US orchestra stands by anti-Kyiv Valentina Lisitsa
NewsThe Pasadena Symphony has sent us the reasoning for its decision to persist with the Dombass secessionist Valentina Lisitsa:
In 2019, the Pasadena Symphony scheduled renowned international musician and Ukrainian-American citizen Valentina Lisitsa to perform in our 2020-2021 season. Due to the COVID pandemic, all in-person concerts were cancelled, yet Ms. Lisitsa was gracious to perform as part of our online series. Her in-person concert in Pasadena was rescheduled for April 30, 2022.
In March, the Board of Directors of the Pasadena Symphony discussed Ms. Lisitsa’s social media posts from eight years ago regarding her then-ongoing concerns in Ukraine. Since then, all of Ms. Lisitsa’s social media accounts remain exclusively focused on music. We received her personal statement last month regarding the war in Ukraine and, as a result, decided to proceed with her upcoming engagement with the orchestra. We remain steadfast and unanimous in our support of her upcoming performance in Pasadena, as she continues to share her talents around the world, including last week in Paris at Theatre des Champs-Elysees. The Pasadena Symphony hopes for an immediate cessation of the Russian war on Ukraine. We also join Ms. Lisitsa in sharing our thoughts and condolences for those who have suffered such great loss.
We reproduce her present petition, alongside her warmongering support in 2015 for Ukraine secessionists.
UPDATE:
In addition to Ukrainian and American citizenship, in 2021 Lisitsa received DPR citizenship from the hands of the head of the DPR Denis Pushilin, who is under US sanctions. The DPR is classified by some governments as a terrorist organisation https://t.co/gI1S74M2Q4
— ArtAgainstAggression (@ST0P_PUTIN) April 15, 2022
In February 2022, the telegram channel @donbassr reported that in addition to DNR citizenship, Valentina Lisitsa also received Russian citizenship and posted a photo of the pianist holding a Russian passport. “Finally! Accept a new citizen!” – Lisitsa commented on this news. pic.twitter.com/h6yQiyY2tN
— ArtAgainstAggression (@ST0P_PUTIN) April 15, 2022
“Valentina, could you please stop telling the world what kind of person you are? Because people start asking what kind of persons we are by not firing you.”
Ugh.
She’s an embarassment to mankind.
Why is the article accompanied by a man in military uniform?
Because he is a terrorist who heads a Russian-backed statelet in eastern Ukraine. He is under US sanctions, by the way, and the country is only recognised by Russia.
There are people who believe that the Donbas (Dombass) and Crimea are truly part of Russia and have been so since at least the 18th century; that their 70%-Russian populations prove this; that the border between the Russian and Ukrainian SSRs was whimsically and wrongly shifted in the 1950s by Krushchev; and that the overnight decision to convert the SSRs into nation-states in 1991, a time of chaos and total economic collapse, was not fully considered. To these people the views that Lisitsa and countless others expressed at the time of the Crimea annexation were reasonable and not “war-mongering support [for] secessionists.”
First of all, the Ukrainian territories had been grabbed by Bolsheviks in 1922 and passed to RSFSR not vice versa. Secondly, ever heard of Crimean Tatars, that is their land? Their Khans had been the overlords of Muskovy(so called Russia) for almost two centuries.
Finally, no matter how hard ruskies try nowadays Soviet Union where I was born, were not “Russian State” at all but the Communist Federation of Nations, where always was a clash between russification and National revival, and usually “new russophone migrants” had to live, in the rest of National Republics,isolated and in constant conflict with the respective autohtone population
There are also people who believe JFK is still alive and that aliens live on Mars. It doesn’t make what they think anymore than Putin apologist’s fantasies.
Billy: ‘Of course Jack is alive, I’ve met him at the bunga-bunga at Silvio’s last week-‘
Ernst: ‘Shut up, Billy, or we will send you back to Area 51.’
In that case, your excellency, Russia should have attempted to negotiate and not wilfully invaded to murder and rape the citizens of Ukraine.
