To the Vermont Violins community:

We received this call for help from one of millions of people affected by the tragic war in the Ukraine — a fellow violinmaker from Mariupol Ukraine. He has started a go fund me campaign to help rebuild his life and we wanted to share his letter with you.  Sometimes it’s hard to know just what to do in tragedies of this scale, but here is one way we can help at least one person, a colleague in our trade, create a new path forward. Please help if you can!

A Ukrainian violin maker whose livelihood has been devastated by the ongoing Russian invasion is calling for help.

Message from Alexander Smykovsky

Hello! My name is Alexander Smykovsky (Oleksandr Smykovskyi - Ukr.), I am a violinmaker from Mariupol, Ukraine. I'm glad to write to my colleagues from Vermont Violins! I was trained in Italy in 2003 with Maestro Giovanni Lazzaro and later from one of the apprentices of Maestro Alessandro Crillovi (Vladimiro Sologiuk). Since February 24, 2022, the day when Russia’s aggression against Ukraine began, I continued to stay in Mariupol and work in my violinmaking shop, not yet suspecting that the inhumanity of the aggressor could reach such a scale. By the time I finally managed to escape Mariupol to a safe place, the city was already completely destroyed. Now, like many of my countrymen, I am a refugee and I have lost everything - my house and my workshop burned down, all my personal belongings are gone. I no longer have any tools, and my last five violins in various stages of completion perished in flames as well. I lost my entire stock of wood that I have been collecting for decades in different European countries. At being almost 50 years old, I can’t imagine how to rebuild my life and how to restart my violinmaking from zero. I am making an appeal to people who have the opportunity to provide me with any assistance. I’m hoping for help of my professional community – violinmakers, violinists, musicians, and just people who love classical music. I have been honing my violinmaking skills for 25 years with good results. I really want to make violins AGAIN! Although now it's just about survival as I need money every day for food, water, clothes, and, of course, some type of housing. I recently wrote a letter to The Strad magazine and they published my story and helped create a petition on the GoFunMe website. https://www.thestrad.com/news/my-home-and-my-violin-shop-are-completely-destroyed-a-call-for-help-from-a-mariupol-luthier/14710.article https://www.gofundme.com/f/fundraising-for-ukrainian-violin-maker However, for this petition to be effective, I need to share it. I am very grateful for ANY help! Also, if possible, it would be extremely helpful in sharing my appeal and link to the STRAD article on the social networks. My personal information is below. +38-099-3230083 (WhatsApp) (PayPal) Please feel free to let me know if you need any additional information. Many thanks in advance for your assistance!

Sincerely, Alex.

Let’s do everything we can to help our community in need. Please help spread this message to as many people as possible. Every bit helps.

Mariupol luthier Oleksandr Smykovskyi, whose workshop and home have been destroyed by Russian forces, is hoping to benefit from an upcoming auction of one of his violins.