According to Russian conductor Tugan Sochiyev, he is being forced to choose between two cultural traditions.
The chief conductor of Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater, Tugan Sochiyev, is leaving his post as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, he is also resigning from his position as music director of the national orchestra at the Capitole opera house in Toulouse, France, according to a statement by Sochiyev published on Sunday.
Having been forced to make the “unacceptable choice” between his beloved Russian and French musicians, Sochiyev said he decided to give up both musical directorships. “Today in Europe, I’m being forced to make a choice and prefer one member of my musical family to the other,” wrote the 44-year-old Sochiyev, who was born in Vladikavkaz in southern Russia. He is forced to choose between two cultural traditions. Many people would have expected his position “on what is currently happening,” said Sochiyev. The “current events” evoked “difficult feelings” in him.
He did not specifically name the war in his statement. Sochiyev, who has been chief conductor at the Bolshoi Theater since 2014, emphasized that he has never supported armed conflicts and, over the 20 years of his musical career, has always sympathized with the victims of all conflicts. He has been conducting in Toulouse in south-western France since 2005 – first as a guest and then as the orchestra’s musical director. From 2012 to 2016 Sochiyev was also chief conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester (DSO) Berlin.
Since the war in Ukraine, more and more Russian artists have come under pressure to publicly declare themselves. Soprano Anna Netrebko canceled her performances at the Zurich Opera, and a concert in the Elbphilharmonie was postponed. And conductor Valery Gergiev lost engagements in Munich and Milan, among others, after he had not publicly commented on the war in Ukraine.