Daily BrewTSO mutes Ukrainian pianist but is it a matter of free speech?
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s decision to cancel a pianist’s performance over her stance on the conflict in Ukraine is controversial, it may be questionable – but it’s not a violation of freedom of expression, says one advocate.
Marni Soupcoff, executive director of the Canadian Constitution and ardent free speech advocate, says the orchestra was well within its rights to cancel the performance by Valentina Lisitsa over her online comments about the conflict in Ukraine.
“I think it’s important to remember that what we’ve got here is still very different from a situation where you have a law saying you can’t say something, or you have the government,” Soupcoff tells Yahoo Canada News.
“I think that they should have every opportunity to do that. Whether they made the right choice is a different question and, for the record, I’m not sure that they did.”
Lisitsa was scheduled to perform Wednesday and Thursday this week.
The orchestra declined a request for an interview but in a statement, TSO President and CEO Jeff Melanson says the decision was made due to “ongoing accusations of deeply offensive language by Ukrainian media outlets.”
“Valentina Lisitsa’s provocative comments have overshadowed past performances. As one of Canada’s most important cultural institutions, our priority must remain on being a stage for the world’s great works of music, and not for opinions that some believe to be deeply offensive,” he says.
Pianist reacts
While the orchestra’s explanation is brief, Lisitsa’s response is not.
The Youtube sensation, who did not respond to requests for an interview, has taken to social media to denounce the decision.
In a lengthy letter to fans on Facebook, she accuses the TSO of helping her detractors “to assassinate me—not as a living person yet, but as a MUSICIAN.”
Born in Ukraine to a Russian mother and Ukrainian father, according to Slavyangrad.org, a decidedly pro-rebel website for which she sometimes translates articles, Lisitsa is now a U.S. citizen.
In the Facebook letter, 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.
Lisitsa decries the thousands killed and the “fakes published by Western media” depicting the situation.
“I took to Twitter in order to get the other side of the story heard, the one you never see in the mainstream media—the plight of my people, the good and bad things that were happening in Ukraine,” she writes.
On Twitter, where she goes by the handle @NedoUkrainka, she compares the Ukrainian government to Nazis.
She called on supporters on the weekend to demand the TSO #LetValentinaPlay.
Her supporters include the Russian Embassy of Canada.
“Witch-hunting US Senator McCarthy would applaud. Stop character assassination,” says the embassy’s official Twitter account.
Lisitsa has a formidable social media following, whose ranks swelled substantially since the controversy erupted.
The pianist accused the TSO of “trading freedom of speech for cash” but it’s not so simple, says Soupcoff.
“I think the TSO has every right to do it … but if you’re going to start delving into the political beliefs each performer holds it doesn’t seem like a great idea or a great precedent to set,” she says.
“If we censored every Hollywood actor based on the nutty things they said, I don’t think we’d be seeing many movies any more.”
