Jayson Gillham announces tour with Palestinian-Jordanian musician ahead of MSO court case
When Jayson Gillham took a stand at Melbourne’s Iwaki Auditorium in August 2024, he was told by his supporters he was “ahead of his time”.“Actually, I think I was 10 months late,” the Australian-British pianist says, a year and a half after the furore first hit.It was processing the media reports of genocide in Gaza that shifted something fundamental in Gillham, the realisation that his role as a performer could no longer remain siloed from the world outside the concert hall.“I felt I had to say and do something – respond in a musical way to what I was seeing,” he says.“That was really the moment where I thought, well, something has to change about my career.
”The fallout from that musical response – a short speech dedicated by the composer Connor D’Netto to the more than 100 Palestinian journalists who had been killed in Gaza – was swift and institutional.The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra cancelled his subsequent appearance, citing “safety concerns” and sparking a national firestorm over whether an artist should ever bring politics into the sanctuary of their performance space.Poised for a face-off with the MSO in the federal court in May, Gillham remains defiant.“I stand by what I said.The words I chose … they were quite pointed in exactly the right way, and they were just what needed to be said about that piece of music.
”Gillham’s conviction has transformed the Queensland-born pianist from an apolitical concert soloist into the applicant in a landmark federal court workplace rights case.But while the lawyers argue over the principles of artistic freedom and contractor v employee definitions, Gillham has found a more immediate way to keep delivering his protest message: he is simply building his own stage.In July, Gillham will embark on a national tour with Palestinian-Jordanian pianist Iyad Sughayer and he has produced the tour entirely independently.Hiring venues, managing the ticketing and bearing all the financial risk is a bold move but it also means the performer can bypass the institutional gatekeepers who previously attempted to silence him.“It’s sort of a natural progression for me … moving more into the space of artistic curation … putting on the kind of concerts and collaborating with people that I want to collaborate with,” he says.
“And I want to have this direct line to my audience … the people who support me and write to me directly,And I know that there are many people who are itching to come to a concert of mine,”As for the “safety” concerns that resulted in his previous Melbourne concert axed, Gillham is dismissive,In his self-presented tour, he is working directly with flagship venues such as the Melbourne Recital Centre and Sydney’s City Recital Hall,“I don’t see any issue.
We’re bringing a concert like any other,” he says.“The venues are very much on board and support the project.”But he also hopes his entrepreneurial move will not set a precedent.“I don’t want it to become necessary for people to self-present, because not everyone can do it,” he says.“Why I’m bringing the case is because I think what I’m fighting for is that [a performer] should be able to do that, even if the presenter is somebody else; that it’s not really a normal thing for artists to be told what they can and can’t say on stage.
”Gillham met Sughayer at a London fundraising concert for Gaza two years ago and found a shared musical vision that transcended mere technique; it was a shared vision that saw music as powerful tool for human connection rather than mere formal performance.Recognised as a rising star by Classic FM and a recipient under the UK’s Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT), the now Manchester-based Sughayer has forged a reputation as one of the world’s leading interpreters of the works of Aram Khachaturian.His debut recording of the Armenian composer’s piano works was described as “outstanding” by BBC Music Magazine.The inclusion of Khachaturian adds to a program lush in classical and romantic repertoire – Mozart, Ravel and Debussy – in which Gillham has already carved a niche, earning him the title of “the ideal romantic” by Limelight magazine, which named him Australian artist of the year in both the critics’ choice and people’s choice categories in 2024.Australian audiences will also witness the world premiere of a new commission by Palestinian-Lebanese composer Houtaf Khoury.
Still waiting to see the finished score, Gillham is unable to give much detail, but the inclusion of Khoury’s voice in the program is clearly a continuation of the musical response that compelled Gillham to take a stand back almost two years ago.The legal battle has clearly matured Gillham’s view of the concert hall.He no longer sees it as a vacuum but as a space for truth.“In terms of my role as an artist … I have more of a clear picture,” he says.“I’ve always loved playing the piano and I’ve loved sharing music with audiences, and now I feel like I understand what art is a bit more, like I have another perspective on it.
It’s certainly broadened and probably deepened and matured my understanding of the role of artists in society.” Keys to Life: Two Friends, Two Pianos is at the Melbourne Recital Centre on 19 July, Brisbane’s QPAC on 22 July, Adelaide’s Elder Hall on 24 July and Sydney’s City Recital Hall on 26 July
Reform insiders fear links to extreme figures such as Andrew Tate will scare off voters
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Former miners can finally speak the truth about Orgreave, says inquiry chair
Former miners will finally get the chance to speak the truth about their experiences after four decades of silence during a public inquiry into infamous clashes with police at Orgreave, the inquiry’s chair has said.Pete Wilcox, the bishop of Sheffield, said only an inquiry could help South Yorkshire move on from the events of 18 June 1984, when striking miners unexpectedly found themselves in a pitched battle against thousands of police officers brought in from forces across the UK.The Hillsborough-style inquiry, officially launched by Sarah Jones, the policing minister, in parliament on Thursday, will examine how 6,000 police officers were deployed to a picket at Orgreave coking plant three months into a National Union of Miners strike over planned pit closures.About 8,000 people – miners and their families – were on the receiving end of what was described as heavy-handed policing, with witnesses and images from the day detailing how mounted police charged at the pickets and hit them with batons.Many were injured, some seriously, but it was the moral injury that the injustice caused in the minds of South Yorkshire miners and wider working-class communities that was the lasting effect
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