Russian conductor Tugan Sokhiev announced on Sunday March 6 that he had left his post as musical director of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and the Orchester National du Capitole de Toulouse, saying he was under pressure to take a position on events in Ukraine.
“I know a lot of people were waiting for me to speak up and make my position known on what’s going on right now” in Ukraine, he wrote in a press release sent by his agent to AFP.
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“First of all, I must say the most important thing: I have never supported and will always be against any conflict in any form., he points out. that “some people question my desire for peace and think that me, as a musician, being able to talk about anything other than peace on our planet is shocking and offensive to me”.
Considered one of the greatest of the young generation, this leader of Ossetian origin – an ethnic group from the Russian Caucasus – still says he cannot “endure to witness how (his) colleagues, artists, actors, singers, dancers, directors are threatened, treated disrespectfully and victimized by ‘cancellation culture’”.
“I am being asked to choose one cultural tradition over another. (…) Soon I will be asked to choose between Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy. This is already happening in Poland, a European country, where Russian music is banned”he laments.
“Faced with the impossible option of choosing between my beloved Russian and French musicians, I have decided to resign from my duties as musical director of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and the Orchester National du Capitole de Toulouse. (in the south-west of France, editor’s note) with immediate effect”he explains.
“We musicians are there to remember through Shostakovich’s music the horrors of war. We musicians are the ambassadors of peace. Instead of using ourselves and our music to unite nations and peoples , we are divided and ostracized”he is indignant.