Political tensions in Ukraine and Crimea have prompted protests at recent concerts in London’s Trafalgar Square and Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall in Canada. Brian Wise writes on Monday’s (5/12) WQXR website, “Chanting ‘shame on you’ and waving Ukrainian flags, protesters interrupted a concert on Sunday by the London Symphony Orchestra to denounce its chief conductor, Valery Gergiev, for his support of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The demonstrators, comprising some 20 to 30 pro-Ukrainian and gay rights activists, booed Gergiev as he walked onto the podium…. Gergiev … has been the LSO’s principal conductor since 2007…. In March he … signed an open letter declaring support for the Russian president’s stance on Ukraine and Crimea.” Nicholas Keung writes in Thursday’s (5/8) Toronto Star that on Friday, the grassroots group Boycott Russia in North America were about to stage a rally outside Roy Thomson Hall, where the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and maestro Vladimir Spivakov were performing that evening. “Spivakov, a renowned conductor and violist, is one of more than 500 Russian artists who signed a Russian Federation government declaration in March that essentially endorsed the invasion of Ukraine by President Vladimir Putin’s government…. Supporters of Ukraine’s sovereignty worldwide have organized similar demonstrations against Russian performers and artists, from ballet groups to orchestras on tour abroad.”
Posted May 13, 2014
