Ukraine refugee choir formed in Stamford by musician whose father survived Nazi concentration camps
Dark times in life are often easier to bear in the company of others.
A distraction from a problem and worry can ease stress and fears, breed hope, and even offer solutions.
It was in this spirit that the Sunflowers Choir was born in Stamford.
Made up of refugees who arrived here two years ago following the Russian invasion, the women’s choir has become a lifeline to many in our new Ukrainian community.
An escape from war not only removes refugees from their home and loved ones, but also from their culture and language.
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Assets we all take for granted unless they’re suddenly snatched away.
For many women and children, the Friday evening rehearsals allow them to be Ukrainian again - to be themselves - for at least an hour or two a week.
“Part of it is to get them to be communal - they have such a laugh,” said music teacher Mike Tymoczko who came up with the idea.
“You couldn’t meet kinder people. They have every reason to be introspective, but they’re not - they are all-embracing and outward-looking.”
Mike, from Belmesthorpe, has particular reason to feel empathy with those seeking refuge here.
A first generation Ukrainian, born and raised in Coventry, his father was a fellow refugee from a different era who had to tread an eerily familiar path.
Taken by the Nazis as a 15-year-old, he was shunted around various concentration camps as slave labour until liberated by the Allies towards the end of the Second World War.
His two brothers were not so fortunate; their liberators proved to be Russian.
They would start their post-war years in Siberian gulags.
Putin’s invasion in February 2022 was a grim reminder for Mike of persecution stretching back centuries.
“I’m glad in some respects that my father is not alive to know about it,” he said.
“Ukraine was turned upside down by the Germans and the Russians during the Second World War, and now it’s Russia again. It’s history repeating.
“It wasn’t until much later in life that I realised what awful things they had gone through and the gravity of their lives.
“He didn’t speak about it - hardly at all.”
Mike’s father began working for the British after his liberation and came back with them to start a new life.
Having carried the trauma of the camps with him, he then lost his first wife in childbirth, leaving him to bring up Mike single-handed.
“I’m first-generation Ukrainian, but was totally brought up as Ukrainian and couldn’t speak English when I went to school because my father didn’t and he brought me up,” Mike explained.
“I’m Ukrainian in upbringing and culturally.
“It was very important to my father’s generation that that culture was kept alive because, as far as they were concerned, they might never go back home again.”
Mike and his wife Sally were naturally keen to help two years ago and hosted mother and daughter Natasha and Alina.
“It dawned on me more of the difficulties my father faced when I met refugees this time,” he recalled.
“The sheer tragedy never really dawned on me properly until then, I often thought about it, but it really hit me hard when these poor people were refugees this time around.
“Natasha and Alina became more like family to us. They were having to navigate the system that I had to navigate.”
It was the lengths that his father and friends went to preserve their own identity while living and working in Britain that inspired Sunflowers.
Along with establishing Ukrainian clubs and societies, Mike regularly visited an annual six-week camp in Derbyshire dedicated to the nation’s culture.
“I remember thinking that these people had had to rebuild their lives, but the community stuck together and built all this,” he said.
“The summer camp would have cost a fortune, but every Ukrainian would have donated to it and that started to fascinate me. I thought, ‘I’m a musician, what can I do to help?’.”
A graduate of Cambridge University, Mike studied music to degree and post-degree level, and made a successful career from his passion.
He became a session musician playing piano, keyboard, violin and guitar, before embarking on a 30-year teaching career in and around Peterborough.
Yet he baulks at any notion of his leading the choir as their teacher.
“I wouldn’t say I’m a director of the choir in the traditional sense,” he said.
“What I like is for them to meet, have a good old chat, talk about anything they want to talk about and we do a bit of music.
“I don’t want them to think I’m this master musician - it’s their choir and they drive it.
“If they don't want to do something, they don't have to do it.”
Initially they were given a free place to rehearse at Barn Hill Methodist Church, before Yvette Diaz-Munoz, of Stamford Diversity Group, found them a new space at Bluecoat Primary School.
After making their debut singing Christmas carols in Stamford bandstand, Sunflowers have performed at many events around the area.
“We use pieces that are poignant - that were poignant when my father taught me them from the Second World War.
“I see it as a joint musical journey where I learn from them. My mantra is that music is for everybody.”
While occasionally an excuse for a natter and a much-needed letting off of steam, rehearsals may have become more focussed recently as they prepare for their next performance.
On Saturday evening (February 24), the choir will join an outdoor service outside Browne’s Hospital to commemorate the two-year anniversary of a date they'll never forget.
The beginning of Ukraine’s latest descent into darkness and their own personal exodus.
They will sing a prayer, adapted for the war, and finish with the Ukrainian national anthem. An affirmation of their national identity, retracing the steps taken by Mike’s father and his generation, many hundreds of miles away from home.
“They are lovely people, “ Mike reflects. “They deserve some fine moments with each other.”
