Ukrainian sisters lodging in Northumberland turn out to be musical prodigies

Sasha Mykhailichenko, 12, who has a scholarship to the Yehudi Menuhin School, and Khrystyna, 17, who has a bursary to the Royal Academy of Music. Photograph: Katherine Anne Rose/The Observer

When a Northumberland couple opened up their village home to a Ukrainian mother and her two daughters last year, they were responding to the plight of refugees escaping the Russian invasion. Having been told no more than that this was a musical family, Sheilagh Matheson and Chris Roberts offered two bedrooms and a honky-tonk piano.

Soon they found themselves arranging the loan of a Steinway upright after discovering that these children had an extraordinary musical talent – one that made passersby stop to listen at an open window.