Musicians who are part of the Ukrainian military’s Cultural Forces are on a 40-day tour that will bring them to Pitt’s Frick Fine Arts Auditorium on June 4 to present “Ukrainian Music in Times of War.”

Most of the soldiers, who were all professional musicians before the entering the military, were engaged in fierce battles during Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine. Some were seriously injured but after recovering from their injuries, returned to military duty.

They include opera singer Yuri Ivaskevych, pianist Mykhailo Oliinyk, violinist Olha Rukavishnikova and Taras Stoliar, who plays a traditional Ukrainian instrument called the bandura.

They play everything from Ukrainian folk songs to Metallica, according to the Washington Post, “tapping into a Ukrainian tradition of using music as a form of resistance to Russian rule.” The Post reported on the start of the tour in May at the Ukraine House in Washington, D.C.

The group travels around to the front lines of the war to give soldiers a diversion, and performed in May at a Kyiv bar with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in attendance.

The event at Pitt starts at 7 p.m. June 4 and is free and open to the public.