Doctors United for Ukraine

Our Mission: Deliver precision aid to foster the health and wellbeing of Ukrainian people in the face of war and its consequences. 

Our Vision: Help rebuild a thriving clinical care and research enterprise in Ukraine, in partnership with its healthcare professionals and academics. 

Our Strategy: Fill the gaps left by current non-profit efforts for medical and mental health needs in Ukraine. Succeed in this with Precision Support of Critical Care Providers with medical supplies and skill building and Mental Health Care providers with training and care infrastructure.  

DU4U’s aid is specific.  We know what is needed because we are in direct contact with doctors in Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Kyiv, Mykolaiv and Lviv hospitals. 

DU4U can meet the needs quickly because we work with and pay directly to companies/providers in Ukraine and Poland. This approach drastically hastens delivery.

RICHARD FLANDERS

A graduate of San Francisco State University and The American Musical & Dramatic Academy, Rich appeared on Broadway in Shenandoah and in the first national company of Annie. His albums, ''Yondering'' and ''Ride Away,'' were each nominated Album of the Year by The Academy of Western Artists and The Western Music Association. He received a Stephen Vincent Benet Narrative Poetry Award from ''Poet Lore'' magazine, and he is a recipient of The Will Rogers Cowboy Award from The Academy of Western Artists. ''UNDER THE GREAT ELM - A Life of Luck & Wonder,'' his first book, was a Finalist in the 2021 American Writing Awards, received Five Stars from ''Readers' Favorites,'' and is among the Top 100 ''Inspiring Books For All Ages'' on Goodreads. He and his wife, Anne, live on the Connecticut shoreline, where they perform music together from the Great American Songbook. www.richflandersmusic.com

MARIKA KUZMA 

Marika Kuzma is a musician and actor who has enjoyed collaborations with many artists in venues around the world. As a conductor, she has led concerts at Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley California, the Mohylanska Academy in Kyiv,  Oscar Peterson Hall in Montreal, Weill Recital Hall/Carnegie Hall in New York, St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, National Cathedral in Washington DC, and most recently with the Cape Symphony. As a chorusmaster, she has prepared choirs for productions of the Mark Morris Dance Group, Montreal Symphony, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, and Simon Bolivar Orquesta, working alongside Joana Carneiro, Gustavo Dudamel, Jane Glover, Kent Nagano, Christian Reif, Esa-Pekka Salonen. She has published editions and articles on Eastern European music, has made recordings of various composers' music on the Koch and Naxos labels, and has given talks on choral music around the US and at the Kyiv Conservatory and Moscow Conservatory. She taught and was the director of choral activities at the University of California, Berkeley, for 25 years. As an actor, she appeared as the Sun in a production at La MaMa Theater in New York, at Marin Shakespeare Company, understudied and performed the leading role of Fanny in Watch on the Rhine at Berkeley Rep and in various other theater and short film roles. Marika was born in Hartford, CT and moved back to Connecticut a few years ago. Of Ukrainian descent, she has organized several fund-raiser events in the last year in response to the current devastating war.

