WSO music director denounces home country’s ‘criminal’ action in Ukraine

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This article was published 03/03/2022 (1640 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Russian-born music director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra did not mince words in his condemnation of his native country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Daniel Raiskin called the Russian government’s actions “criminal” and the war it is currently waging with its neighbour “fratricidal.”

“I firmly believe that it is the duty of every artist to speak the truth, expressing himself through the art he makes. But today, this alone is not enough,” the St. Petersburg-raised musician wrote Wednesday on his Facebook page.

“Each rocket, each shell, each shot was made for one reason only: to kill… to kill a person, a people, an infrastructure, a country,” he continued. “Murder is a crime and will be punished. In the country of Dostoevsky, this should be well remembered. War kills, there is no excuse for war. The war must be stopped immediately.”

Raiskin’s post was spurred by the ongoing invasion efforts of the Russian government, led by President Vladimir Putin.

As of Thursday, the Russian army was bombarding several major cities, and had reportedly captured the city of Kherson, a key hub on the Black Sea. The BBC reported more than 2,000 Ukrainian civilians were killed in the week since the invasion began, with more than one million fleeing the country over that period.

The son of a prominent musicologist and a mathematician, Raiskin attended the famed conservatory in his native city, according to his personal website, where musicians including Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich were trained.

Since 2018, Raiskin has been the music director of the WSO, while also serving as the chief conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra in Bratislava and a principal guest conductor of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra in Serbia.

In an interview with the Winnipeg Jewish Post & News, published earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic, Raiskin recounted his St. Petersburg upbringing, while also discussing the power of art in times of crisis and solitude.

“I feel today, more than ever, people feel how important arts and culture are to them,” he said from his home in Amsterdam. “We suddenly realize that we use art to communicate with each other.”

In the past, Raiskin’s regularly made guest appearances with the St. Petersburg-based Mariinsky Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic, and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Symphony, and frequently worked with youth orchestras across the world, including in Russia.

However, those engagements are now on hold, according to a second post on Facebook made Wednesday, in which Raiskin expanded on his initial condemnation of the Russian government’s acts of war against a country home to many people he knows and cares about.

“In these extremely distressing times, while my family members are being bombed by the armed forces of the country I was born and grew up in, I am suspending all immediate and future work and concert appearances in Russia,” Raiskin wrote.

“Until the senselessly barbaric bestialities are halted, peace restored and justice served, I do not feel being on moral ground while collaborating with institutions subsidized by the murderous Russian regime.”

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca