Another notch on the SJW gun barrel

[kishnevi]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/09/british-conductor-sacked-us-music-festival-joke-labelled-racist/amp/

[Todd]

Dude, that was in Eugene.  Even a Brit should know better than to utter anything other than a properly PC statement in that town.

[Brian]

Yeah, that was not racist. Pro tip: white women don't get to decide what's racist against black people. Screw that nonsense.

And I say this as a card-carrying SJW who listens to a podcast called "Yo, Is This Racist?"

[nodogen]

Pro tip: white women don't get to decide what's racist against black people.

Are you being ironic?

[Turbot nouveaux]

This seems to fall into the category of "unfortunate cultural misunderstandings". On both sides...

[Brian]

Are you being ironic?

I'm partly joking, but not much. It's totally good and possible to be aware and well-educated on those issues, but white people are notoriously bad at detecting racism, whether conservatives thinking something racist is fine or liberals suffering from white guilt and getting oversensitive (as in this case).

[Ken B]

Yeah, that was not racist. Pro tip: white women don't get to decide what's racist against black people. Screw that nonsense.

And I say this as a card-carrying SJW who listens to a podcast called "Yo, Is This Racist?"

She erased the black man. I think that's the jargon. But this time it fits.

Shouldn't she be fired, without even anyone asking what happened? /s

[nodogen]

I'm partly joking, but not much. It's totally good and possible to be aware and well-educated on those issues, but white people are notoriously bad at detecting racism, whether conservatives thinking something racist is fine or liberals suffering from white guilt and getting oversensitive (as in this case).

Cool.

I could just add something about the medium, not the message. From a bit of googling it seems all the relevant information on this story is not out yet and the Telegraph is the only British paper to have covered the story. This is kind of what I expected as it is a fine example of the type of story the Telegraph loves to run.

[Todd]

Here's the official statement from OBF.  I'm guessing the real reason Halls was canned is because he wore Adidas on the UO campus. 


August 27, 2017 – [Eugene, OR] – Oregon Bach Festival (OBF) is moving forward in an exciting direction that will bring new voices, points of views and artists with more diverse backgrounds to festival audiences. Starting in summer 2018, guest curators will work with OBF staff to build a season of dynamic and engaging musical selections led by world-renowned conductors.

As part of the transition, OBF is parting ways with artistic director Matthew Halls. Halls leaves the Festival with a legacy that includes the establishment of the Organ Institute, the Vocal Fellows program, and the Berwick Academy for Historically Informed Performance. During his tenure, Halls conducted many of Bach's masterworks, including his own reconstruction of the composer's lost St. Mark Passion, as well the world premiere of A European Requiem from Sir James MacMillan.

The transition is a strategic decision, made by OBF administrative leadership and the University of Oregon, and will keep the festival relevant in the ever-changing classical music industry.

"There's an emerging trend," explains OBF executive director Janelle McCoy, "to plan a season from the perspective of a guest curator from a different field or genre and then invite conductors to participate, rather than programming from a single artistic voice. More and more organizations around the country, such as Ojai Music Festival, are using this model to expand the choices available to their audiences and participants. These choices may include disparate visions from a choreographer, stage director, or jazz musician, for example. We are eager to bring this approach to university students and faculty, as well as our patrons, musicians, and education program participants."

The change also comes as part of the ongoing process to integrate OBF more deeply into the UO community and align itself more strategically with the university's goals. "We look forward to a wider range of programmatic choices, community events, and cross-departmental relationships with UO faculty, staff, and students – from the UNESCO Crossings Institute, the Department of Equity and Inclusion, and the UO museums, to traditional academic units such as the School of Music and Dance, food studies, classics, humanities, history, and planning, public policy and management. These partnerships," says McCoy, "might include lectures, public seminars, classes, publications, interactive programming, and so on." This is especially relevant as OBF will spend October celebrating the opening of its first permanent home on the UO campus – the new Berwick Hall - built immediately adjacent to the School of Music and Dance.

OBF has already publicized plans to include the world premiere of The Passion of Yeshua by Richard Danielpour and Philip Glass' Piano Concerto No. 3 featuring Simone Dinnerstein in their 2018 Season. The full schedule of events and artists will be announced in January.

[Parsifal]

I notice that the original story says the conductor was dismissed "after" an innocent joke, not "because of."

[HIPster]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/arts/music/oregon-bach-festival-matthew-halls.html

[Parsifal]

I get the impression that the festival descended into vicious infighting between HIP and anti-HIP factions after Rilling left and Hill got caught in the crossfire, with his possibly insensitive joke invoked as a pretext.

[CRCulver]

I get the impression that the festival descended into vicious infighting between HIP and anti-HIP factions

Rather, it seems to have descended into infighting between those who wanted it to remain a Bach festival (who in turn might have been subdivided into HIP and anti-HIP people) and others who wanted to make it a more generic and crossover-friendly music festival because Bach doesn't draw enough people for their taste.