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Concert pianist with Tourette’s Syndrome has accused top orchestras of branding him 'trouble'
A concert pianist with Tourette’s Syndrome has accused Britain’s top orchestras of branding him “trouble” and refusing to let him play.
Internal documents seen by the Telegraph reveal that six separate orchestras coordinated a response after Nick van Bloss complained that by ignoring his requests to play they had discriminated against him.
The 51-year-old musician has been praised for live performances in London, Tokyo and Miami, but has felt belittled and mocked by leading orchestras in his home country.
In February, his agent sent letters to the Royal Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, Hallé in Manchester, Philharmonia, Bournemouth Symphony and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic accusing them of discrimination, which all denied.
But documents retrieved by van Bloss through a public access request and shared with the Telegraph paint a picture of institutions failing to address a serious complaint and working together to quash it.
“The emails display a hostile, mocking and pathological disregard for me and my complaint,” said van Bloss. “The main point of my concern was diversity. The orchestras are funded to promote and celebrate it, but they reacted to my complaint by asking for me to apologise for having called them out.”
Van Bloss's condition gives him thousands of tics a day, but these disappear when his fingers touch piano keys. He has only once had a spasm during a performance when he was 21.
In what van Bloss described as “collusion on a grand scale”, the orchestras sent messages to one another about him and two sent him identical responses.
An email from one orchestra’s chief executive to another said: “I would cut and paste the response from [redacted] to show solidarity… and a message that we all think the same!”
When one orchestra said van Bloss wasn’t good enough to perform on its stage, a staff member at another said in an internal email: “I actually think it’s great that another orchestra is taking that line. It’s not one we all agreed [we] should take but good that someone else is telling the journalist another take on this.”
The email continued: “With any luck all the responses taken together may persuade her it’s not a story and nothing will appear.”
An internal email between the directors of Philharmonia called van Bloss “trouble”.
“Nick van Bloss is a protege of [redacted] and he is Trouble,” it said. “Switch off your phone, is my advice.”
Three orchestras used their public relations companies to address the "problem", one of which, Albion Media, helped the pianist launch his comeback 10 years ago, calling him “hot property… a serious and inspired classical musician”.
One email from Rebecca Driver PR said: “This is exactly what he wanted - publicity, so responding is just giving him oxygen.”
Van Bloss said he was seeking legal advice on how to move forward, adding that he felt Arts Council England had “ignored’ his concerns.
"Despite my valid letters of complaint, there are no communications on file within Arts Council England that show they have taken any interest in my concerns," he said.
An Arts Council spokesperson said: “Whilst of course we recognise how upsetting these rejections must be, organisations must be free to make their own artistic decisions and we can not dictate who they work with in this fiercely competitive field.” It added that it expects its funded institutions to consider musicians with disabilities.
The Royal Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony (CBSO), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Bournemouth Symphony orchestras denied the allegations and said they had considered Van Bloss’s requests to play based on musical merit. The CBSO added that it didn't know at the time that he had a disability.
Other orchestras didn't respond to request for comment.