Russian Musicians Must Speak Out Wednesday, July 6, 2011 : By Gidon Kremer It’s been said that musicians should not meddle in politics. It is significantly less dangerous to engage in pure art. But let us recall history. The words spoken in defense of the Palestinians by the late Yehudi Menuhin, often considered the best violinist in the 20th century, irritated the establishment. The cellist Rostropovich provided shelter in his dacha to the disgraced Solzhenitsyn, and in doing so fell from grace himself. I think that in standing up for Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, imprisoned in Russia on trumped-up charges of fraud, all of us hope to focus attention on the Russian leadership’s willful ignorance of the law. Without legal guarantees, everybody in the state could find themselves unlawfully charged with crimes they didn’t commit. Khodorkovsky and Lebedev have spent eight years in prison on such charges, and could face many more, in order to silence their support of democracy. To answer Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s cynical pronouncement that "a thief must sit in jail," I would like to offer lines from the great Pushkin: "And to the nation long shall I be dear For having with my lyre evoked kind feelings, Exalted freedom in my cruel age And called for mercy toward the downfallen." A familiar Russian theme — the power and the poet. It was always rare for the two to be found on the same podium. Musicians are not and will never be politicians, but this does not mean we have no conscience. We are professionals in the field of interpretation, and also have the right to a subjective point of view. The ability to see in music not only aesthetics, but a means to attain ethical objectives, both ennobles our profession and gives it another meaning. We have a chance to respond to the Russian poet N. Nekrasov’s words: "You are free not to be a poet, but you have a duty to be a citizen." To intercede for the cause of justice with sounds, to be in solidarity with those who are deprived of a voice and deprived of elementary human rights, is the best message we can send. A very talented and thoughtful man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky became a threat to a system that’s always been known for totalitarianism and violence. Those in power have always abhorred anyone who doesn’t obey or worship their system. Those gifted enough to fight it will be targeted for silence. It’s obvious to the world that the charges against Mikhail Khodorkovsky are ridiculous. Once the richest man in Russia, he sought to use his wealth as a tool to improve society. But Russia’s regime simply labeled such efforts as "unjustified" and a "crime." Those who control Russian society believe that the easiest way to make their problem go away is to keep Mikhail Khodorkovsky behind bars. As artists, it’s our duty to raise our voices in a chorus of opposition to drown out those who seek to humiliate and punish men like Khodorkovsky. Why? Because history has proved men like Khodorkovsky right. It’s my fervent hope that our sounds will help give added strength to those who have been unjustly convicted or persecuted. May our music destroy the fetters put on by those who are venal, perfidious and power hungry. Music liberates for the reason that it promotes harmony. So listen attentively to what the great composers (and we, their humble interpreters) have said, and still say, with depth and emotion, preaching the most obvious values of life: the right to independence of views, the right to self-determination, the right to love ... and to liberty. May our sounds help those deprived of liberty regain it. Violinist Gidon Kremer, a Latvian who left the USSR in 1980 and settled in the West, is artistic director of the chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica. Sentinel Source.com

