Valery Gergiev
Read more about terminating our relationship with Valery Gergiev and the Gergiev Festival
On 1 March 2022, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the board of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Festivals (organiser of the Gergiev Festival) have taken the decision to terminate their relationship with Valery Gergiev.
Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on 24 February 2022, Valery Gergiev was invited to respond and to publicly distance himself from the acts of President Putin in Ukraine. In anticipation of any response, we had suspended our relationship with the conductor.
On 28 February 2022 we were able to contact Mr Gergiev. However, at the end of this conversation insurmountable differences remained. The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Festivals therefore considered they had no choice but to terminate their relationship with the conductor. All remaining concerts of the 2021-2022 season with Mr Gergiev were cancelled. The Gergiev Festival will also be disbanded.
This action ends a very close relationship between the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Valery Gergiev stretching back to 1988. Although, from an artistic perspective, bringing an end to this relationship has been a painful decision, neither organisation saw any other way forward. We are currently looking into alternatives for programmes already scheduled.
