Unity Through Music

From conducting Ukraine’s National Symphony Orchestra in Kyiv to bringing together young musicians across political and cultural divides, Paweł Kotla (1996, MSt Music (Musicology)) has seen first-hand the power of music to unite, challenge and inspire.

In this article, originally published in LMH News, Paweł reflects on a career shaped by cultural diplomacy and argues why, in an increasingly fractured world, culture has a vital role to play in fostering solidarity, resilience and shared values.

Paweł Kotla (1996, MSt Music (Musicology)) has conducted Ukraine’s National Symphony Orchestra in Kyiv during the present Russian conflict and brought together musicians from diverse cultures throughout his career. He explains why, in an increasingly fractured world, we ignore the role of cultural diplomacy at our peril. 

“The performance was going to be broadcast worldwide, so we decided to record two dress rehearsals,” Paweł Kotla says, discussing the contingency plans in place when he conducted the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine in a poignant ‘Concert of Freedom and Solidarity’ in Kyiv in 2025. “We wanted to have a backup recording, just in case something happened. But actually, we were extremely lucky. Often on Friday evenings Russia sends attacks to Kyiv because that is the time when everyone wants to meet friends and relax, but that night we were lucky.”

Even so, he recalls a moment during the performance as he was conducting Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs and suddenly sensed a particular tension in the orchestra. “Afterwards I realised – and people had access to air raid alerts on their phones – that there was a drone attack going towards Kyiv at that time. In the end, that attack went towards Odessa, but I can tell you that the adrenaline levels on that evening were extremely high. The dedication of the Ukrainian musicians, the Polish singer Justyna Khil, and production teams from Ukraine, France and Poland was recognised last February when the recording won a prestigious Global Music Award Gold Medal.”

It is impossible, Paweł says, to separate music from politics, and the Ukraine concert reflects his long-held belief in the potential of music to show solidarity and espouse shared values. Though well aware of the risks of staging this performance, he wanted to demonstrate that “we have to have some personal courage and to fight for certain values, because democracy and peace demand for us to be alert.” He pauses, before adding: “They are not something that is natural; they always need our commitment.”

Music as a tool of protest

The relationship between culture and politics has informed Paweł’s thinking, study and practice for decades. As a postgraduate at LMH, his dissertation was on Johann Sebastian Bach’s Trauerode. That piece was written as a tribute to Christiane Eberhardine, who held firm to her Protestant religion even as her husband, Augustus the Strong, converted to Catholicism to become King of Poland. “The focus around music was a political event even at that time,” Paweł says.

For his doctorate in Warsaw two decades later, he focused on the Polish-born composer Sir Andrzej Panufnik, who escaped his homeland during communism and became celebrated around the world while being “completely deleted,” as Paweł describes it, in Poland. “He was writing music that would lead a discourse with the communist propaganda in Poland.”

And, as Paweł has travelled the world conducting numerous orchestras including the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra and the European Union Youth Orchestra in the EU Parliament in Strasbourg for the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, his sense of music and culture as a force to both unite and challenge has only grown. He refers with obvious pride to the time in 2011 when he brought together young musicians to form the I, Culture Orchestra as part of the Polish Cultural Programme during the country’s EU Presidency. It was founded to promote cross-cultural understanding between Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Poland and Ukraine, and to help their voices be heard more prominently in the West, at a time when these countries were shaping their national identities in the post-Soviet era.

“You need to remember that Azerbaijan and Armenia were already in conflict [over Nagorno-Karabakh],” Paweł says. “These were seven very different countries, politically and economically, but one thing that could pull them together was culture.” He ran auditions across the countries and recalls a simple moment in the early stages when he saw musicians from Poland and Belarus – “two countries which also had a strained relationship” – and Armenia and Azerbaijan sitting together and sharing a beer. “It was beautiful,” he beams. 

The orchestra toured the continent from London’s Royal Festival Hall and Berlin’s Philhamonie to Berwaldhallen in Stockholm. The musicians’ shared influences and contrasting styles created a unique intensity, and this was deepened by their personal connections to the musical programme. “We played Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, which some people believe was a protest against Stalinism,” Paweł says. “Performing this with young musicians who still remember – and whose families still remember – military conflicts in Caucasus and Moldova was very special. We saw audiences crying because of the passion they brought to this.”