This is a Facebook post by a part Russian artist named Aleksey Igudesman....
Aleksey Igudesman is known as a violinist, composer, conductor, film maker and entrepreneur
I found his comments interesting
’Dont you have anything to say about the situation in Ukraine???
As a Russian musician and a leading artist… Very disappointing, dear Aleksey 🙁 “
As I keep on getting messages like the one above, I would like to make my position quite clear:
I think any kind of war is horrific, pointless and does not belong in this century.
From what I have heard and read on the sites that are available to me, this aggression on the Ukraine from Putin was unprovoked and unnecessary.
That is my personal belief.
I am an artist and musician and my knowledge and insights into politics is very limited.
In general it is not the responsibility of artists to make political statements.
That we condemn war and oppose aggression, should be a given in our profession.
I myself have Jewish, Russian, Ukrainian, Latvian, Austrian and German roots.
However, I personally do not care too much about any of that.
I have always felt like a human being that is not tied to any nation, nationality, or ethnicity.
When my family and I left the Soviet Union in 1979, we had to give up our Soviet passports.
So in actual fact, I was never actually Russian. In our passports back then, it did not even say “Russian" - it said “Jewish”.
What is happening to the people of Ukraine is clearly a tragedy.
Presently, I am finding the right charities to work with and putting support into place, as well as working out how I can help in other ways.
However, I am begging everyone to stop witch-hunting and forcing them to give political statements.
To stop programming Russian music and to cancel Russian musicians, and other performing artists, regardless of whether they give statements or not, is deeply racist and intrinsically short-sighted.
Tchaikovsky has nothing to do with Putin. They never met and never will.
Imagine the following scenario:
You are a Russian artist who lives in Moscow with a family and a child, or who has family in Russia.
If you give statements against the government, the danger of something happening to you or your family in a regime like Russia is very real.
No-one should be forced to become a martyr and put their family and livelihood in danger. If one does, that has to be the individual's own choice.
Being persecuted on media and social media and disinvited from performances just shows how deeply screwed up our beliefs and understanding of today's world is, and how little empathy we really have for one another.
We shout for freedom of speech, but punish people when they differ in opinion or stay silent because they are scared of sharing their opinion due to real threats to themselves.
We ask for political correctness, equality and empathy, but we fail to put ourselves in other people's shoes and look at a different side or concern besides our own.
Please, let us people in the music world focus on the things that we can do well and are truly important coming from us, which is:
Helping the people in need in whatever way we can and spreading the message of music, love and peace.