Vents MagaZine Music and Entertainment Magazine
Related Articles
Grammy-nominated harpist and composer Deborah Henson-Conant has long believed in the transformative power of music. That belief deepened when Ukrainian bandura virtuoso Iryna Lytvynenko reached out, hoping to adapt one of Deborah’s harp concertos for the bandura — Ukraine’s national instrument — but was unable to pay the licensing fee. Moved by Iryna’s passion and circumstances, Deborah turned to her community of fans and supporters. Quickly, a sponsor stepped forward to cover the cost, making it possible for Iryna to perform the concerto with The Academic Orchestra, Ukraine’s national orchestra.
Vents Magazine is honored to speak with these two remarkable artists — women who not only share a devotion to their craft, but also a profound belief in music as a force for connection, resilience, and human understanding. Below, we present an exclusive conversation with Deborah Henson-Conant in Boston and Iryna Lytvynenko in Kyiv, as they reflect on their inspiring cross-continental musical journey that gave birth to The DHC Legacy Bridge Project.
Deborah, what does the world premiere of Iryna Lytvynenko’s Bandura adaptation of your MERCEDITAS concerto in Kyiv represent to you—both artistically and personally—given the current situation in Ukraine?
Every performance of my compositions is a new experience because each piece is meant to unlock personal self-expression in the player—rather than some pristine concept of the piece. But the premiere of a new adaptation is something more: a leap of the music to a new instrument. Iryna Lytvynenko is the first bandura player to ever play these pieces, and to do that, she had to reinvent how she, the soloist, would play the featured part.
This collaboration with Iryna is especially meaningful. Not only did she adapt my work for a new instrument, but that instrument is the voice of a whole country as well as a single, unique person. Many people may not know the political and cultural significance a musical instrument can have—but the bandura isn’t just an instrument. It’s the representation of Ukrainian culture and people. Iryna’s not just adapting my music for a new instrument—she’s playing the voice of her country. A country – and a concert – in the midst of war.
That I can be part of that voice, is deeply meaningful to me.
When Iryna premiered her adaptation of Merceditas, she wrote to me that she got so many flowers she could not carry them off the stage. What I heard was that she—performing in the midst of bombing, shelling, blackouts in a war that seeks the destruction of one culture by another—was partnering her self-expression with mine in a defiant act of beauty: the refusal to be silenced.
Those flowers weren’t just for her performance, but for what her performance represents—the willingness of the soloist, the conductor, every member of the orchestra, every usher and audience member to endure the dangers and shocking deprivations of a war zone to conspire in the making of a concert.
What that means to me as a composer is that my creative voice is fueling the creative voice of another, who is speaking for thousands. What more could I want than that?
Iryna, you’ve now reimagined two movements of Soñando en Español for the bandura, Ukraine’s 65-string national instrument. What drew you to this piece, and how did you approach transforming it for such a uniquely Ukrainian voice?
The first piece I arranged and performed was the third movement, Baroque Flamenco. It is an incredibly beautiful, expressive, and vivid work by the remarkable composer and performer Deborah Henson-Conant. I took a risk, because I truly didn’t know how Ukrainian audiences would respond to flamenco performed on the bandura. But the result — and the audience’s reaction — exceeded all my expectations. It has been quite some time since the premiere, yet people continue to ask me: “When will we be able to hear Baroque Flamenco again?”
Why did I choose Baroque Flamenco as the first movement to reinterpret? Because Deborah’s idea resonates with me deeply — the idea of creating a concert repertoire for the harp that “won’t put the audience to sleep in the back row!”
I had long dreamed of having this kind of repertoire for the bandura as well. And thanks to Deborah, this dream has become a reality.
When I first heard Merceditas Waltz, I was completely captivated by its beauty and by the emotional depth woven into every note.
The intensity of feeling in this music struck me so strongly that I knew I had to perform it — even though Ukrainian audiences traditionally respond more readily to lively, dance-like pieces.
I was a bit anxious… but I shouldn’t have been.
The reaction surpassed anything I expected!!! Ukrainian listeners embraced Merceditas Waltz with remarkable sincerity and openness. This music found its way into their hearts and left a deep, lasting emotional impression.
