This is a message from Jan van den Borre, of the Musica Antiqua Festival in Brugge, to members of the Dutch Culture Council. Van den Borre is the incoming director of the Flanders Festival.
Things are evolving rapidly here in Flanders. Any new insights? For example, conductor Lahav Shani has come under fire for extending his contract with the Israel Philharmonic, an orchestra that historically began as a Palestinian orchestra, became Israeli after the Nakba, and now fully supports government policy. What wouldn’t have been a problem, or rather a minor one, a few weeks ago suddenly became a major one. Several activist groups and the city council (and, in fact, our Flemish Minister of Culture as well) felt he couldn’t perform at the Ghent Festival. And I understand why, and I would have immediately made the same decision at my festival. The festival had certainly suffered significant damage; several other artists canceled if he played, and a few board members resigned. Food for discussion? Absolutely! Should we, as programmers, develop some new reflexes? Perhaps. I recently saw Shani at work with the Rotterdams and was thrilled; he’s a truly wonderful conductor.
The orchestra has since labeled the festival antisemitic and has even issued an angry press release. In Flanders, the vast majority of the sector supports the festival’s decision, but within the EFA (European Festival Association, which shares its chairmanship with Gent Festival), opinions are very divided.
A small correction: The Palestine Symphony Orchestra was founded by Bronsilaw Hubermann with Jewish exiles from Germany and Austria. Its first guest conductor was Arturo Toscanini. The orchestra became the Israel Philharmonic when the British mandate ended in Palestine and a new state of Israel was founded.
It does not ‘fully support government policy’.
Apart from that, Van den Borre (pictured) seems like a perfect Belgian early-music arts administrator.
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