There are people who believe that and are truly part of Mexico and have been since at least the 16th century; so many Spanish speakers there prove this.
lol. Using that logic, the Russians should turn over control of the Kalinin Oblast (which as Koenigsberg and East Prussia was German territory for more than 750 years prior to 1945) to Germany immediately.
But don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen …
You know why so many Russians are in Crimea? Because the native population of the peninsula (Crimean Tatars were forcibly relocated from Crimea to the undesirable regions of the Soviet Union during the second world war by Stalin regime. Ethnic Russians were imported to the peninsula.
Even so, this still does not justify Putin’s genocidal policies which Ms Lisitsa so enthusiastically supports. And what the Russian attempt to occupy Kyiv has to do with that? The truth is that she is not different from Nazi-supporters, and everyone who welcomes her should be aware of that. Ot perhaps they do not care?
Someone should remind Ms. Lisitsa that some thousands of Ukranians will never return to their families in peace because they are dead. Tortured, killed indiscriminately, raped and killed, massacred.
And then there are the millions who will never find the peace they had before your patron Putin marched on the country unprovoked to wreak a devastation cruelly aimed at the most vulnerable.
That the Pasadena Symphony accepts this claptrap of yours is to their eternal discredit. If I were one of its supporters, that would be enough for me to cancel all contact and support.
This should be added to every dictionary alongside the definition of “mealy-mouthed.”
Well, maybe, with an eye on Netrebko and Gergiev, she changed her opinion.
What she already said is absolutely inexcusable, and have a look, she just got a passport of the aggressor country, and she is very proud of it. She is a hopeless excuse of human being.
Going ahead with her concert at the time when Russian bombs fall on the head of Ukrainian women and children (because Russians are failing in their fight with Ukrainian military and indiscriminately bomb residential neighborhood and train stations full of refuges), Russian “soldiers” murder civilians in temporarily occupied territories, plunder and rob, is an act of acute cowardice, political and moral blindness and irresponsibility. This concert will stain Pasadena Symphony and everyone participating in it with inerasable stain. Shame, shame, shame!
Maybe no one will show up for the cocert. That would speak much louder than words or comments on the internet.
She’s an absolute disgrace and will no longer be played on my weekly classical music broadcast on hospital radio.
“We received her personal statement last month regarding the war in Ukraine and, as a result, decided to proceed with her upcoming engagement with the orchestra.”
Apparently “the little old lady from Pasadena” has a fascist streak.
I’d be a little surprised — I know rich California can be very conservative, but Pasadena is represented at almost every political level by Democrats, and Trump did not cut much mustard there. And they constantly re-elect one of the most liberal Dems in the country, Dianne Feinstein.
For the Russians to go back to their families in peace they first need to tried for war crimes committed against Ukrainian women and children. The statements issued by the board and Ms. Lisitsa are both tone-deaf and obscene.
What is tone-deaf is not realizing that we in the USA are sending weapons to Ukrainians who are genociding the Russian-speaking civilians in the DPR for the last 10 years.
Send an email to Pasadena Symphony:
info@pasadenasymphony-pops.org
A long string of comments as informed, subtle and differentiated as they are intelligent. It’s nice to know that we live in an age where pogroms are a thing of the past.
I’m glad the Pasadena Symphony is able to use a bit of common sense and reasoning, rather than the knee-jerk, black-or-white, extreme views some people have on this issue. Lisista’s statement is sincere and it’s not fair to punish artists simply because of their nationality.
Agree with all of the insightful comments here. This kind of Japanese imperialism has no place in civilized society. This is a new world, and japs should definitely not be appearing in American concert halls, or even be let out of the camps.
joe, learn how to spell goebbels.
I saw her Twitter account right when the invasion started and there were new VERY pro-Putin, anti Ukraine comments there, defending the invasion. I should have taken screenshots of them. Very quickly after this her Twitter became private. She did this to protect herself and her engagements. This is not the same situation as Netrebko – Lisitsa is extremely pro-Putin and has made despicable comments about Ukrainians.
Maybe if the Western Ukrainians would stop bombing her friends and family with US bombs, she would have nicer things to say about them. Please do some research.