Regarding my approach to transforming Baroque Flamenco and Merceditas Waltz for the bandura:
My foremost intention was to preserve the original musical text that Deborah created. I quite literally “fought for every original note.”
At the same time, I understood that the bandura is not a harp — each instrument has its own unique character, possibilities, and limitations. So an equally important goal was to discover the most expressive and beautiful way for this music to sound on the bandura, giving it a new voice and allowing it to feel as though it were written for this instrument from the very beginning.
The most challenging part for me was preserving the original emotional tone of Merceditas Waltz.
Given the circumstances in my country, I constantly found myself trying to move away from the dramatic coloring of the piece in my own performance.
It was only after a deep realization of what Ukrainians need most today — hope, wonder, a touch of magic, quietness, safety, calm, trust, and unconditional support — everything that true love so generously gives, that I was finally able to reconnect with the emotional essence Deborah had placed into this music.
Iryna, The Academic Orchestra has a remarkable history of resilience. How does performing MERCEDITAS with this ensemble deepen the meaning of the premiere?
For more than twenty years, I have been a soloist with the Academic Orchestra of Folk and Popular Music of Ukrainian Radio. During this time, the ensemble has gone through many stages — from periods of artistic flourishing to extremely difficult years of survival during the war.
For me, this orchestra is not just a musical collective; it is a living history of resilience, dedication, and unwavering faith in Ukrainian culture.
Mykhailo Pikulskiy, who currently leads the orchestra, has always approached my artistic ideas with great enthusiasm and openness. His support has given me the freedom to experiment boldly, introduce new works, and explore fresh sonic possibilities for the bandura in collaboration with the orchestra.
Performing Baroque Flamenco and Merceditas Waltz with this orchestra adds profound significance to the premiere for several reasons:
First, it is a collaboration with an ensemble that embodies the resilience of Ukrainian cultural tradition even in the most challenging times.
Second, the premiere broadcast on Ukrainian Radio and streamed on National Television allows this music to reach a multimillion audience — people who today especially need the strength and beauty of art, which in these difficult times helps to heal trauma, provides psychological support, and unites.
And third, the orchestra’s performance brings Deborah’s music a distinctive, authentic color — contributing meaningfully to the contemporary Ukrainian cultural process as a space for dialogue between global music and traditional instruments, which gain new meanings in this context.
Deborah, you’ve said that Iryna first reached out to you from a war-torn Ukraine asking for a licensing waiver. Can you share what went through your mind at that moment?
I saw this beautiful musician, this important, passionate project – and I had gotten 4 requests from around the world wanting to license the same piece that week. Each had requested I waive the licensing fee, and each had a compelling reason why. Each project was worthy and meaningful, and I felt hopeless: how can I keep preparing my music for publication – a costly, time-consuming process – if people can’t pay the fees to perform it?
I loved knowing the piece is in such demand, but there was this seemingly impossible GAP in which I felt trapped. That was the gift of desperation that led me to open my mind to a new possibility: another player in the music: a sponsor who could make it ALL possible by paying that license fee, and by doing so, impact the lives of every person involved: the soloist, the composer, the orchestra and the audience – potentially thousands – or hundreds of thousands of people, when it was broadcast. I was excited by the possibility that a sponsor could SEE the direct impact their sponsorship has, could see that their contribution had been the one thing missing to put all that into motion.
I called this project the DHC Legacy Bridge Project (me being “DHC”: Deborah Henson-Conant).
I reached out through my mailing list, told the story, and within minutes, Dan Beach, a long-time friend in Florida, emailed and said “I want the Ukraine project.” He later told me he had been searching for ways to make a difference to individual people in Ukraine, and this was the opportunity he’d be looking for. He’s since sponsored the performance of two of Iryna’s Bandura adaptations of my work, plus the commissioning of a work for Iryna by a Ukrainian composer, and support for her son. I’m very proud that my work forged that alliance and the difference it’s making.
This moment ultimately inspired The Legacy Bridge Project. How does the project work, and why was it important for you to create a model that connects artists with sponsors?