Four personalities of the world of the arts decorated (Translated from French) Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 Photo: Farida Bréchemier / MCC On June 29th, Frédéric Mitterrand, put back officer's badges in the order of the Arts and Letters to Evgeny Kissin, of Commander in the order of the Arts and Letters to Myung-Whun Chung, Commander in the order of the Arts and Letters to Ismail Serageldin, and of Knight in the order of the Legion of Honour to Claude Ruiz-Picasso. Evgeny Kissin. Born in 1971, he begins to play the piano from the age of two years and integrates into six years the Russian Gnessine music academy of Moscow. At the age of 10, he holds the keyboard in the Concerto KV. 466 of the Mozart. Next year, he already gives his first recital in Moscow. In 1984, he interprets two concertos for piano of Chopin with the Philharmonic orchestra of Moscow. He plays in 1988 and 1989 supervised by Herbert von Karajan the Concerto for piano N 1 Tchaïkovski. In 1997, Evgeny Kissin received the price Triumph for its contribution to the culture of Russia. In 2001, was made honorary doctor of Manhattan School of Music. In 2003, he received the Price Chostakovitch. In 2005, he was received honorary member of Royal Academy of Music of London. He is also a prize-winner of the Herbert von Karajan Music Prize. He began in 2011 a big tour to States - Unite who will see him occurring in particular in numerous concerts of chamber music supervised by Yuri Bashmet. Myung-Whun Chung. At first pianist, he studies the direction of orchestra in Baskets School of Music of New York, then in Juilliard School. In 1978, he becomes an assistant of Carlo Maria Giulini. Two years later, he is named a deputy head of the Philharmonic orchestra of Los Angeles. Musical director of the Radio orchestra of Saarbruck from 1984 till 1990, first invited head of the Teatro Comunale de Florence from 1989 till 1992, musical director of the Opera of Paris from 1989 till 1994, Myung-Whun Chung manages the most prestigious trainings: philharmonic orchestra of Berlin, royal Orchestra of Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Philharmonic orchestra of Vienna … Main Head of the Orchestra of the Accademia nazionale di Santa Cecilia of Rome since October, 1997, he is the founder and the musical director of the Asia Philharmonic Orchestra. At the same time as his musical activities, he was from 1992 till 1997 an ambassador with United Nations for the programme of fight against drugs ( UNDCCP) and was named in 1995 " Man of the year " by Unesco. In 1996, the highest cultural merit ("Kumkuan") was awarded to him by the Korean government for its exceptional contribution to the musical life in Korea. He was named on the guiding May 1st, 2000 of the Philharmonic orchestra of Radio France. Ismail Serageldin. Born in 1944 to Guizeh ( Egypt), Ismail Serageldin is Awarded a diploma by the Faculty of the Engineers of the University of Cairo and holder of a control and by a Doctorate of the University of Harvard. Before joining the World Bank, he was to advise in urban and regional planning and taught the universities of Cairo and Harvard. In 2000, Ismail Serageldin dismissed all his international responsibilities and returns in Egypt to participate in the big project of resurrection of Bibliotheca Alexandrina, director of which he will be named next year. Ismail Serageldin is member of the Egyptian Senate. He also copréside the African Panel of Biotechnology, is vice-president of the Academy of Science for developing countries ( TWAS) and member of the board of numerous organizations and international institutions. He is in particular a holder of 22 "Honorary" Doctorate. Claude Ruiz-Picasso. Born in 1947, Claude Ruiz-Picasso is the son of Françoise Gilot and the painter Pablo Ruiz Blasco y Picasso (Picasso). He is the receiver of the Joint possession Picasso and the founder of Picasso administration. In the death of Pablo Picasso, in April, 1973, five heirs collect his succession, what gives birth to the Joint possession Picasso who becomes an owner of tens of thousand works of the big Spanish painter. To fill his missions, of administrator of the Joint possession Picasso, Claude Ruiz-Picasso based the Picasso company administration, which he manages and which has for warrant to perceive, distribute and check the rights attached to the monopoly of Pablo Picasso. Picasso administration manages all the demands of authorization to use the works, the name or the image of Picasso. This page has been automatically translated from French into English by a translation software. Automatic translations are not as accurate as translations made by professional human translators. Nevertheless these pages can help you understand information published by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication.

British Commander Richard Kemp Salutes the IDF 06/15/2011 23:47 Adapted from a speech by the former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, who spoke in Tel Aviv this week to a group of young professionals and IDF soldiers. It is an honor for me to stand in the same room as those of you in IDF uniforms. You might think that you’re simply defending your country, but in fact you are fighting against violent jihadist terrorism for the whole of the Western world, and you are at the front lines of the battle. Although not quite a lone voice, mine was certainly a very lonely voice among the many dozens of speeches endorsing the Goldstone Report and repudiating Israel that were made over the two days of the UN Human Rights Council hearing after Operation Cast Lead. This is what I said to the Council: “During its operation in Gaza, the Israeli Defense Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.” What was behind my comments? Apart from basic decency and humanitarian considerations, the commanders of the IDF knew, as do British, American and other NATO commanders, how vital to a counterinsurgency conflict is winning over the hearts and minds of the people, especially in a conflict where they could be sure that killing innocent civilians is exactly what the enemy would be trying to lure them to do. Because Hamas (like Hezbollah in Lebanon, like the Taliban in Afghanistan and like al-Qaida and the Shi'a militias in Iraq), use their own people as both tactical and strategic weapons of war. Hamas used them on the tactical level as human shields, to hide behind, to stand between Israeli forces and their own fighters, sometimes forcing women and children to remain in the positions that they would use to launch attacks from. Hamas used their people too on the strategic level, luring IDF troops to attack and kill them. People whose deaths would be callously exploited in the media as a means of discrediting the IDF. And this is exactly what insurgents do almost daily too in Afghanistan, seeking to provoke NATO and Afghan forces to kill the local people. In these most difficult circumstances, IDF commanders took unprecedented measures to minimize civilian casualties. When possible, they left at least four hours’ notice to civilians to leave areas designated for attack, an action that handed a distinct advantage to Hamas. Attack helicopter pilots had total discretion to abort a strike if there was too great a risk of civilian casualties in the area. During the conflict, the IDF allowed huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and even unilaterally announced a daily three-hour ceasefire knowing this would give Hamas vital time and space to re-group, re-equip and re-deploy for future attacks. A factor often forgotten, but this of course added to the danger to the IDF’s own troops. The Israelis dropped a million leaflets warning the population of impending attacks, and phoned tens of thousands of Palestinian households in Gaza urging them in Arabic to leave homes where Hamas might have stashed weapons or be preparing to fight. Similar messages were passed on in Arabic on Israeli radio broadcasts. But despite Israel’s extraordinary measures, a number of innocent civilians were killed and wounded. This was inevitable. Let us not forget: Hamas was deliberately trying to lure the Israelis to kill their own people. Many have contradicted my assertion about the IDF. But no one has been able to tell me which other army in history has ever done more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone. In fact, my judgments about the steps taken in that conflict by the IDF to avoid civilian deaths are inadvertently borne out by a study published by the United Nations itself, a study which shows that the ratio of civilian to combatant deaths in Gaza was by far the lowest in any asymmetric conflict in the history of warfare. The UN estimate that there has been an average three-to one ratio of civilian to combatant deaths in such conflicts worldwide. Three civilians for every combatant killed. That is the estimated ratio in Afghanistan: three to one. In Iraq, and in Kosovo, it was worse: the ratio is believed to be four-to-one. Anecdotal evidence suggests the ratios were very much higher in Chechnya and Serbia. In Gaza, it was less than one-to-one. This extremely low rate of civilian casualties flatly contradicts many of Goldstone’s original allegations, and the bleating insistence of various human rights groups about Israel’s alleged crimes against humanity. And last month, even Judge Richard Goldstone changed his mind. As with Cast Lead, the tragedy of the Gaza Flotilla incident, a year ago, has been widely exploited as part of the conspiracy to delegitimize Israel. There is every reason to believe that the activists on board the Mavi Marmara set out deliberately to provoke the Israeli boarding party into an attack that would cause bloodshed to be exploited in the world’s media. The Turkish group IHH was prominent among the organizers of the flotilla, and had purchased the Mavi Marmara for that purpose. As well as being a