Ivan is travelling across the country, and not charging punters a penny for his charity concerts.

A Ukrainian-born pianist will perform a free charity concert in Macclesfield.

Ivan Hovorun (38), who lives in Manchester, will perform a charity concert in our town.

Ivan was born in Kaniv, a rural city two hours south west from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. He also lived in Lviv for 15 years, which is a city close to the Polish border.

While he has lived in the UK since 2009, he has friends he is in regular contact with who are still in Ukraine.

Ivan will come to Macclesfield on the afternoon of Friday March 11.

St. Michael's on Market Place will host Ivan on Friday March 11.

Money donated at the free concert will go straight to the Global Support Fund, established by the Embassy of Ukraine in the UK.

"My mission is to unite communities," said Ivan.

"Not just Ukrainian communities or bordering communities like Polish or Lithuanian, but also local British communities. I want to unite people to try and help each other.

"Hopefully we will promote the idea of supporting peace in the future, but at the moment they need money to get them all the help they can.

"I have had conversations with my friends in Ukraine and they have said 'financial help is really important', but also I'd like to have a book at these concerts to help spread the word that audience members can write messages of support in.

"Hopefully I could then pass this book into the frontlines as a gesture of support."

You can listen to a performance of Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti's 'Sonata' at the top of this article. (Image - Elina Akselrud)

The concert in Macclesfield will be the first in a series of piano performances in aid of Ukraine.

His Macclesfield performance will be one of six charity concerts across Cheshire and Greater Manchester.

"I want to share the message that people on the frontlines are not alone," he added.

"And to show that even if you are far away, we are trying to support them through this really horrible dictatorship regime."

Macclesfield residents and Brits have felt compelled to help Ukrainians at home and away, following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

It is hoped Ivan's optimism through music will help the country rebuild, and support refugees.

As well as uniting smaller communities including Macclesfield through the arts, Ivan will hope to play in places with larger Eastern European populations and institutions in the near future.

For his Macclesfield concert, Ivan will play the works of Mendelssohn, Liszt, and Chopin. He will also play one piece of Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk.

Macclesfield Town Council said: "On 11th March at 1.15pm St Michael's will play host to Ukrainian pianist Ivan Hovorun.

Beautiful Kaniv: Ivan was born in Kaniv - an 11th century picturesque river port city, which predates Macclesfield becoming a town. Image - CC 3.0 Unchanged bit.ly/3K4yfkh Ñ (Haidamac)

"It serves as an opportunity for Macclesfield to show its support.

"Entry will be free and there will be the opportunity to give to charities working to support the innocent victims of the war in Ukraine."

Ivan is a piano virtuoso which promises to blow you away. He moved from Ukraine to study at Manchester's Royal Northern College of Music.

While there exists no recordings of what he will perform in Macclesfield, we've included a performance from him at the top of this article.

You can also listen to selected renditions of Beethoven and 'La Campanella' by clicking on the red links.

If you can't make the event, you can donate to the Global Support Fund for Ukraine here.

You can follow Ivan on Facebook.

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