Loreena McKennitt joins other local performers for concert supporting incoming Ukrainian refugees
Stratford singer-songwriter and musician Loreena McKennitt and the Multicultural Association of Perth Huron will host a benefit concert featuring a lineup of local musicians at Knox Presbyterian Church in Stratford May 13 to raise money for the association's Ukrainian refugee resettlement campaign.
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To help the Multicultural Association of Perth Huron raise money to purchase plane tickets for Ukrainian refugees waiting to resettle in Stratford and Perth and Huron counties, Loreena McKennitt is bringing together other local performers for a benefit concert in Stratford.
Beginning at 7:30 p.m. at Knox Presbyterian Church on May 13, the Support for Ukraine concert will feature performances by McKennitt, Gemini Award-winning actor Cedric Smith, Stratford Festival actor and Order of Canada honouree Seana McKenna, Stratford-based Celtic band The Bookends, and INNERchamber orchestra musicians Andrew Chung and Emily Hamper.
“After (multicultural association executive director Dr. Gezahgn Wordofa) and his board have gone over (to Poland and Ukraine) and set things up for people to come here, it really seemed that the current missing piece was the funding to bring people here,” McKennitt said Friday afternoon. “So my feeling was this is what we do professionally. We mount our own concerts and tours and so on, so it’s a relatively straightforward way for us to support that effort. … There’s something about how gratifying it is to be able to see the immediate need and, now, because of the incredible work that the multicultural association has done … (do) something local and identifiable and tangible (to help).”
The Azars, a local Syrian family who immigrated to the area after fleeing the Syrian civil war, will also perform during the fundraising concert, with Samir Azar playing oud and his wife, Rouba, on vocals.
“I think they will add another really important and interesting dimension,” McKennitt said. “These are people who have very recently come over and are already contributing to the community. This is how it goes. People come in, they integrate, God willing, and they can give back. So it’s wonderful to have them.”
Having recently returned from Poland and the Ukrainian border city of Lviv, Wordofa said there are more than 30 Ukrainian refugee families who have been granted immigration visas but are still trying to raise enough money to purchase plane tickets to Canada. Others, like Maksym Nurmanov, who arrived in Stratford last week, had to leave behind family members until they can make enough money locally to fly them over.
“They have visas but they don’t have enough money to come,” Wordofa said. “Most of our Ukrainians in Poland and Lviv, they are going to find money by cleaning or washing cars. I saw them. They’re trying to collect that money and it’s not easy to (raise money) for their whole family. That’s why the money raised will go directly to that.”
The money raised through the multicultural association’s Ukrainian refugee resettlement campaign also goes toward purchasing household supplies, food and personal items to support the Ukrainians once they arrive.
At $100 per ticket, all of the proceeds from the benefit concert – hosted by former Stratford Festival actor Michael Fox – will go to the refugee resettlement fund. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.eventbrite.ca/e/support-for-ukraine-tickets.
For more information and to donate to the multicultural association’s resettlement campaign, visit maph.ca.
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