genuine humanitarian aid group, the IHH is a radical Islamic organization. The IHH is vehemently anti-Israel and anti-America, and has extensive connections with international jihadist groups, including al-Qaida. According to a French investigative magistrate specializing in terrorism, the IHH played an important role in an al-Qaida plan to carry out a mass-casualty attack at the Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium. Many who should know better have stridently proclaimed that the Gaza blockade itself is illegal. But does not the government of Israel the right – the duty – to protect its citizens against the re-arming of Hamas and other jihadist groups in Gaza, which continue to attack the civilian population with rockets, and undoubtedly desire to expand their conflict in line with the proclaimed objective of destroying Israel as an entity? Today, Israel faces a conspiracy of delegitimization, which aims to give validity and justification to attacks on Israel by groups such as Iran’s proxies Hamas and Hezbollah, allowing them to strike at Israel with impunity, and encouraging the view that any retaliatory or defensive measures by Israel are by definition disproportionate and should be criminalized. The more traction this idea is allowed to gain, the greater the instability between Israel and its neighbors. This lessens the chances of any lasting peace, and consequently increases the blood that will be shed on all sides in the region. The most powerful weapons in this conspiracy are legal, diplomatic and media. Fundamentally, we are talking about a war of words, words that are given unprecedented potency by the internet, by the globalization of the 21st century. If this is a war of words, we must also use words to counter attack. The conspiracy seeks to undermine the right of Israel to exist as an entity. And it is this that we must stand up against. As we would stand up vigorously against any movement that seriously sought to undermine the existence of any legitimate, democratic state. In this war of words, all that is necessary for this evil conspiracy of delegitimization to triumph is for good men to say nothing. I have enough experience of the IDF to know that the harsh condemnation all too frequently applied to them, usually by those with an anti-Israel agenda, is, more often than not, completely unjustified. Like all other armies, including my own, the IDF is far from perfect. They make mistakes like other armies, mistakes that are often compounded by the fog and the friction of war. And like other armies, they have their share of bad soldiers as well as good. To my personal knowledge, Israel’s armed forces and security services have often proved to be firm friends of Britain and the British people. Two events stand out in my mind. The first happened when I was sent out to be Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan in 2003. We were confronted with an enemy whose many tactics included suicide bombings. This was the first time British troops had to confront suicide attackers, and we had no policy with which to counter them. I telephoned an Israeli contact of mine, who arranged for a Brigadier-General in the IDF to meet with me in London. This man (at the time, serving as a full-time commander of an operational unit) took the time to fly to Britain within two days. For four hours, we sat in a lobby in a London hotel. He spoke; I took notes. And it was from that meeting that my policy for countering suicide bombers in Afghanistan was devised – a policy that was subsequently adopted by all British forces, and has saved lives. The second incident occurred a couple of years later, after the terrorist attacks in London on July 7, 2005. We in the UK were deeply shaken by the attacks, the first suicide bombings Britain had experienced at home. At the time I was working for Cobra, the UK national crisis management committee. Very soon after the terrorists struck, I received a call from my contacts in the Israeli security forces who offered every assistance they could provide. I received few other such calls from our allies around the world. It was then that we knew who our real friends are. The Jerusalem Post

Evgeny Kissin Jerusalem Concert Set for  16th February 2011 13 January 2011 Written by: Ayelet Dekel 　 A new date has been set for Evgeny Kissin’s Liszt concert in Jerusalem. The maestro will perform on February 16, 2011 at 20:30 at the Jerusalem International Convention Center. Originally scheduled to launch a world tour dedicated to the works of Franz Liszt in Jerusalem on January 8, 2011, Kissin was compelled to cancel the concert due to illness. This concert is of special significance as it was initiated by Kissin, with the President of the Jerusalem Music Centre, Murray Perahia, Lady Annabelle Weidenfeld, members of the Centre’s advisory board, and the Jerusalem Foundation, to raise funds to encourage and nurture the development of outstanding young pianists at The Jerusalem Music Centre. All profits from this special concert will be generously donated by Kissin for this purpose. Concert Program: Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Ricordanza (Etude d’Execution Transcendante No. 9) Sonata in B-Minor Funerailles Vallee d’Obermann Venezia e Napoli (Gondoliera, Canzona, Tarantella) The concert will take place February 16, 2011 at 20:30 at Binyanei Hauma, the Jerusalem International Convention Center. Concert tickets may be purchased through Bimot: www.bimot.co.il or call 02-6237000. Midnight East