marikakuzmamusician.com  marikakuzma.actor

LORI LOWE

Lori grew up in NYC and was a child actor. Lori had her first professional acting job at 10 years old and directed her first Off-Broadway play at 22 at the Pearl Theatre. She has been a member of SAG.AFTRA for 40 years. Lori has coached many successful working actors and dedicates her practice not just to the craft of acting but in the emotional challenges that face working actors today. Lori has over 200 commercial, TV, theatre, and film credits. Her credits range from the classic film Caddy Shack to the vintage soap opera Another World and How to Survive a Marriage. She toured the east coast with Breakfast with Les and Bess starring Betsy Palmer and performed in Noel Coward's Hayfever at the Village Repertory. Her TV movie credits include NBC's The Asphalt Cowboy with Max Baer Jr. Lori is honored to have been an original cast member of Anna Deavere Smith's On The Road, Actors are Madmen at the Ward Nasse Gallery in NY. Lori frequently directs and teaches for The Axial Theatre/ HM Acting Company in Pleasantville, NY. She considers Howard Meyers School and the company of actors, one of the finest on the east coast. Axial projects include Twisted Valentines, Gaslight Tango and the ongoing Playwright Reading Series. Lori recently directed Lloyd Pace’s play St John for the 2016 20/20 Aery Festival at the Philipstown Depot Theatre in Garrison, NY. Lori is grateful to her teachers Anna Deavere Smith and Greg Zittel for their inspiration that fuels her teaching practice as well as her studies at The American Conservatory Theater, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and The Upright Citizens Brigade in NYC. Her meditation education at UMASS and OMEGA inspires and innovates her acting classes in NY and CT.

VICTOR MARKIW

Pianist Victor Markiw was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He first began piano lessons with his father, later earning his Bachelor of Music, Master of Fine Arts, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Hartt School of Music, SUNY Purchase, and the University of Connecticut, respectively. He was a recipient of the Eugene and Emily Grant piano scholarship at SUNY Purchase, the Evelyn Bonar Storrs-Hartford Musical Club Scholarship, the University of Connecticut (Storrs) Music Scholarship and the Shevchenko Scientific Society Music Grant to record a solo CD. Mr. Markiw has studied under a number of internationally renowned pianists including Luiz de Moura Castro, Peter Pertis, Paul Rutman, Paul Ostrovsky, Volodymyr Vynnytsky, Vladimir Feltsman, and Neal Larrabee, He has performed in master classes for Garrick Ohlsson, Mykola Suk, and Awadagin Pratt. Mr. Markiw studied theory and history with Richard Bass, Peter Kaminsky, Bruce Bellingham, and Alain Frogley. 

Mr. Markiw’s teaching career includes the University of Connecticut (Storrs) and the University of New Haven, where he is a current faculty member. During the summers of 2008-2009, Mr. Markiw co- directed a community outreach arts camp for children at the University of New Haven and was formally the artistic director for the UNH Department of Visual & Performing Arts concert series. In 2010, Mr. Markiw published “The Life and Solo Piano Works of the Ukrainian Composer Myroslav Skoryk” (Edwin Mellen Press), which is available in over 700 top research libraries around the world. 

Mr. Markiw, a frequent participant at charitable events, performed for the Children of Chernobyl Relief Fund Benefit Concert and the Victims of the Tsunami fundraiser; in addition, he has performed for Connecticut Hospice and assisted-living communities in the New England region as well as serving as resident pianist for the music therapy program at Griffin Hospital, Derby, Connecticut.  Recently, Mr. Markiw has been performing recitals with all proceeds going to Ukraine Aid. 

Having performed throughout the United States and abroad, Mr. Markiw continues to be a sought-after recitalist and chamber musician and has collaborated with soprano Jennifer Litwin to produce the 2010 CD, The Litwin- Markiw Duo as well as a solo CD released in February 2013, both available through CDBABY and ITunes (YouTube). 

As a full-time music faculty member at the University of New Haven, Mr. Markiw has received the UNH Excellence in Experiential Education Award (2012), and taught a study-abroad program for UNH students in Seville, Spain, and the UNH international campus in Prato, Italy. During the 2013-15 academic years, Dr. Markiw was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine, where he guest-lectured, performed recitals in Lviv and Kyiv, and taught American Popular Music and Music Theory at the prestigious Lysenko Academy of Music and Ivan Franko National University in Lviv. Mr. Markiw lives in Orange, CT with his wife Marta (who hails from Lviv, Ukraine) and their two children Arcadia 4 and Dorian 2.

