As Russian forces continue to attack Ukrainian towns, people fleeing their homeland have been comforted by artists who have tried to make them feel less anxious through their music. Now, a video of a pianist playing through the blaring sound of bomb sirens outside Lviv Railway Station has netizens feeling heartbroken.
In the video doing rounds on the internet, as hapless victims of the ongoing war are being urged to take shelter by the local police amid air sirens, instead of running away the pianist keeps playing in defiance. The poignant moment caught on camera by photojournalist John Stanmeyer showed Ukrainian pianist Alex playing louder against the air raid warning.
As he kept playing Hans Zimmer’s ‘Time’, the original sound score from Christopher Nolan’s directorial Inception, another person joined in to play a few chords. “A simple, overwhelming one-minute passion against fear, against war,” wrote Stanmeyer about the touching moment.
“He went on and on, never letting go,” the photojournalist added, stunned by the artist’s grit and passion. “Would love to share with you Alex’s complete giving,” Stanmeyer added, however, explaining that the air raid app on his phone stopped the camera from recording.
“My inner protest to sirens, bombs, murders, war!” the pianist wrote on his personal Instagram handle sharing the haunting beautiful moment tagging Zimmer. Quoting a powerful poem by poet Taras Shevchenko, he hoped the victory would be of his country adding, “Slava Ukraini!”
The young artist has been playing outside the station in western Ukraine which has become a place where families say goodbyes before leaving to seek refuge in neighbouring countries. “I play cause it is the best I can do and I believe that by playing music I’m filling their hearts with peace and hope,” he wrote in another Instagram post.
“The hope that we will meet again at this station, but another time really soon. Only that time I will not be playing for people fleeing. But to meet them in the country, free of war,” he added.
The video left netizens teary-eyed online, who were blown away by his strength and vigour, and said it’s hard to believe the music wasn’t being played in one of the scenes from a dystopian movie but was really happening.
