Ukraine fundraiser at Anstey Hall is huge success for Cambridge Rotary Club
A Ukrainian wine and music evening at Anstey Hall proved an entrancing experience for guests enthralled by the musical quality and moving speeches at the 17th century home in Trumpington.
Organised by Cambridge Rotary, a packed schedule began with a recital by pianist Olha Kushniruk and soprano Alina Rybena before a welcome and thanks from Gill Coe, the vice-president of the Cambridge branch of the huge - 46,000 clubs and 1.4m members worldwide - service organisation.
A break allowed guests to enjoy some Ukrainian wine tasting in the dining room hall at the house - built around 1670 on the site of a medieval manor - and study the portraits of previous owners, as well as browse the stalls where craftwork, jewellery, clothing and children’s books were on sale courtesy of Cambridge for Ukraine.
The owner of Anstey Hall, John De Bruyne, was on hand to explain the provenance of the paintings and generously threw in a couple of wonderful anecdotes from his much-storied life - anecdotes which will hopefully appear in his much-touted memoir apparently now close to completion and already snapped up by a premier league publishing house. Suffice to say there are photographs in small frames on furniture around the hall including previous guests Bill Clinton and Margaret Thatcher, plus one of a much-younger then-Prince Charles being welcomed by John and the then-Mrs De Bruyne.
Back in the library, a Kyiv-based heart surgeon, Nazer Ozeryansky, spoke movingly about the situation in Ukraine as the country faces down the Russian army with astonishing resilience and valour. It was Nazer’s first visit to England and he confessed to being overwhelmed by the support and encouragement he was receiving.
Following a short address by Rev Ray Burman, president of Swaffham Rotary Club, mezzo-soprano Anna Starushkevych sang an astonishingly moving version - a unique fusion or jazz and opera - of Gerschwin’s ‘Summertime’, with its agonising blues-y hope for a future triumph including the highly appropriate lines ‘One of these mornings, you're goin' to rise up singin', And you'll spread your wings and you'll take the sky’.
The song was followed by a showing of the short film Magura, scripted and performed by Ms Starushkevych, which describes the emotional turmoil that faces families and loved ones when someone goes missing in action.
As of September 6, 2024, Ukraine confirmed that 7,200 troops are missing in action since the Russian invasion in February 2022, including 5,600 who were captured, with at least 19,000 children still missing, though the actual number of children forcibly removed - many for ‘reeducation’ - from their homeland and families is believed to be much higher.
Looking round the rapt faces of the audience told its own story: the plight of the Ukrainian people of course appeals at a very profound level in a country which was obliged to fight at times alone against the advancing fascist front during World War Two, and its elders as gathered here know that better than most because they were, if not directly involved, certainly immediately downstream of the consequences.
Thanks were given to those who made the evening a success.
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