Conductors Stand Down from Posts Amidst Russian Invasion

Resignations are occurring across the music industry, as many cultural institutions demand that Russian artists distance themselves from and condemn Russian President Putin’s decisions to invade Ukraine. 

Among the Russian artists leaving their positions is Tugan Sokhiev, who stepped down from his music director role of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater and France’s Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse (ONCT), both with immediate effect.

According to the New York Times, Sokhiev felt like he was being forced to pick between the two ensembles. “I am being asked to choose one cultural tradition over,” he stated. “I am being asked to choose one artist over the other.”

He told NY Times that both in Toulouse and at the Bolshoi, he often invited Ukrainian artists to perform. “We never even thought about our nationalities,” he said. “We were enjoying making music together.”

Sokhiev has been music director of ONCT since 2008 and of the Bolshoi since 2014. “Being forced to face the impossible option of choosing between my beloved Russian and beloved French musicians, I have decided to resign from my positions,” he wrote in a statement.

“I have never supported and I will always be against any conflicts in any shape and form,” he recently wrote on Facebook. “For some people even to question my desire of peace and think that me, as a musician could ever speak for anything other than Peace on our planet is shocking and offensive.”

Despite him feeling pressed to make official statements, ONCT denied pressuring him. “We never expected or, worse, demanded that Tugan make a choice between his native country and his beloved city of Toulouse,” said the mayor of Toulouse, Jean-Luc Moudenc in a statement. “It wouldn’t have made any sense. However, it was unthinkable to imagine that he would remain silent in the face of the war situation, both vis-à-vis the musicians and the public and the community.”

Moreover, London’s Royal Opera House (ROH) has terminated the contract of conductor Pavel Sorokin, permanent guest conductor of the ROH Royal Ballet, who made his debut with them in 2007. “Given the ongoing situation in Ukraine, it is not possible for Pavel Sorokin, conductor for the Bolshoi Orchestra, to guest conduct for the Royal Ballet at this time,” ROH said in a statement, according to Barron’s.

Russian-born conductor Thomas Sanderling has resigned as chief conductor and artistic director of the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra, in protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He has held the position with the ensemble since 2007.

“Following the recent aggression of Russia in Ukraine and especially the violent bombing of Ukrainian cities and growth of totalitarianism in Russia, I felt that I had to resign,” he said in his statement. “This decision has been very painful for me, as I was born in Novosibirsk and had always felt a strong connection to the orchestra.”

Similarly, conductor Vasily Petrenko made a statement condemning Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as “one of the greatest moral failures and humanitarian disasters of our century,” and decided to suspend all of his work in Russia until peace is restored.

As written in the New York Times, some Russian artists have been caught at a halfway point — wishing to maintain their international careers but worried about the consequences they could face in their Russian homeland for denouncing Putin.

A few institutions have requested that Russian artists issue statements against Putin before further performances, such as the Munich Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and Italy’s Teatro alla Scala, who have demanded that Valery Gergiev to step down if he could not denounce Putin.