Ukrainian Orchestra Conductor Murdered By Russian Troops After Refusing to Perform

Yuriy Kerpatenko, a Ukrainian orchestra conductor, was shot and killed in his home by Russian soldiers, according to the Facebook account of Ukraine’s culture minister and as reported by The Guardian. It is believed that this was a retaliatory killing after Kerpatenko refused to take part in a concert meant to show an “improvement of peaceful life” in the occupied city of Kherson. News of his death became known in Ukraine on Friday.

The 46-year-old, Kherson-born Kerpatenko studied at the Kyiv Conservatory, an institution co-founded by composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, and whose honorary professors include Placido Domingo and Riccardo Muti. In 2000, Kerpatenko became the principal conductor of the Kherson Regional Philharmonic, which dates back to 1944, as well as its chamber group Gilea (Gileya). In 2004 he was also named head of the Mykola Kulish Music and Drama Theatre. 

Kherson, a port city on the Dnieper River leading to the Black Sea, was first occupied by Russian forces in March. Through May, Kerpatenko’s Facebook page included messages of defiance against the Russian invasion. 

On October 1, the International Day of Music, a concert “was intended by the occupiers,” as per the Ukrainian culture ministry, but the conductor “categorically refused to cooperate with the occupants.”

According to The Guardian, family members outside of Kherson lost touch with Kerpatenko in September. It is not known precisely when the killing happened. 

The U.K.-based Finnish-Ukrainian conductor Dalia Stasevska and keyboardist for The Cure, Roger O’Donnell, were among the first musicians to respond to news of the killing on social media.