday at Worcester’s Mechanics Hall, presented by Music Worcester.

Yousufi, as the orchestra’s artist in residence, will be premiering a new composition, written especially for the show.

“When I share this music, that feels very fulfilling and something very rewarding for me, it's because I'm living a dream life,” Yousufi said.

Lidiya Yankovskaya founded the Orchestra in 2016. She’s also its conductor and a refugee from Russia herself. She says the project’s mission is crucial in today’s political and social climate.

“I think early on we were, in particular, fighting stereotypes, the kind of idea of otherness,” Yankovskaya said. “I think now it’s also turned into an overall message of unity, a message of coming together, a message of the importance of empathy, which I think we need more than ever in the world today.”

Mariia Gorkun, a bow maker and violinist from Ukraine, has been unable to return home because of her country's ongoing war with Russia. She will be taking a violin solo on "Maria's City," a song written by fellow Ukrainian Zoltan Almashi in a bomb shelter during the siege of Mariupol in Ukraine.

“This war is so brutal, and it's so insanely cruel,” Gorkun said. “It's really important for us to see that, to keep that at the back of our mind all the time. We want to be in touch with those who suffer. We want to be in touch with those who need our help. Otherwise, we just lose our humanity.”

Conductor Yankovskaya lived in the U.S. until recently, when she joined a growing number of musicians leaving the country under the Trump administration's cutbacks to art. She now lives in London and told WBEZ in Chicago that she wanted her children to “grow up feeling like they can always express themselves freely.”

Yankovskaya said she and her musician peers have a responsibility in this moment.

“It is impossible to create music without a great deal of empathy," Yankovskaya told WBUR. "So I think that as musicians, it is our responsibility to bring that experience to everything we do, to encourage in all parts of life, for all people, that we come together.”