The Bluesberries are excited to announce the Blue Skies Project. Musician and journalist Daniel Fallon has teamed up with English producer Paul Beard and Australian entrepreneur John McMurtrie AM to write and record Blue Skies, a song to promote peace, show solidarity with the people of Ukraine and raise funds for refugees displaced by the conflict via UNHCR.
All proceeds from sales of the song will go to UNHCR to support Ukrainian refugees. Please go to unrefugees.org.au/withukraine to donate.
In an extraordinary creative process, the Sydney soul band The Bluesberries, which features some of Australia’s finest musicians - has collaborated with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, which draws on the most talented young classical musicians from across Ukraine (aged 12-22) to record versions of the song. Led by violinist and arranger Illia Bondarenko - an emerging classical star in Europe - the 33-piece orchestra performed a symphonic arrangement of Blue Skies at a cathedral in Düsseldorf, Germany.
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The song features outstanding Ukrainian opera singer Maryana Golovko, who contributed Ukrainian lyrics and her beautiful voice to versions of the song.
The renowned Shchedryk Children’s Choir recorded a special arrangement for Blue Skies by Ukrainian composer Roman Surzha and Paul Beard. The ensemble brought together 22 Children’s voices to record the piece at a studio in Kyiv. (The studio they recorded in had been repaired from minor damage following Russian attacks earlier in the year.)
Different versions of the song will be released as an EP in late November in Sydney, Australia. Some 70 Australian and Ukrainian musicians have contributed to the recording.
Again, all proceeds from sales of the song will go to UNHCR to support Ukrainian refugees. Please go to unrefugees.org.au/withukraine to donate.
The project is managed by Beard, Fallon, McMurtrie and Ukrainian manager Polina Velichko, who has been instrumental in bringing the teams together.