If Ukrainian-born pianist Valentina Lisitsa had been 'tweeting' about big bad Russia, paraphrasing the usual spoon fed drivel/propaganda/ perception management promoted by our war mongering media, she would be playing with the Totalitarian (Toronto) SymphonyHowever, the Totalitarian (Toronto) Symphony, living up to it's correct name, has banned her from performing-What a disgrace! She has absolutely every right to express concerns about her home country
Ukrainian-born pianist Valentina Lisitsa will not perform with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra this week because of what the TSO calls “provocative comments.” In a statement written by the pianist and posted on Facebook Monday, Lisitsa said she has been accused of “inciting hatred” on Twitter because of her comments on the conflict in Ukraine.
Lisitsa, an ethnic Russian born in Ukraine who has lived in the United States and Paris, said she has been speaking out against the “atrocities” of the civil war, particularly those committed against the Russian minority in the country’s eastern and southern regions.Lisitsa wrote about the people of Ukraine “raising in fury against their corrupt rulers.”
But she said “the ruling class doesn’t let go easily” and the “same rich people” remain in power amid misery and poverty, thousands of deaths and over a million refugees.She accused Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk of calling Russian-speaking Ukrainians “subhumans,” in official documents, and called at least one member of the nation’s armed forces a “neo-Nazi.” She has also posted photos of what she calls “Nazi torchlight marches.”
She said she has been “watching helplessly” as her country slides “ever faster into the abyss” and had taken to Twitter to get the “other side of the story” heard, “the one you never see in the mainstream media – the plight of my people, the good and bad things that were happening in Ukraine.”
TSO president and CEO Jeff Melanson said in a statement Lisitsa has been replaced due to “ongoing accusations of deeply offensive language by Ukrainian media outlets.”
“As one of Canada’s most important cultural institutions, our priority must remain on being a stage for the world’s great works of music, and not for opinions that some believe to be deeply offensive,” he said.
One of Canada's most important cultural institutions? Promoting the war culture?
She added that the TSO will pay her not to perform because she exercised her right to free speech.
In Canada, there is no 'free speech' there is only state sanctioned speech.One last thought- It was the Toronto Symphony that politicized this issue- I would have never known about this incident had the Toronto Symphony not bent to the political will of the state and/or certain influential benefactors.Ukrainian Neo Nazis BBC on the Ukie Neo Nazis: And of course the Jewish Oligarch, paymaster of the Neo Nazi battallions
Kolomoisky and his t shirt: Ukrainian Trident resembling the Jewish Menorah in the red-black colors of the Bandera flag.
Toronto Symphony. Pathetic.