The National Philharmonic of Ukraine is located in the building of the former Merchants’ Assembly of 1882 at 2 Volodymyrsky Uzviz. The architect Volodymyr Nikolayev, himself a musician and an expert in acoustics, designed the hall with resonator columns, which is still considered the best in terms of acoustics in Kyiv – it now bears the name of Mykola Lysenko. It was within these walls that events that went down in the history of Ukraine took place: on December 29, 1916, Leontovych’s “Shchedryk” was first performed here, performed by a student choir under the baton of Oleksandr Koshyts – thus began the triumphant history of the work that became known to the whole world as Carol of the Bells. And in April 1917, the All-Ukrainian National Congress was held in the same hall, at which the Central Rada turned into an all-Ukrainian representative body.
The Philharmonic has been counting down since 1863, when a branch of the Imperial Russian Musical Society opened in Kyiv. Svyatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh, Vladimir Horowitz, Ivan Kozlovsky performed on the stage of the Column Hall, and Leonard Bernstein, Van Cliburn, and Gidon Kremer performed on tour. Since 2022, the Philharmonic has been consistently removing Russian music from its programs and has doubled the share of Ukrainian music — not as a tribute to duty, but as a recognition that Ukrainian music is interesting and relevant in its own right.