Press Release
For Immediate Release
PRESS RELEASE | October 13, 2026
For Immediate Release | Contact: pr@newmusictheatre.org
Back by popular demand, this Helen Hayes-recommended production of Inna Goncharova’s new play of survival against the odds resonates with the music of a refugee-led quartet of male singers.
Descend into the bunker-like setting of Dupont Underground with Alliance for New Music-Theatre to witness the last surviving member of a Ukrainian military band sheltering from Russian bombardment below the steelworks of Mariupol in 2022. For 13 performances from November 4–22, Inna Goncharova’s new play presents a vivid depiction of the terrible essence of war in DC’s vast, echoey former trolley station, which provides an eerie parallel for the trumpeter’s subterranean refuge.
Directed by world-celebrated Hungarian director János Szász with Michael Kevin Darnall and Lise Bruneau, this production resonates with haunting music by trumpeter Kevin McKee and a vocal ensemble of Ukrainian men. The return of this fully-staged experience, recommended last winter by the Helen Hayes Awards, is the latest event in our ongoing commitment to the writings of Ukrainian playwrights, bringing the far-away suffering of the Ukrainians up close during the fourth year of the Russian invasion.
Ruslan Bondar, a Ukrainian conductor of secular and sacred choral music, leads the vocal ensemble. He has recently taken up residence with his young family in the DMV.
“When I first read the play, I was surprised that there were so many details in it that matched what is happening right now in eastern Ukraine. The character of the Trumpeter wants to make music, but that life has been destroyed by the war. The play moves between what is really happening all around him—the rockets and the bombs—and his memories. It is very important for me to tell this story in Washington DC about a man who once lived a normal life but now no more. I’ve been in the city of Mariupol and met friends there. I too am a man and a musician who never thought this would happen to my country, and for the horrible choice I had make to leave behind family members, including my mother, my brother, and two daughters from my first marriage. For me I would have stayed, but for my young son, I felt I owed it to him to build for him a new, safe life… Every week, once or twice a week, we Facetime. I send money, clothes, what I can. But it is not enough, and what Russia has destroyed, it will take years, even decades to repair.
This production will include some folk music, to show what we Ukrainians have created in over 1000 years of history with rich musical traditions, both secular and spiritual. I also want to share some nice music created in the last few years by composers continuing to write in the midst of these tragic circumstances.”
— Ruslan Bondar, Vocal Ensemble Director
“This was an inspired and unique theatrical performance. And the addition of the chorus, who were men from Ukraine likely refugees, made the message and emotion of the play even more moving. It really resonated with me as a Ukrainian-American.”
The Trumpeter promises to be an unforgettable event. Come to express solidarity with Ukrainians and others worldwide thrust undeservedly into war zones, remembering it could be us next. Our common humanity is at stake.
‘The Trumpeter’ explodes in Dupont Underground as art under siege
Rarely does a show’s sound design set the scene so specifically and viscerally as it does in the cavernous Dupont Underground during the performance of The Trumpeter. For we are hunkered down in a bunker-like basement during the Russian bombardment of Mariupol in 2022. And in the midst of this brutal cacophony, we meet a trumpeter-composer who blithely seeks to create art under siege. He wants to write, he says earnestly, A Symphony of War — to make sense of senseless conflict and to find harmony in war’s chaos.
Could there be a more apt metaphor for the vulnerable and maybe delusional will to live free and survive?
We again welcome our partners United Help Ukraine and Ukraine House, who spearheaded excellent and moving complementary exhibits in Dupont Underground, preparing audiences for their own immersion into the play by showing glimpses of life in Ukraine before and now four long years of war later: the human suffering, the heroism, and resilience of the Ukrainian people.
“United Help Ukraine is proud to partner with the Alliance for New Music-Theatre on The Trumpeter in Washington, DC. It was a wonderful opportunity to bring Ukrainian stories to American audiences through live theater, connecting the power of storytelling with our mission on the ground.”
— Maryna Baydyuk, Executive Director, United Help Ukraine
“The Trumpeter is an outstanding and deeply meaningful performance reminding us that Mariupol and Ukraine matter, and that freedom, democracy and human dignity are worth defending for all of us in this unsafe world.”
— Amb. Oksana Markarova, Chair of the Board of Ukraine House
More information, performance schedule, and tickets at newmusictheatre.org/theukrainianproject
Alliance for New Music-Theatre was founded in 1994 as a group of composers, librettists, and performers united to explore new collaborations and directions possible for music-theatre. Now a cornerstone of the DC theater scene, New Music-Theatre is known for developing new works across the spectrum of music-theatre: opera, musicals, drama with music, jazz, cabaret, dance-theater, or even hybrids such as mixed media performance art. Celebrated for the eclectic nature of our work and the different forms and musical languages we employ, New Music-Theatre specializes in cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary opportunities in order to explore new voices, vocal techniques, and unfamiliar instrumentation to tell under-celebrated stories. Learn more at newmusictheatre.org.
Dupont Underground is an arts organization transforming 15,000 square feet of open abandoned space under Dupont Circle into a platform for creative exchange and contemporary arts in our vibrant city. DU is committed to developing a multidisciplinary platform for creative expression and strive to reflect the diversity of our community – both artists and audiences – hosting projects and work that might not be an easy fit in more conventional venues. Learn more at dupontunderground.org.
