Join us at the Ukrainian Institute of America for a special birthday event in support of our Crown Jewel Endowment, helping preserve and sustain our historic home for generations to come.

Enjoy cocktails, light bites, and birthday cake as we gather to celebrate the Institute’s legacy and future. Birthday toast at 8:00 PM!

We’ll also be hosting a building-wide scavenger hunt—an opportunity to explore corners of the Institute you may never have seen or noticed. Complete it correctly and you’ll be entered into a raffle to win use of our beautiful third floor for a private event.

General Admission: $78
(in honor of our 78th birthday)

UIA Members: $55
(the year we purchased our home, 1955)

35 & Under: $48
(the year we were established, 1948)

Please note: Non-members purchasing 35 & Under tickets will be asked to submit a valid ID while registering.

Music at the Institute (MATI) presents an evening of music featuring Van Cliburn Gold Medalist Vadym Kholodenko and Fritz Kreisler Milka Award recipient violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv in a program of works by Frederic Rzewski and Valentyn Sylvestrov. Before the concert, musicologist Peter J. Schmelz, a specialist in 20th- and 21st-century Soviet-era music, will deliver a talk titled, “The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Reflections on politics and nation from Rzewski to Sylvestrov.”

The MATI program is a ticketed event and advance registration is requested.

General Admission: $40
UIA Friends, Students, Seniors: $30
UIA Members: $20

PROGRAM

Valentyn Sylvestrov “Post Scriptum” Sonata for Violin and Piano (1990)
Frederic Rzewski The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (1975)

PERFORMED BY

Solomiya Ivakhiv, violin
Vadym Kholodenko, piano

ABOUT THE PARTICIPANTS

Solomiya Ivakhiv, Professor of Violin and Viola and Head of Strings at the University of Connecticut, and Professor of Violin at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, was named a Merited Artist of Ukraine (2021). She is Artistic Director of Music at the Institute (MATI) in New York and the Caspian Music Festival in Vermont. Her recordings for NAXOS, Brilliant Classics, and Centaur feature both Ukrainian composers and major classical repertoire, and she is a dedicated champion of new music with numerous world premieres to her credit.

Vadym Kholodenko, Gold Medalist of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, is internationally recognized for his technical brilliance, expansive repertoire, and deeply poetic interpretations. He has performed with leading orchestras and at major concert halls across North America, Europe, and Asia, and has held artist residencies with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and the SWR Symphonie Orchester. A sought-after recitalist and chamber musician, he appears regularly in the world’s cultural capitals and collaborates with many distinguished artists. His recordings—spanning a wide range of repertoire—have received major international accolades, including BBC Music Magazine awards and the Diapason d’Or. Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, he is now based in Luxembourg.

Peter J. Schmelz, Professor and Chair of the Department of Comparative Thought and Literature at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA), specializes in twentieth and twenty-first century musics. His books include Such Freedom, If Only Musical: Unofficial Soviet Music during the Thaw (Oxford, 2009); Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso no. 1 (Oxford, 2019); and Sonic Overload: Alfred Schnittke, Valentin Silvestrov, and Polystylism in the Late USSR (Oxford, 2021). His work has received an ASCAP Deems Taylor Award, two ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Awards, and the Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society. He has also received fellowships from the NEH, the American Academy in Berlin, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Fulbright Program (Georgia).

ABOUT MUSIC AT THE INSTITUTE (MATI)

In its 37th season, MATI presents world-class musicians from Ukraine, Europe and the US, performing in the intimate setting of the concert hall in the Ukrainian Institute of America’s historic, landmark building. Currently under the leadership of Artistic Director, violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv, the MATI series offers audiences a thoughtfully curated selection introducing both established and lesser-known works by Ukrainian composers alongside beloved chamber music repertoire. Throughout its history, MATI has commissioned new compositions by emerging and recognized Ukrainian composers, celebrating and commemorating significant milestones in Ukrainian history and in the history of the Institute itself. Visit our YouTube Channel for videos of a selection of MATI concerts.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

Thursday, May 21, 2026 at 6:30 PM
2 East 79th Street, New York, NY 10075

Mr. Verini will be joined in conversation by Sebastian Junger.