KYLE PICHA 

Kyle Picha is a New Haven-based singer with an eclectic musical toolkit, working in baritone, tenor, and countertenor repertoires and in a variety of vocal traditions. Born and raised in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, he studied voice and musicology at Yale University, where he lent his energies to the Yale Collegium Musicum, the Opera Theater of Yale College, the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus, the Yale Glee Club, and the Whiffenpoofs of Yale. Picha has contributed solos and arrangements to more than half a dozen a cappella albums since 2011. The Contemporary Acapella Recording Awards honored his recording of "You'll Never Walk Alone" as a finalist in their 2016 Best Male Solo category. In addition to private studies with Cameron MacPhail, Janna Baty, and Richard Slade, Picha has been privileged to travel extensively with various ensembles, having performed in 40 across six continents in venues ranging from Zanzibar’s cliffside jazz bars to the Beijing Central Conservatory to the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. Picha currently sings as a section leader with Trinity Church on the Green.

MARIAH SAGE

Mariah Sage is delighted to return to Legacy again this season! Mariah has also performed in theatres coast to coast and in Europe.  Mariah earned her BFA in drama at NYU/Tisch and her MFA in acting at Brown University/Trinity Rep where she was a Stephen Sondheim Fellow.  She is on the theatre faculty at Quinnipiac University.  Her book Start Standing: Audition Technique for Actors and Presenters is available through publisher Kendall Hunt and on Amazon. Mariah is the founder of Present & Perform, an audition preparation and private coaching company based in New Haven  www.presentandperform.com

GENE STENGER

Hailed as an “impressive tenor” (The New York Times) who sings with “sweet vibrancy” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer), Gene Stenger is praised particularly for his performances of Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Mozart. Mr. Stenger has been a featured soloist with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, Portland Symphony, Helena Symphony, Eastern Connecticut Symphony, New Haven Symphony, Odyssey Opera, American Classical Orchestra, Colorado Bach Ensemble, Bach Society of St. Louis, Emmanuel Music, Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra, the Handel Society at Dartmouth College, Madison Bach Musicians, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Bach Akademie Charlotte, TENET Vocal Artists, the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, the Yale Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the Yale Schola Cantorum at Lincoln Center, and the Baldwin Wallace, Northeast Pennsylvania, Carmel, and Oregon Bach Festivals. He currently resides in New Haven, where he serves as instructor of voice at Yale.

ANNE TARPEY-FLANDERS

Anne is a singer, actor, mini movie maker and Great American Songbook Concerts’ producer. She has also spent over 20 years in the healthcare industry as a Hospital Service Excellence and Organizational Development Leader, Consultant and Coach.

Theatre, Regional and Summer Stock: Multiple roles including (I DO, I DO) Agnes; (THE FANTASTICKS) Louisa; (DAMES AT SEA) Joan; (LION IN WINTER) Eleanor of Aquitaine; (WAIT UNTIL DARK) Suzy; (OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT) Doris; (THE LARK) Joan of Arc; (SREETCAR NAMED DESIRE) Blanche; (THE HEIRESS) Catherine; (LUV) Ellen.

Cabaret/Concerts/Benefits: (NYC, NY Hudson Valley, CT Venues) One-woman Great American Songbook shows at various NYC Cabarets. Multiple seasons with Sarah Rice’s Broadway Concerts Direct Concerts, Fundraisers: Sarah Rice & Friends Benefit for Zani’s Furry Friends at Lorie Beechman Theatre, NYC; Veterans’ Stained Glass Installation at UCC Blooming Grove, NY; 1929 Pipe Organ Restoration and also Refugee Resettlement at First Congregational Church, Madison, CT; Guest Artist at The Harp, NYC; “The Zimmer Girls” at Actors Temple and Sardi’s, NYC; Great American Songbook Concert Series with Rich Flanders includes: Lost and Found!, Springish, Two on a Swing, A Valentine for You, Moonglow, A Cozy Fire and You and A Touch of Jazz! with Donn Trenner.

Anne lives, sings and feeds birds with her wonderful husband, Rich Flanders, in Madison, CT. www.annetarpeyflanders.com