Keys for Resilience - Ukrainian Music Concert

Start: Thursday, March 5, 2026 7:00PM
End: Thursday, March 5, 2026 8:30PM

Ukrainian pianist, composer, and educator Ruslan Ramazanov was forced to rebuild his life and career in the United States following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. At around the same time, Westporters Brian and Marshall Mayer founded Ukraine Aid International, a not-for-profit dedicated to providing humanitarian aid to Ukrainian towns near the Russian border (the front line.) Since coming here, Ruslan’s music has taken on an added layer of meaning for him, reflecting his personal story of resilience, adaptation, and rediscovery through art. Now working at the Boston Conservatory and serving as Music Director at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Scituate, Massachusetts, he has been eager to give back to those that are helping Ukraine. Ukrainian-American soprano and bandurist Teryn Kuzma is passionate about performing both contemporary works and uncommon Eastern European opera and art song. This concert will raise funds to support the work of Ukraine Aid International. More about Ruslan Ramazanov Ruslan received his classical training at some of Ukraine’s most respected music institutions: Postgraduate Diploma at Ukrainian National Tchaikovsky Academy of Music (Kyiv) in Concert Performance, Piano; Master of Music, Academy of Music in Lviv; Undergraduate Studies, College of Music, Chernivtsi. Ruslan was an active soloist and ensemble musician with the Chernivtsi Regional Philharmonic and the National Presidential Orchestra of Ukraine, performing major works by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Paganini, and leading Ukrainian composers. Ruslan is deeply committed to teaching and supporting young musicians. For more than a decade, he served as faculty pianist and staff accompanist at the College of Music in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. Ruslan now resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts, actively accompanying student performances at the Boston Conservatory, and continuing his solo concerts in the U.S. About Teryn Kuzma Ukrainian-American soprano Teryn Kuzma is a versatile performer of classical, contemporary, musical theater, and folk repertoire. Originally from Connecticut, she began studying voice at the Hartt School of Music and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Connecticut. Teryn earned her Masters Degree from the Bard Graduate Vocal Arts Program, where she studied with Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Kayo Iwama, Erika Switzer, and Stephanie Blythe. In the lead role of H'ala in Layale Chaker's dynamic new opera, Ruinous Gods, with Spoleto Festival USA, Teryn was lauded for her “terrific lyric soprano” with “an ability to soar to the heights of her register yet keep a mellifluous delivery” (Adam Parker, Post and Courier). In addition to her singing credits, Teryn is an accomplished instrumentalist on the 55- stringed Ukrainian bandura and is actively engaged in the performance and study of Ukrainian folk music. Bandura is a large harp-zither whose origins can be traced back to the 1600s in Ukraine. Sonically, it resembles a harp and a lute or mandolin, and can be played as a solo instrument, or as accompaniment to a vocal part. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Teryn has taken part in dozens of benefit concerts for humanitarian aid. Her current artistic mission includes using her musicianship to raise awareness of the beauty and versatility of Ukrainian music.