Musician's dissent dismissed as "sanctimonious shit"

Violinist, conductor, composer, and improviser Pekka Kuusisto recently announced he would pausing his professional engagements in the United States in the following message:

I’ve decided to stop working in the United States for the time being. 

I want no pressure placed on any of my colleagues to come to the same conclusion. 

Love and solidarity

Predictability his decision was greeted by an outpouring of bile on the classical music industry's online resource of choice Slipped Disc. Just as the decision of respected American composer John Luther Adams to relocate to Australia was greeted with similar bile. Here is just one comment posted in response to Pekka Kuusisto's decision:

Sanctimonious piece of shit. Never going to another one of his concerts. The US didn’t kill Iranian school girls for performative violence. This false accusation is disrespectful to the US military which gives Pekka his freedoms.


Online forums always attract nutjobs. But this thread is a continuation of a long-running toxic meme on Slipped Disc aimed at Finnish musicians in general and Klaus Mäkelä in particular. And let's not forget that the very same forum repeatedly demonises Wilhelm Furtwängler for deciding not to pause his association with an authoritarian regime. It is indeed ironic that an American media source - Boston Today - provides a more mature response: 

Why it matters
Kuusisto is a highly respected figure in the classical music world.... His decision to pause performances in the US highlights the growing intersection between art, politics, and ethics, as musicians increasingly grapple with the implications of their work and platforms.

Some years ago I was privileged to curate a pre-concert talk with Pekka Kuusisto. At the concert Pekka was playing Thomas Adès' Violin Concerto with the composer conducting. Despite committing to this challenging work, Pekka had agreed not only to a pre-concert talk, but also to rehearsing, performing, and improvising with teenage musicians before the main concert. 

Adès thoughtlessly overran by some minutes the final rehearsal of a Beethoven symphony. This left the nervous but excited youngsters, Pekka and me standing in the wings for an uncomfortably long time waiting for the rehearsal to end and for the audience to be admitted. Despite this Pekka was completely unflustered and worked magnificently with the young people when they finally took to the platform. He also declined to curtail the time spent onstage with the youngsters, despite the timing snafu.  

Pekka Kuusisto is a passionate classical music animateur who, thankfully, refuses to limit himself to working within the constraining comfort zones defined by the classical establishment. And, very importantly, he possesses two characteristics that are increasingly rare in classical music today - compassion and integrity.

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