Pianist says TSO donor threatened to cut funds if she performed

Diaspora politics at play?

Valentina Lisitsa, whose appearances were cancelled this week by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra because of tweets she posted about the Ukrainian crisis, says the TSO told her agent a donor threatened to withhold funds if she performed as scheduled.

In an interview in Toronto on Tuesday, the Ukrainian pianist also said orchestra CEO Jeff Melanson repeatedly refused to discuss the matter directly with her, and that orchestra management was swayed by “malicious translations” of some of her tweets in Ukrainian.

Ms. Lisitsa swept into a downtown hotel late in the afternoon saying she was determined to play in recital somewhere in Toronto on the nights she was to have played Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. “Maybe I’ll play it without them, just the solo part,” she said. “I’ve done it before.”

Ms. Lisitsa’s account of her dismissal conflicts at several points with the account given on Tuesday by Mr. Melanson. But they agreed that she would not retract the offending tweets.

Mr. Melanson said in a phone interview there was “absolutely no donor pressure.” Ms. Lisitsa showed The Globe and Mail an e-mail from her agent, Tanya Dorn at IMG Artists, dated Feb. 27, in which Ms. Dorn said she had spoken with Loie Fallis, TSO vice-president of artistic planning, who told her (in Ms. Dorn’s words) a “Ukrainian donor wants to pull his sponsorship.”

Mr. Melanson said the TSO received complaints from “a wide swath of Torontonians, I would say in the hundreds” about Ms. Lisitsa’s engagement because of her social media posts. He pointed to four tweets, one of which was translated as: “Dear conscious Ukrainians: I will never get tired of reminding you that you are dog feces. Thank you kindly for your attention.” Another shows the behinds of three hogs, with a text translated as: “Here are the faces of the leaders.”

Ms. Lisitsa said the translations were wrong, that “leaders” should have been “bureaucrats,” and that the first comment, translated without the quotation marks of the original, was an ironic quote from a literary work. Other tweets have been taken out of context or misinterpreted, she said.

…On March 13, Ms. Lisitsa said, the TSO forwarded to Ms. Dorn an e-mail from Toronto lawyer Michael C. Smith that cited section 319 of the Criminal Code concerning “wilful promotion of hatred,” and said “there is a possibility that Ms. Lisitsa could be stopped at the border … and deemed ‘unacceptable’ to Canada.” An attached note from Mr. Melanson, who is not a lawyer, went further, stating that Ms Lisitsa’s social media posts “would likely breach or come close to breaching the Criminal Code of Canada.” Ms. Lisitsa replied with her lawyer’s opinion rejecting that of Mr. Smith.

“The TSO said they were concerned,” she said, “and I offered to talk, but they never would. Jeff would never talk to me in person. They would say, ‘Jeff is going to talk to the Ukrainian community and he’ll get back to you.’ And I said, ‘Why won’t he talk to me?’ There was always a wall.”

Mr. Melanson gave a somewhat different account. “I think there was one offer to speak with us,” he said, but added that Ms. Lisitsa eventually insisted all communications go through lawyers. On Sunday, Ms. Lisitsa sent Ms. Fallis an e-mail, which she shared with The Globe, in which she said: “I am more than happy, if you wish, to meet tomorrow and talk how to best handle things that will arise from my appearance with TSO… I am not coming to give political speeches.”

That day, Ms. Lisitsa said, the orchestra told her manager her appearances were cancelled, and proposed a “very neutral” public statement that she was unable to perform. Ms. Lisitsa said that had she acquiesced, those in the local Ukrainian community who objected to her engagement would claim victory, “and wave it like a flag. I thought, it’s going to come out anyway, and not on my terms.”

Pianist says TSO donor threatened to cut funds if she performed – The Globe and Mail.