OTTAWA, March 6 (Reuters) – Tugan Sokhiev, the conductor of the prestigious Bolsho Theater in Moscow, announced on Sunday that he was leaving his post after coming under pressure to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian conductor has also resigned from his post at the head of the Orchester national du Capitole de Toulouse, where the municipality had asked him to clarify his position with regard to the invasion of Ukraine.
“I have decided to resign from my duties as musical director of the Bolsho Moscow theater and Orchester National du Capitole de Toulouse with immediate effect,” he said on his Facebook page.
“Today I am forced to make a choice and choose one of my musical family rather than the other. I am asked to choose one cultural tradition rather than another, I am asked to choose an artist rather than I am being asked to choose one singer over the other. I will soon be asked to choose between Tchakovski, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy”, explains the conductor.
The Munich Philharmonic recently dismissed principal conductor Valery Gergiev with immediate effect after the latter refused to condemn the invasion. (Report David Ljunggren, French version Jean-Michel Blot)