‘This postponement is a blow to us’: Perm philharmonic cancels Polina Osetinskaya’s concert, amidst political pressure on celebrity pianist

The management of Triumph, a privately-owned concert hall in Perm, has announced the cancelation of the celebrity pianist Polina Osetinskaya’s April 5 concert.

“We had been waiting for this encounter with Polina Osetinskaya for a very long time,” said the administrators in their statement. “Regrettably, there are some circumstances that our team at the philharmonic cannot influence. This postponement is a blow to us. We had believed until very recently that we’d be able to have this concert,” said the organizers.

The management encourages audience members not to return their tickets, since the concert may still take place later this year.

On March 31, the Moscow police disrupted Osetinskaya’s performance in the Russian capital. First, they told the concert pianist that the event had been “forbidden” by the local police department. When she decided to play her program anyway, the operatives returned in the intermission, claiming there was a bomb threat in the building and forcing the public to leave the concert hall. Half-an-hour later, Osetinskaya resumed her performance, playing the rest of the program for those who stayed.