Belleville, Ont. community steps up to help Ukrainian composer

The ongoing war in Ukraine has forced millions of people to flee their home country and begin picking up the pieces of their lives.

That’s the case for one man, a composer, who has just settled in Belleville.

However, thanks to the efforts of local residents, he’s able to continue his studies through the donation of a piano.

Neither the piano nor the home that Kyrylo Stepanenko is playing in are his, but playing is an important part of him continuing his education at a university in Lviv to become a composer.

With a piano, he is able to carry on his education remotely.

“Piano for us is like a preliminary study or subject, we have to study piano,” said Sepanenko.

He originally moved to Canada in 2003, but for the last six years he’s been living and studying in Ukraine, most recently in Lviv.

After the Russian invasion, Stepanenko, along with his grandmother and his mother who splits her time living in Ukraine and Canada, had to flee the war with almost nothing.

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“We came from Kyiv only with backpacks because we knew that we are going to try on train and we knew that no even small suitcase will fit the process,” said Natalia Laluq, his mother.

A local Belleville grassroots group and now not-for-profit called Humanity for Free Ukraine were able to help Stepanenko acquire a piano he can call ‘his own’ with a post on their Facebook page.

“The first Ukrainian coming to Belleville is a composer and he needs a piano for his practice, and I don’t know how many pianos he was offered — I frankly don’t even know — but a lot, a lot,” said Myroslava Symonenko of Humanity for free Ukraine.

Stepanenko said he’s thankful and even little overwhelmed by the response and isn’t entirely surprised by the help he’s received.

“People over here are super friendly as usual and they’re really happy to help us in these difficult times, so Belleville has been the best in helping us out,” he added.

Stepanenko said he should have the donated piano at his apartment in about a week, allowing his dream of becoming a composer to continue and return to his war-torn homeland someday when it’s safe.