Oregon flutist puts on Portland benefit concert for Ukraine aid

During the pandemic, musician Amelia Lukas wanted to explore her feelings surrounding Portland’s homelessness crisis and the concept of what it means to have a home. So she started curating a set of music pieces from some of her favorite composers to perform in a concert she called “Natural Homeland.”

“Particularly with regard to sheltering in place and the fact that we were all kind of sequestered in our little bubbles at that time. And so home took on this totally new meaning for me,” said Lukas.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and Lukas changed the concert to focus on the ongoing conflict.

“Having a big part of my own heritage from Poland, Russia and Ukraine, I was feeling the impacts of that really deeply,” she said. “I really needed to take action and the program itself was just calling to center around this particular issue.”

Three years after she began the project, Lukas will premiere her newly evolved music concert, now titled “Natural Homeland: Honoring Ukraine,” this Thursday at the Alberta Rose Theatre in Northeast Portland.