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Odessa Philharmonic Conductor Hobart Earle ’83 Watches the War
On the evening of Feb. 12, Hobart Earle ’83, the longtime director of the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra, ended its concert with a surprise encore, the overture to Mykola Lysenko’s opera, Taras Bulba. It is considered Ukraine’s unofficial national anthem and with rumors of a Russian invasion mounting by the day, Earle decided to add it to the concert just the night before. “I know my audience and my musicians,” he says. “I know that they are patriotic and that they needed something to lift their spirits. And it certainly did.”
On Feb. 12 in Odessa, Earle led this surprise encore of the overture to Taras Bulba, an opera by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko.