3/23/2021 0 Comments Valentina Lisitsa Height
Later, she was also denied from playing at the Lake Park Community Church in Toronto.According to the Toronto Star, Lisitsas would-be replacement, a Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear, said he was bullied into declining the invitation by her devotees.However, the author believes that what the TSO did last week is actually quite the opposite to what it did more than 60 years ago.
My first name for my paternal grandfather; and second for my maternal grandfather. My paternal grandfather- John Moskalyk was a talented violinist, who played for many years with the TSO, and taught at the Royal Conservatory of Music- and in whose name to this date there remains a scholarship for young musicians. The McCarthy witch hunts then were having their terrorizing effects on immigration to the USA. At the border, six TSO players (including two Ukrainians) were refused entry, and essentially thrown off the bus. The immigration officials accused them of having communist sympathies. Rather than having the orchestra as a whole return to Toronto, the conductor, Sir Arthur MacMillan, found intermittent replacements for the concert, and the engagement went ahead. In order to fulfil them, the management decided not to renew the contracts of the six players, and they were let-go from the TSO, based on their ethnic and religious backgrounds. This response to an unjustified smear led to a general outcry in the broad community. Although he recovered, my grandfather John Moskalyk was deeply hurt by the TSO decision. My own father a child at the time of his fathers dismissal, never did recover from the shame, and thus became estranged from his Ukrainian roots. My grandfather did rebound, and went on to have a very fulfilling career as a teacher, holding the position of lead violin instructor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music, until his untimely death in August 1966, at age 49. History did not repeat itself: where the TSO allowed itself to be influenced by hate-mongering and abusive profiling in the 1950s, last week it showed itself to have evolved. This time, its board took affirmative action in defense of human rights taking public action not to support those who promote hate, racism and abuse. This Easter Sunday, when I raise my glass with my family, I will remember the memory of a beautifully artistic grandfather, whom I did not know, but whose memory was celebrated posthumously, in a very indirect way, this Holy Week. Articles about the Community, Politics, Culture, Business and History are published on a weekly basis.
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