A Russian conductor has been removed by a management company because of his relationship with Putin: NPR
Conductor Valery Gergiev’s management company decided to remove him because of his close relationship with Russian President Putin.
Dmitry Lovetsky / AP
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Dmitry Lovetsky / AP
Conductor Valery Gergiev’s management company decided to remove him because of his close relationship with Russian President Putin.
Dmitry Lovetsky / AP
MUNICH – Russian conductor Valery Gergiev was dumped by his management company on Sunday because of his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The 68-year-old Russian has been represented since December 2020 by Munich-based Marcus Felsner, who founded his own management company that year after leaving Opus3.
“In light of the criminal war waged by the Russian regime against the democratic and independent nation of Ukraine, as well as against the whole open society of Europe, we cannot, and clearly are unwelcome, defending the interests of Maestro Gergiev,” Felsner said in a statement.
Gergiev is the musical director of the Mariinsky Theater in St.Petersburg, Russia, and its White Nights Festival, and conductor of the Munich Symphony Orchestra. The recipient of the Hero of Labor of the Russian Federation is someone close to Putin and expressed support for Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Felsner called Gergiev “the greatest conductor alive and an extraordinary human being with profound benevolence” but criticized Gergiev because he “will not, or cannot, publicly end the support he has expressed. long for a regime that has gone into such atrocities.”
The move by Gergiev management comes just before a deadline on Monday Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter imposed Gergiev to publicly denounce the invasion. If Gergiev does not comply, Reiter has said he will remove him from his position as conductor of the Munich Philharmonic.
The Rotterdam Symphony Orchestra – which started hosting the annual Gergiev Festival in 1996 – also said it would drop Russia’s planned festival there this September if he did not stop supporting Putin.
Metropolitan Opera musical director Yannick Nézet-Séguin replaced Gergiev in three weekend performances of the Vienna Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall in New York. Gergiev will not be conducting two performances with that orchestra this week at Hayes Hall in Naples, Florida. And Carnegie on Friday canceled two performances in May of the Mariinsky Orchestra conducted by Gergiev.
Felsner called the severance “the saddest day of my professional life.”
Gergiev and a US representative, Doug Sheldon of Sheldon Artists, did not respond to texts seeking comment.
