A British musician accepts Moscow first prize
NewsAn Edinburgh-born musician, pictured here, was awarded first prize in composition at the Putin-backed Gergiev-Matsuev Rachmaninov Competition in Moscow.
His former schoolmate Petru Cotarcea writes:
I would like to express my absolute and disgust at a person I used to genuinely respect – my former schoolmate [– ] an acclaimed pianist and composer – who despite the awful suffering cased by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and against a backdrop of discontent from his fellow UK colleagues, has decided to nevertheless fly to Moscow to take part in the Rachmaninoff composition competition, organised by RosConcert – a Russian state organisation wholly supportive of Putin and his war. The organisers have had numerous events in the Red Square, that were clearly pro-Kremlin. Among the participants was even patriarch Kirill who literally ‘blessed’ the invasion.
The event was boycotted by all other western musicians.
Comments