Book signing and light reception to follow.

General admission: $25 / UIA Annual Friend: $20 / UIA Member: $15

On March 16, 2022, Russian forces unleashed devastation upon Mariupol, Ukraine, targeting the Donetsk Regional Drama Theater where thousands of civilians were sheltering. The bombing remains the single deadliest act of mass killing in the Russo-Ukrainian War – a defining atrocity that James Verini documents with unflinching precision and profound humanity in The Theater.

This essential work tells the story of ordinary Ukrainians – workers, teachers, actors – who transformed a historic drama venue into a lifesaving refuge. Before tragedy struck, they built a shelter fueled by audacity, humor, and an indomitable will to protect their own. Through meticulous reporting and intimate interviews, Verini introduces us to these unsung heroes: a physician improvising an infirmary beneath spotlights, a resourceful teenager crafting flashlights from Christmas bulbs and salvaged wire, a young boxer arriving with only her medals and determination.

We encounter them first as full human beings – flawed, courageous, and vibrantly alive – before witnessing how their sanctuary became a tomb. Mr. Verini captures the horror with searing clarity: the moment a boy identifies his mother by her pink nail polish on a severed arm; the anguished search through rubble; the haunting image of “children” painted in Cyrillic letters across the building’s exterior – a plea for mercy that went unheeded.

Yet, The Theater is far more than documenting tragedy. It reveals how individuals endure impossible circumstances with resilience and grace, how ordinary people become extraordinary through necessity, and how a young nation fights for its very survival. James Verini’s straightforward prose and compassionate eye create an authoritative account that will leave readers inspired, devastated, and forever changed – a crucial testament to Ukrainian courage and Russian aggression that demands to be witnessed.

What others are saying about The Theater:

“The Theater is a shocking book … It’s the best kind of war reporting: you can’t bear to read it but you really can’t bear to put it down. Future journalists will study this book for lessons on how to do their jobs.”
— Sebastian Junger, New York Times bestselling author of In My Time of Dying

“Impeccably reported, fantastically detailed, humane. Verini’s book makes you care deeply about these people … He distills the full obscenity of Putin’s invasion down to a single catastrophic moment.”
— William Finnegan, Pulitizer Prize–winning author of Barbarian Days

“An essential read to understand the human cost of the largest war in Europe since 1945.”
— Serhii Plokhy, author of The Gates of Europe

James Verini writes for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and National Geographic, among other publications. His journalism has received a National Magazine Award and a George Polk Award. He is the author of They Will Have to Die Now, about the battle that brought down ISIS.

Sebastian Junger is the New York Times bestselling author of In My Time of Dying, Tribe, War, Freedom, A Death in Belmont, Fire, and The Perfect Storm, and codirector of the documentary film Restrepo, which was nominated for an Academy Award. He is also the winner of a Peabody Award and the National Magazine Award for Reporting.

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To have a copy of the book signed, The Theater: Courage and Survival in the Defining Atrocity of the Ukraine War will be available for purchase ($28.00) at the Ukrainian Institute of America the evening of the event.

By purchasing a book from the UIA, you are supporting its continued cultural and educational programming and the further enjoyment of its unique events by our friends and community along New York’s Museum Mile.

For further information: Please contact the Ukrainian Institute of America at (212) 288-8660 or info@ukrainianinstitute.org.

Photo of James Verini courtesy of the author. Photo of Sebastian Junger by Peter Foley. All rights reserved.

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Title: The Theater: Courage and Survival in the Defining Atrocity of the Ukraine War
Author: James Verini
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 19, 2026)
Hardcover: 208 pages
ISBN-10: 1668062208
ISBN-13:  978-1668062203
Item Weight: 1.06 pounds
Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.38 inches