A Servant of Music 01/07/2011 01:29   By MAXIM REIDER Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin launches a world tour with a concert in Jerusalem Accomplished pianist Evgeny Kissin will perform a solo recital on January 8, for the first time in Jerusalem. The recital will be devoted entirely to works by Franz Liszt, to mark the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The concert launches Kissin’s world tour with this special program, which he will perform in the most distinguished venues in the world, including La Scala, Concertgebouw and Carnegie Hall. This special event was initiated by Kissin, together with the president of the Jerusalem Music Center Murray Perahia, Lady Annabelle Weidenfeld, a member of the center’s advisory board, and the Jerusalem Foundation. Their main objective is to raise funds for the encouragement and nurturing of outstanding young pianists at the Jerusalem Music Center. Born in Moscow in 1971, Kissin began playing the piano at the age of two. He entered the Moscow Gnessin School of Music when he was six and came to international recognition at the age of 12, performing Chopin’s piano concertos in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Moscow State Philharmonic, under the baton of Dmitri Kitaenko. Since his first appearance outside Russia in 1985, Kissin has played with leading orchestras and conductors, performing in the world’s greatest concert halls and winning numerous awards for his contribution to classical music. A few days before the concert in Jerusalem, Kissin, who prefers written interviews to those done over the phone, responded to some questions posed by The Jerusalem Post. You delved into the world of professional music at a very young age. How did it feel as a child to suddenly have a lot of adults around you, reacting excitedly to your performance?   It felt completely natural because playing music was my favorite activity since early childhood. I don’t think I cared much about the “excited reaction” of my listeners, but I always loved playing for other people. At my very first solo recital, which I gave at the Composers’ House in Moscow when I was 11 and a half years old, lots of seats had to be put on stage because there were only 600 seats in the hall, and many more people came. When my piano teacher, Anna Kantor, asked me afterwards whether the audience members who were sitting on stage around me were disturbing me, I immediately expressed the way I felt: “No, they were helping me!” A few years ago, when I started reflecting upon those things, I realized that my love for playing in public was caused by a natural desire to share with other people things I loved, things that were important and dear to me. Is the audience important for you now? Yes, they are of vital importance for me. It is for them that I do what I do. I can’t understand it when some journalists ask me, ‘When you start playing a concert, do you try to forget about the audience?’ How could I possibly and why on earth should I try to forget about the audience when it is for them that I go on stage and play?! Has your attitude toward the audience changed over the years? No, I haven’t noticed any changes in myself in that respect. Was there any transition from the state of being a child prodigy to that of a mature musician? You know, when I was a child, many of my listeners, professional musicians, used to say that the term ‘child prodigy’ didn’t fit me because I played like a mature musician. You’ve been studying for your entire life with the same teacher, Anna Pavlovna Kantor.What is her secret? Besides her natural talent and skills, she is a person of truly amazing integrity who has devoted her whole life to teaching piano. She never had a family of her own, but she rightly calls herself ‘a mother of many children.’ What is that thing she knows as a teacher that attracts you? It’s not something she knows; it goes far beyond that. I think that our personalities simply matched extremely well. Thinking back, I realize how lucky I was in that respect because this is extremely important. Aside from your teacher, what is the driving force behind your advancement in music? Music itself. Has there been any advancement or development in music? Music, like all arts, is developing all the time. And this applies not only to art: If there is no development, there is no life. How has your understanding of music, of its drama, changed since you were a child? When I was a child, it was not really understanding but rather feeling of music – or one could say: intuitive understanding. Of course, it’s impossible to play well without the natural feeling of music at any age; but as a child