Valery Gergiev, the Russian conductor, has been dropped by his management Company on Sunday over his close ties with the Russian president Vladimir Putin.
The 68-year-old, Valery has been represented by Marcus Felsner, who started his own management company after leaving Opus3. He has been associated with the company since 2020.
In a statement Felsner said, “In the light of the criminal war waged by the Russian regime against the democratic and independent nation of Ukraine, and against the European open society as a whole, it has become impossible for us, and unwelcome, to defend the interests of Maestro Gergiev.”
Gergiev is the music director of the theatre called Mariinsk in St. Petersburg, Russia, and at the same time, its White Night Festivals, as well as the chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic.
He is the hero of the Labor of the Russian Federation recipient and has some close connection with the Russian president. Adding to this, he expressed his support for the annexation of Crimea in 2014 by Russia.
Marcus called Valery, “the greatest conductor alive and an extraordinary human being with a profound sense of decency” and still he criticized Gergiev, “will not, or cannot, publicly end his long-expressed support for a regime that has come to commit such crimes.”
The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra that began the annual Gergiev Festivals in 1996 also said that they would cancel Russia’s planned festivals there if Putin does not stop.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin the director of Metropolitan Opera music by the Vienna Philharmonic for three-weekend performances at the Carnegie Hall in New York. Gergiev even won’t perform his two shows with that orchestra this week at Hayes Hall in Naples. Moreover, two performances with Mariinsky Orchestra were also canceled on Friday. The Orchestra would have been led by Valery Gergiev.
Felsner told about the close ties with Putin “the saddest day of my professional life.”
The representative of Gergiev in the USA, Doug Sheldon of Sheldon Artists, still has not responded on this matter.
Things have gone upside down since Putin invaded Ukraine. It has impacted different parts of the world. National, international and interpersonal communications now have been affected by this. And the entertainment industry is not bereft of it.
