Pianist to tour Australia amid legal row with orchestra
Liz Hobday |
A concert pianist suing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for political discrimination is returning to Australia for a self-presented tour.
Jayson Gillham will tour with UK-based Palestinian-Jordanian pianist Iyad Sughayer, who is making his Australian debut, after the pair met at a fundraiser for Gaza in 2024.
Keys to Life – Two Friends, Two Pianos will tour in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane in July.
Before that, Gillham’s case against the MSO – set to become a test of workplace rights – will be heard in a Federal Court trial expected to run for three weeks in May.
The acclaimed performer is suing the orchestra over the termination of his contract after a performance at an MSO event in 2024, when he performed a solo piece called Witness dedicated to journalists killed in Gaza.
Gillham introduced the piece by saying Israel targeted journalists in an effort to prevent the documentation and broadcasting of war crimes to the world.
Artists should have the right to be themselves onstage and speak about pressing issues of conscience, said Gillham.
“I find that it’s a very important principle and I am seeing it through right to the end,” he said.
“I think the public are on on side, that’s the way it feels to me, and I think we’ll see lots of people excited to come to these concerts as well.”
A trial had been set for March 2025, but was delayed until December after lawyers for the orchestra launched an unsuccessful strikeout application. The hearing is set for May so the MSO can call 20 witnesses.
“All of this has made it drag out longer, made it more more expensive for everyone, and the MSO is spending public money as well,” said Gillham, who has crowdfunded $130,000 for court costs.
The MSO has declined to comment, citing ongoing court proceedings.
The Keys to Life program will include two-piano pieces by Mozart, Ravel and Debussy, Khachaturian and Chabrier, and the world premiere of a new work by Palestinian-Lebanese composer Houtaf Khoury.
Gillham is trying his hand at presenting the tour himself, hiring the venues and even making decisions about seating.
“Obviously it’s a bit of a learning curve and the financial investment is much more than just agreeing on a contract and playing, and then getting paid,” he said.
Intergenerational conflicts in the Middle East region between Palestinians and Israelis escalated on October 7, 2023, when terrorist organisation Hamas launched an assault in southern Israel that killed more than 1200 people.
Since then, more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to figures from Gaza’s Ministry of Health cited by the United Nations.
The tour begins in Melbourne at the Recital Centre on July 19.
AAP