My own relationship with sponsors has been a long one. I started applying for composers grants in my 20’s but when I started writing for symphony orchestra in my late 30’s,I reached out for individuals to commissions each piece and realized that, as much as I appreciated the grants, having a relationship with the individual who supported my work was important to me, and my favorite projects have always been those where the success was as meaningful to the sponsor as to me.
I’ve ended up having long relationships with many of my patrons and sponsors and saw the deep satisfaction it gave them to be part of something that their support makes possible.
I also saw that I worked harder as an artist because each piece felt like a collaboration – like we each gave the other access to something we didn’t have ourselves – they had the finances and I had this unique skill – and together, we’re able to create something that makes a difference to others in the world.
Not everyone can perform, and not everyone can create music, but everyone can share in the thrill of seeing a performance impact an audience, and knowing it would not have happened without their part.
I have that same thrill when I watch audiences jump to their feet and applaud a performer of one of my pieces. It’s more thrilling than getting a standing ovation myself. There’s nothing more thrilling than to know you made that possible for someone else.
With the DHC Legacy Bridge Project, I saw that a single patron could impact the composer, the soloist, the orchestra and the entire audience by providing that one missing element: the licensing fee.
I saw that most fundraising goes into a big pool, but this was an opportunity to not just donate to insure a musical legacy but to get to be an essential part of a performance and to know that your support made it happen.
The DHC Legacy Bridge is just one part of the DHC Legacy Project, which completes and publishes my catalog so these works can build other artists’ careers as they’ve built mine. Since 2022, patrons and sponsors have donated over $100,000 for completion of concert and theater works, including “The Golden Cage,” now a film (GoldenCageMusical.com).
Currently only 3% of my catalog is published—yet these works, like the ones Iryna performed, are already empowering performers internationally. The goal is to complete the remaining 97% so other performers can access the same career-building opportunities this music has given me.
What impact have you seen between the performers and the sponsors involved—emotionally, artistically, or even personally?
My original vision of the sponsor/performer relationship in the DHC Legacy Bridge has been epitomized in Iryna’s relationship with her sponsor, Dan Beach. Dan had been looking for a way to make a difference on a personal level in that particular conflict. My hope is always that, once the connection is made, the artist and their sponsor(s) will connect and share the experience, and that the sponsor might get more involved, once the connection is made.
Iryna and Dan have been especially committed to this, Iryna sharing her experiences and even videos of her process in developing the first adaptation, “Baroque Flamenco” which she premiered in 2024 – and Dan in taking on the commissioning of a new work for Iryna by a Ukrainian composer, and in providing resources for her son, like access to a computer.
It’s so gratifying to me to see that connection expand, because it’s part of the connection the composition brings into the world.
Their personal connection would not have – could not have happened without this very personal connection each of them has to my music. I see how the DHC Legacy Bridge project provides something unique and very precious in the world – a chance for people to see how their connection to each other is what unlocks this gift they, together, give to an audience – that they could not give alone.
Iryna, what does it mean to you to bring a new version of this concerto to your orchestra’s 95th anniversary celebration, especially during a time of conflict?
Saying that it is difficult doesn’t even begin to capture it:
Right now, we often work 14 hours a day without electricity.
The rehearsal spaces are extremely cold. Playing under these conditions is incredibly challenging, and the instrument itself literally suffers: cracks appear, the pitch levers stop working, and this is just part of the problems caused by such inadequate conditions.
Rehearsals and concerts are frequently interrupted by air-raid alarms, and almost every night we have to stay awake for the same reason.
I could go on listing the hardships, but it is important to emphasize that many musicians are currently performing on the front lines — in trenches, bunkers, and hospitals for the severely wounded — and this is extraordinarily difficult.
Drawing inspiration from the experience of bandurists who continued to create and perform during World War II while preserving Ukrainian identity, I feel now more than ever that music helps both me and the Ukrainian audience experience a sense of normalcy in these extreme conditions. For me, music today is what brings life back.
I especially want to thank Deborah for her support and her incredible music, which inspires and gives the strength to perform even in such challenging times.
Deborah, you’ve described music as a form of resistance against despair. How does MERCEDITAS embody that idea—especially in this Ukrainian context?
