‘Lords of the Sound’ orchestra back for 2nd tour amid wartime boycott

While many international artists have stayed away from Israel since the outbreak of the war amid boycotts and fears over the security situation, one 50-strong orchestra is back for its second round of concerts.

The “Lords of the Sound” orchestra — made up mostly of Ukrainian musicians — will perform 11 concerts in Jerusalem, Ashkelon, Haifa, and its surrounding cities, on January 10-20.

It’s the orchestra’s second time in Israel, said promoter Semyon Galperin, after performing here last winter.

They will perform four different productions, “The Music of Hans Zimmer,” “The Lord of the Rings in Concert,” “The Magical Symphony of Hogwarts,” featuring music from Harry Potter, and “Anime Sympho-Show – 38 Samurai,” composed of soundtracks from leading Japanese anime series.

“Very few international acts are coming, and I was happy that these musicians wanted to come,” said Galperin, who moved to Haifa after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, joining the wave of Russian performing artists’ moving to Israel.

Galperin was starting his promotion business in Israel when the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack took place, sparking the war.

“Business came to a full stop,” said Galperin. “Now some projects are slowly coming back.”

Those acts are mostly Ukrainian and Russian performers, said Galperin.

There’s a large community of Russian performers who opposed the Russian war in Ukraine, left the country, and are in exile, performing in the centers of Russian emigration, including Belgrade, Tbilisi, Berlin, London, Yerevan, Limassol, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and other cities, said Galperin.

“A lot of them didn’t stop coming to Israel after October 7,” he said. “Some may have their reservations about the conduct of the war [in Gaza], like many Israelis do, but they perfectly understand who attacked who and want to support their fans here.” He added that most Ukrainians feel the same, following Putin’s invasion in 2022.

The “Lord of the Sounds” orchestra is one of those projects, with mostly Ukrainian musicians, as well as some from Hungary, Italy, and Moldova.

“The Ukrainians are not so afraid of what’s going on in the Middle East because they’re used to this kind of state of affairs,” said Galperin.

“In fact, they think it’s pretty quiet on the streets of Haifa and Tel Aviv,” he added.

The orchestra’s audiences are mostly local, said Galperin, whether in Belgrade, Berlin, London or Tel Aviv and Haifa.

“Russian acts that come here get sold out,” said Galperin, mentioning one of his visiting acts, Russian rapper Noize MC, who sold out Amphi Shuni in Binyamina and Amphi Ganei Yehoshua in Tel Aviv.

“I remember what Noize MC  said during his Tel Aviv show, ‘Except for the struggle between good and evil, there’s also a struggle between justice and mercy happening right now. And I personally choose mercy,'” said Galperin. “I’m happy about this dialogue between Russian-speaking Israelis.”

As for the visiting musicians, “they’re amazed at how calm it is here,” said Galperin.