The signatories include several soloists and members of leading orchestras across the US
More than 600 American classical musicians, tutors, conductors and administrators have put their names to an open letter and petition denouncing the challenges to artistic free speech that have emerged in the first months of the second Donald Trump administration.
The signatories include violinists Margaret Batjer, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Jonathan Biss, Andrés Cárdenes, Catherine Cho, Eugene Drucker, Guillermo Figueroa, Miriam Fried, Francisco Fullana, Maria Ioudenitch, Ani Kavafian, Chin Kim, Shannon Lee, Cho-Liang Lin, Nathan Meltzer, Midori, Kurt Sassmannshaus, Gabriel Schaff, Arnold Steinhardt, Elena Urioste, Almita Vamos, Donald Weilerstein, Melissa White and Nancy Zhou; violists Misha Amory, Atar Arad, Jordan Bak and Karen Dreyfus; and cellists Natasha Brofsky, Rafael Figueroa, Ralph Kirshbaum, Wolfram Koessel and Seth Parker Woods,
Titled ‘Musicians for Democracy’, the petition begins: ‘Our passion and mission are making music and, in doing so, offering listeners the possibility of deepening their experience and understanding of the world. We are not politicians: We are working citizens who are drawn to music because of its capacity to bridge different viewpoints and cultures, and to connect us through our shared humanity.’
The letter asserts that: ‘Every single one of us knows multiple people across different sectors of American society who have lost jobs or face life-altering insecurity due to censorship or retaliatory measures over the past three months.’ At the time of writing, the petition had garnered almost 1,000 signatures.
Photo: Matt Wade/Wikipedia
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