SHOULD I DENOUNCE ALL RUSSIAN MUSIC AND MUSICIANS BECAUSE OF THE UKRAINE WAR?
For those of you who are short of time, the quick answer is, “No!” Nobody can deny that the world is in a bad place at the moment: wars, genocide, terrorism, recessions, loss of free speech, human rights violations, a potential climate crisis, mass disinformation, derailing of public services, loss of jobs, and much more. People are feeling triggered, polarised, beyond stressed and are living in a near-constant state of fear; and nowhere is this more prevalent than on social media. A while ago I shared a light-hearted post about peoples’ favourite pianists in a public Facebook piano group. Some members engaged happily and everything was fine until a member from the USA decided to go on a rant about now hating all Russian music and musicians, due to the Ukraine War. I replied that they were being short-sighted because there were many great Russian musicians currently speaking out against the War, and I asked them to take their divisive politics somewhere else. Whoa, big mistake! W...
