Classical Music is becoming more mainstream.

You’re probably listening to it already in films, series and adverts.

Type ‘classical music’ into YouTube and you’re likely to find TwoSet Violin where comedy duo and professional violinists, Eddy Chen and Brett Yang, are working their way up to four million subscribers – musicians and non-musicians – who are now keen on Sibelius and Saint-Saëns.

If you don’t know who that is, five minutes with TwoSet and you’ll not only be up to speed, with something to flex at the dinner table, but ready to binge the entire channel. If that doesn’t get you, 2Cellos (these things happen in ‘twos’ for some reason), rocked Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer a while back. They’re mixing in a little contemporary with your cello sonatas.

There’s a lot out there that you aren’t aware of, composers you’ve never heard of, and accessible, catchy pieces that you’d probably love if you took the time to give them a listen.

That’s where the Ukrainian Music Project (UMP) comes in.

Ukraine is a country filled with beauty, a rich history and diverse culture.

And, its culture has been largely overlooked by the classical music community despite influencing so much of what we listen to. I bet you didn’t know that one of the world’s most famous Christmas songs – The Carol of the Bells – was based on the Ukrainian song Shchedryk, written in 1916 by Mykola Leontovych.

This is why the UMP is bringing Ukrainian Classical and Folk music into the spotlight.

In June 2022, a call was sent out across various social media platforms inviting musicians to participate in a project celebrating Ukrainian Classical and Traditional Music in a virtual pre-recorded concert due to be released in September.

The response was overwhelmingly positive, with musicians from around the world including South Africa, coming together to make it happen.

In the run-up to the concert, the UMP musicians will be sharing videos of their past performances.

We took a first look at the one being released today. Here’s Pablo López Gómez performing JS Bach’s Allemande, Cello Suite 6 (you’ll recognise it, trust me):

For more from Pablo, you’ll find him on Instagram.

If you’d like to keep up with the project, meet the musicians, see some awesome performances, and finally, watch the concert – which promises to be a banger – you can follow the UMP on Instagram (@ukrainian_music_project) and Facebook (@UkrainianMusicProject).

This isn’t your dad’s classical music.

You’ll be updating your Spotify playlist within minutes of clicking ‘play’.