Daily BrewTSO row with Ukranian pianist escalates
The president of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra says he’s been threatened since cancelling the performance of pianist Valentina Lisitsa over her controversial online comments about the conflict in Ukraine.
But Jeff Melanson says he stands by his decision.
“In light of what we’ve seen in the past few days, it’s very clear that we made the right decision,” Melanson tells Yahoo Canada News.
Lisitsa was scheduled to perform Wednesday and Thursday this week but her appearance was scratched, the orchestra citing “deeply offensive language” and provocative comments on her Twitter feed.
A pianist who has successfully harnessed social media, Lisitsa made a plea to her substantial online fan base to pressure the orchestra to let her play.
The response has been hateful and distorted, Melanson says.
“There have been a couple of threats that we’ve received – tell us where I live, we know who he is, that kind of thing. A lot of very hateful things said,” he says.
He admits he is concerned about his safety.
“I’m a gigantic man and seldom do I feel physically threatened … yesterday is the most threatened I’ve felt,” he says.
Replacement pianist drops out
Pianist Stewart Goodyear was to replace Lisitsa in the recital of Rachmaninoff’s second concerto but he says he, too, has been targeted.
“Words of bile and hatred were hurled in my direction from all sides,” Goodyear posted on his Facebook page.
“Suddenly I was accused of supporting censorship, and bullied into declining this engagement. What started out as one of the happiest moments of my life turned into a shattering display of mob hysteria.”
The orchestra has now cut the Rachmaninoff portion of the concerts and offered ticket holders the option of refunds and a replacement concert.
For her part, Lisitsa says she planned a free concert in Toronto but the venue backed out because of pressure from her detractors. Lisitsa has not responded to requests for an interview.
On Twitter, Lisitsa is a harsh critic of the Ukrainian government. The TSO sent her seven pages of tweets that caused them concern.
Many could certainly be considered disrespectful, inflammatory or in poor taste but the worst appears to be her recurring comparison of the Ukrainian government to Nazis.
In a letter posted on Facebook, she refers to the “magnificent revolution, the people of Ukraine raising [sic] in fury against their corrupt rulers, for a better life.”
It’s a controversial take on the Ukraine conflict in Canada, where the federal government has repeatedly condemned Russian military aggression and illegal occupation of the European nation.
TSO donor pressure
Lisitsa accuses the TSO of bowing to pressure from a rich donor but Melanson says that’s not the case.
“There’s been a lot of distortion in the last couple of days and misrepresentation of the facts,” he says.
The controversy has turned out to be a bit of a boon to the pianist. Lisitsa now has more than 13,000 followers on Twitter and her Facebook page has more than 82,000 likes.
Though it’s not an issue of free speech – employers have the right to set limits on what employees can say and do in the public arena – censoring someone can have that effect, says Marni Soupcoff, executive director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation.
“You risk making them out to be a martyr and you do, oftentimes, give them far more attention and far more of a platform than they otherwise would have had. Suddenly they’ve got this megaphone,” she says.
Melanson says the TSO has tiptoed into a place they didn’t want to go but he feels there needs to be greater debate about free speech versus intolerance, and the role of institutions like his.
Lisitsa is scheduled to perform with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra this summer. That concert will go ahead.
“Whether or not one agrees with Ms. Lisitsa’s political views, at this time at the CPO, our agreement with her is as a guest artist, to perform Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with our orchestra in June,” Heather Slater, director of artistic planning, says in a statement.