grows older, feeling alone can no longer be enough. How do your preferences in repertoire change over the years? I don’t think they do. My tastes have always been very broad, for as long as I remember, and I have always been trying to expand my repertoire in all possible directions. On the other hand, I never bring a piece to the public unless I feel that I am able to play it well. How do you choose new pieces? That is very easy: from the pieces I love – of whic h there many! We pianists are extremely lucky: The piano repertoire is so vast, that I only hope to live long enough to learn everything I want to play. How do you prepare a new work? There is no special method. I just sit down and start working – and then the music itself tells me what to do. Then, at a certain stage, after I have formed my own conception and am able to execute it, I start listening to other people’s performances of the piece and learn from them. Even if I don’t like someone else’s performance, that also helps because then I know even better what I want to do. Are the circumstances of a composer’s life a factor when you work on a new piece? For certain pieces they are. If they had a direct influence on the piece – like Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata,’ for example. However, the most important thing is the music itself. What is important for you to consider in a performance? To approach the level of the music performed as closely as possible. Of course, only the greatest performance can reach it sometimes; but nevertheless, we should all try to approach it as closely as our modest capabilities allow us . What are your interests outside music? Life itself. Different aspects of it. Of course, some of those don’t interest me at all. As Socrates said, ‘There are so many things in the world that I don’t need.’ In my free time, I like reading, sightseeing and spending time with other people: with my friends or with people whom I may not necessarily be able to call friends but whom I like and find interesting. Once I went to an astrologer who, having made my natal chart, said to me, ‘Of the 10 planets, you’ve got seven in the air and none on earth. That’s why you don’t care about material things at all, but you are interested in ideas and you like spending time with people who provide you with interesting ideas.’ I could not describe myself better. I imagine that coming from an assimilated Russian-Jewish background, being Jewish was not at the center of your universe? Yes, it was – since an early age, in spite of the fact that I, indeed, grew up in an assimilated family and knew nothing about Jewish history, let alone religion. When I was a child, I wrote a will (yes!) the content of which, I believe, reveals a lot. It read as follows: ‘When I die, bury me in a forest outside Moscow so that the stone under which my ashes will be lying would hardly be seen in the grass and look like this ...’ – and I drew a rectangle with five lines and a G clef on them and the following inscription: ‘Here lies Evgeny Kissin, a son of the Jewish people, a servant of music’ – and my life years. See, that’s how I identified myself already as a child. At that time I couldn’t imagine that I would live anywhere else than Moscow, and I didn’t know any Jewish symbols, only musical ones! But this upcoming concert is clearly a statement. Does it mean that now you feel more identified with the Jewish people than in the past? What has caused this change? The only thing that has changed is that I started speaking about my Jewish identity in public. I never did before. Not because I, God forbid, was ashamed of it in any way, but on the contrary, for the simple reason that it was always something extremely special for me and therefore not to be talked about in public – like love, for example (that’s, by the way, why I hate talking about music as well). But about a little over a year ago, I felt that I had to do it in order to counter the raging anti-Israel hysteria in much of the world. Since I was well known and hundreds of thousands of people all over the world were coming to my concerts and buying my recordings, I felt that I had to tell them: “If you like my art, this is who I am, who I represent and what I stand for.” What can you, as a person, do to advance the Israeli cause? I am trying to do what I can: putting pro- Israel material (whose authors are mainly non- Jews, many of them are Arabs) on my fan club site, giving interviews in support of Israel. Do you believe that an individual has the power to change things in the world order? Each one of us can only do so much. So the more good people who are active, the better. The concert takes place tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. in Jerusalem at the International Convention Center. The program features the following pieces by Franz Liszt: Ricordanza (Etude d’Execution Transcendante No. 9), Sonata in B-Minor, Funerailles, Vallee d’Obermann, Venezia e Napoli. Source   NB:  This concert was re-scheduled for 16th February 2011 due to a suddden illness of Evgeny Kissin on the original planned date