Just in: Melbourne Symphony abruptly fires boss
OrchestrasThe board of the embattled Australian orchestra has acted swiftly in the wake of the rebel pianist incident.
Out, immediately, goes Sophie Galaise, the Canadian chief executive. ‘We want to acknowledge Sophie’s contribution over the past eight years at the MSO and thank her for her dedication to the organisation,’ said the uncompromising statement.
In comes Richard Wigley, a New Zealander who used to run the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and the Ulster Orchestra.
Also on board is Australia’s former Federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett. he will lead an independent investigation into the orchestra’s ‘culture’, assisted by management consultants from KPMG.
These events were precipitated by the sacking of a pianist, Jayson Gillham, who made objectionable remarks about the Middle East situation in the course of a recital.
It remains to be seen whether the MSO musicians will be appeased by the sacking of Galaise, long a combative and isolated figure. The players have been demandingf the heads of other senior executives.
But this is decisively one step forward.
“objectionable remarks” only to Zionists. As international human rights lawyer and former senior UN official, Craig Mokhiber, recently stated, “…Israel now holds the world records for the murder of journalists, of aid workers, of UN officials, and of healthcare workers.” I suppose you find that statement objectionable too.
Look up the literal meaning of ‘objectionable’.
You would have been on slightly safer ground if you had used the word “controversial”. And I recall you previously calling his comments “anti-Semitic”, which they most certainly are not.
The pianist’s comments were “objectionable” because they were delivered during a recital.
Certainly not objectionable to Hamas supporters, which it sounds like you are. Zionism is quite simply the belief in the right for Jews to have a nation state in their homeland, alongside other peoples who live their with equal rights (which is why, for instance, Israel is arguably the most free country for Muslims – who comprise a fifth of the population of Israel – in the Middle East). Sounds like you find that objectionable. Hey, the anniversary of October 7th is around the corner – will you be celebrating?
Finally, some sense. Antisemites are trying to change the meeting of “Zionism” and should be called out for what they are. No other country has to deal with an enemy using citizens, including journalists, as human shields. Freeing hostages however would reduce the suffering, but that fact is very inconvenient for “anti-Zionists”
I am not a Hamas supporter, but I certainly don’t find the comments objectional, merely factual
Jason Gilham’ s comment was that killing journalists was a war crime…which it is . I am at a loss to see why this was regarded as offensive . It wasn’t followed up by anti Israeli rhetoric or support for Hamas, which would have been objectionable
I “object” to hearing political views or discourse when I’ve paid (or simply planned) to attend a recital.
His comment – which was factually wrong btw, and ignored the fact that not a few ‘journalists’ in Gaza have been found to have been Hamas militants, some of them ranking officers and some even took part in the atrocities of October 7th – was very clearly designed as an attack on Israel, which was the victim of an unprovoked horrific series of massacres, mass rapes, infanticides and abductions on October 7th and has been under constant fire from seven fronts (including Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, of course Iran etc., all of which are quite explicit in their genocidal ambitions) almost every single day since. And not a word from this pianist about the suffering of Israelis, of the rapes, of the babies who were killed, of the Israeli babies, old people, women and men who are being held in dark tunnels, raped and beaten up and starved. What a caring individual he must be – if you don’t happen to care about Israelis that is. You don’t seen anything – anything – objectionable about bringing such an attack to a recital stage?
Spewing atrocity diarrhea again now are we James. You have shown no credible evidence whatsoever in linking journalists to Hamas militants. And if you’re referring to the murdered freelance journalist Abdallah Aljamal, CNN debunked that claim in its 10 June report.
About your fantasist’s claim that 7 October was “unprovoked”…I suppose that would be true if you ignored 76 years and counting of ethnic cleansing, land theft, massacres (52 massacres of Palestinians between 1947 and 48, the murder of 1,000 Gazans in one day in 2008, the murder of over 4,000 in 2014, I could go on), occupation and apartheid (which btw, the ICJ just ruled as illegal), all occurring well before and precipitating 7 October.
Stop making baseless claims and wasting our time.
As it is a lie, it is an anti Israeli rhetoric.
Richard Wiley will be a positive force.
“Also on board is Australia’s former Federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett. He will lead an independent investigation into the orchestra’s ‘culture’…”
Peter Garrett was a vocalist with the successful Australian rock band “Midnight Oil” since 1976.
Garrett would know as much about a symphony orchestra as I would be considered a cognoscente of Sludge metal or Grindcore, i.e., zilch.
But Garrett’s brief will likely have nothing to do with the music, but with the human resources culture and working atmosphere of the organization. His experience as head of a ministry might make him knowledgeable about such matters. Or it might not: it depends on how effective and respected a minister he was.
Peter Garrett, frankly speaking, is an idiot. Actually, as the saying goes that, too, would lso be an insult to the village idiot.
There’s barely enough alcohol in Melbourne for the celebrations that are underway amongst the long-suffering musicians of the MSO right now.
“Meddle East” is a telling Freudian slip given the United States’ and other coubtrjes’ history of meddling in the region…
It’s a complex history that goes both ways – America was forced to get involved in the Nineteenth Century when Middle Eastern pirates kept hijacking their ships, stealing their goods and killing their sailors. I recommend Michael Oren’s excellent history on the subject, “Power, Faith and Fantasy”.
Peter Garrett, the Federal Arts Minister who discontinued funding for the Australian National Academy of Music, Australia’s preeminent orchestral training institution. It took Andre Rieu to criticise the cuts before the government intervened and forced him to reverse his decision. That gentleman.
The MSO would be better off with Leslie Garrett. And Andre Rieu. I don’t know what Peter Garrett’s position on Palestine might be, but he’s pretty big on saving the planet.
After all these years during which she created a reign of terror at the MSO, she finally gets what she deserves. She ruined 2 other orchestras before, having lived through it, I hope she never works in the sector again. Next up: the chairman of the board! Al Jazeera just issued an insightful documentary on how he uses the MSO for Chinese propaganda.
Allegro is entirely correct. The reign of terror really has nothing to do with Jayson. Tip of the iceberg perhaps. But this should have been coming for years. Love MSO, hope for a very bright future with her gone.
MSO needs a massive clean out, with so many toxic, grubby and entitled behaviours yet to be publicly known. Just hope the review discovers many of these and are shared publicly so these people leave the industry all together. The Arts in Australia deserve better people and proper leadership. Tip of the iceberg as many other Arts organisations also need a micro review the Executive elitist behaviour and expenditure of public funding that’s occurring.
Peter Garrett’s terms of refneed to be expanded to include investigation into the MSO chairman’s actions regarding soft diplomacy for China. The Al Jazeera doco was fascinating.
Fortunately for those MSO musicians Melbourne did not come under Iranian proxy Hezbollah rocket attack over the weekend. They can afford their self indulgent and luxurious political beliefs.
I think it’s pretty clear at this point that the response was not that of the MSO musicians. So much so that they passed a vote of no confidence against their upper management!
One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s seldem employed, uninspiring, concert pianist.
Someone should tell Al Jayseera that this isn’t what they meant when they called to globalise the intifada.
#FreeTickets #FromTheYarraToThePort
I used to see and hear a great deal of the MSO when I was a high school student in Melbourne: either at youth concerts with friends or listening to the ABC station 3LO; occasionally, evening concerts.
Now I don’t live in Melbourne, having left in 1969, and 3LO is now Radio National, which would never stoop to anything as reactionary as a symphony concert. I did see a concert of Debussy and Sibelius last night, but it came from Frankfurt via the Arte streaming service, followed by ‘Coppelia’ from Covent Garden.
If I were a member of a provincial orchestra I would be very afraid.
Just to pick you on a couple of things Andrew:
•the ABC’s 3LO became 774 in 90s and is now Radio Melbourne
•Radio National is the ABC’s ‘high-brow’ talk station
•All Classical music is streamed via ABC Classic and ABC Classic 2, which plays Australian recordings and artists 24/7.
You’ve been away too long.
Why would an Australian orchestra hire some idiot from Quebec to be its chief executive?
Not one. Two of them did.