Iryna is the one who described her commitment to playing my pieces as a form of resistance against despair. She’s the one who educated me about the impact that music and the musicians who play it have on a country at war, especially when that music is played on an instrument that represents those people and their culture.
My work is created to support self-expression. The pieces are created to have their own form and structure, but to be open to interpretation and adaptation so that, in concert, the piece disappears and it is simply the vehicle for the soloist and orchestra to speak directly to the hearts of the audience.
Iryna took that aspect of the work to heart and and didn’t just play the music, but played each piece as a message of hope, as a message of the triumph of human experience – and by adapting the work for her instrument she forged a creative alliance with me, and took the pieces as her voice. This is what I hope every artist who plays or sings my music will do.
But Iryna took it further: she took the music as a way to be the voice of her whole people, her culture and her history, not just an individual. With the joy, beauty and personal expression she committed herself to, she became the resistance to despair for everyone in that audience and that orchestra. This is why she is so beloved.
I can see why Iryna chose each piece:
“Baroque Flamenco” is a joyous celebration of every part of the instrument – the strings, the wood, the voice of the player, with dance rhythms and expanses of solo flourishes. It’s about joy and rhythm.
In “Merceditas,” the theme evokes the longing of the individual, but the sweep of the music creates a relentless wave that pulls it under – and yet that theme returns again and again, as if it can’t be submerged, and in the end, returns to the beginning, as if everything else in the piece had been a dream.
The premiere was performed and filmed November 19th for national broadcast in January. What do you hope global audiences take away from experiencing this performance?
Iryna Lytvynenko’s concert premiere of her Bandura adaptation of my concerto “Merceditas” was filmed on November 19th, 2025 and is now being edited for Ukrainian national broadcast in January 2026.
My hope is that, through this broadcast and articles like this one, that global audiences will experience the entire ‘world’ of this concert: to hear the music, but also to understand the conditions under which it was performed and what it means to both audiences and performers to defy the conditions of a war zone – constant shelling, blackout conditions, lack of heat, fear for one’s own life and family – to create this transcendent form of connection and inspiration called a concert.
I hope it will lead to more support and to a broader reach for the DHC Legacy Project and all its initiatives – and to all the music I write.
I hope that it will highlight the collaboration between composers, sponsors and performers that the Legacy Bridge Project creates for my work.
I hope it will highlight the expansion of women’s voices in orchestral music. The opportunity to see a woman soloist performing the orchestral work of a woman composer is extremely rare. The programming of works by women composers accounts for only about 7% – 8% of concert works programmed by orchestras globally – and, according to Google, Mozart alone is programmed more often than all living women composers combined.
In watching this concert, it’s important to understand the conditions in which it takes place. In even a short Google search, I learned that since February 2022, over 2,100 cultural infrastructure sites have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine, including concert halls and opera houses and that more than 130 cultural figures, including composers and performers, were killed in Ukraine. I read that 86% of Ukrainians surveyed in 2025 believe supporting Ukrainian music strengthens national unity, and consumption of domestic music has nearly doubled since before the full-scale invasion.
When you see those numbers, you realize the triumph and the commitment to resistance that any concert in Ukraine represents. But the BANDURA, of all instruments, represents the Ukrainian people, their country and their culture. I can’t stress that enough.
This is what infuses every note that Iryna Lytvynenko plays and why I am so proud to be the composer of the piece with which she declares the independence and cultural identity for herself and every person in her audience – both live and in broadcast.
For artists and supporters listening, how can they get involved with or support The Legacy Bridge Project and the kind of cross-cultural, life-changing collaborations it enables?
Performers and supporters can learn more and participate in the DHC Legacy Project and the kind of cross-cultural, life-changing collaborations it enables at HipHarp.com/legacy-project or go to my website, HipHarp.com and look for the word Legacy.
They can donate to the overall project, or choose a specific part of the project – like the Legacy Bridge that supported Iryna’s performances.
They can learn more about my work and the international team of musicians who help me complete and share my work – and through my Composer’s Spotlight blog series, they can see some of the creative ways that performers and teachers use my music to fuel their own work and develop their own unique self-expression and careers.
