{"id":4700,"date":"2026-05-14T04:16:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T11:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=4700"},"modified":"2026-05-14T04:16:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T11:16:42","slug":"free-speech-on-someone-elses-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2026\/05\/free-speech-on-someone-elses-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"Free Speech on Someone Else’s Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Jayson Gillham believes artists have a right to bring their whole selves to the stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe that everyone has the right to freedom of expression,\u201d the internationally acclaimed, London-based pianist says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why the British Australian musician, 39, is suing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO)<\/a> for discrimination based on political belief, after it cancelled one of his scheduled performances<\/a> in August 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His recital was cancelled after he dedicated a new piece by Australian composer Connor D\u2019Netto to journalists killed in Gaza at a concert in Melbourne on August 11, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the last 10 months, Israel has killed more than 100 Palestinian journalists,\u201d Gillham said, introducing the piece, titled Witness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA number of these have been targeted assassinations of prominent journalists as they were travelling in marked press vehicles or wearing their press jackets. The killing of journalists is a war crime in international law, and it is done in an effort to prevent the documentation and broadcasting of war crimes to the world.\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to Gillham\u2019s remarks, the MSO apologised for offence and distress caused and added it \u201cdoes not condone the use of our stage as a platform for expressing personal views\u201d, canning his next scheduled performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within days, the MSO said cancelling Gillham\u2019s concert had been an \u201cerror\u201d<\/a> and committed to rescheduling the recital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But negotiations between Gillham and the orchestra quickly fell apart. In October 2024, he launched legal action in the Federal Court, saying the MSO had rejected \u201creasonable requests to remedy the situation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis battle in the Federal Court is about defending everyone\u2019s right to freedom of speech,\u201d he said on Instagram. \u201cIt\u2019s about ensuring artists can perform with integrity and without fear of censorship.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In this piece I am not going to give my own, I think unremarkable, thoughts on conflict in the Middle East. I just want to think about Gillham\u2019s claims about free speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Melbourne Symphony does not want guest performers making political statements during their concerts, it has every right to say so. If it \u201cdoes not condone the use of our stage as a platform for expressing personal views\u201d, then probably best to make this clear to any featured performer as they draw up their contract (and I don\u2019t know if that happened in this case). Unless explicitly granted, no artist has complete freedom of speech on stage. An actor cannot decide on their own to interrupt a performance of Twelfth Night<\/em> with a political dedication. Some performing arts organizations might think such political statements are fine, actually, and they can say so. Or a politically-oriented artist could produce their own shows, as Gillham seems to have moved towards. But if the MSO does not feel that way, there is no \u201cfree speech\u201d right that overrides it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The audience at an orchestra concert (Gillham does not raise the topic of \u201cthe audience\u201d) is captive, and deserving of consideration; many of them, like me, might prefer to enjoy their orchestral music neat. To insist that they must be made to listen to the guest performer\u2019s political thoughts, even when the orchestra management has said it doesn\u2019t go in for that sort of thing, is self-indulgence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I doubt most artists would agree with a blanket \u201cfree speech\u201d right at invited gigs anyway. Suppose a featured violinist, before their performance, said \u201cI dedicate this performance to those who died, and their families, in the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, and support Israel\u2019s right to self-defense and to bring justice to those who committed this heinous crime\u201d. Would Gillham think that<\/em> free speech deserves protection? Suppose a guest artist wanted to talk about other political issues, or value-added taxes, or the Westminster parliamentary system, or that Vegemite is an abomination? Suppose a guest artist addressed the audience with racist opinions on Australia\u2019s Indigenous people, or made a grossly homophobic joke. The ABC story the next day would not be about \u201cfree speech\u201d, but about demands<\/em> that the musician never be invited back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here in the United States, there is an ongoing cycle in the discourse between \u201ccampuses need to allow free speech\u201d and \u201cno, not like that\u201d. But to my mind the \u201cno, not like that\u201d people are in the right – for an institution to function<\/em>, there will always need to be some boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note the Gillham case is different from artists expressing political views in a separate<\/em> forum from their contracted performance. The ABC story goes on to say,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

It’s a cultural context that has seen the recent scrapping of a children’s book by an Indigenous author lead to a mass boycott of a celebrated publisher<\/a> and the dis-invitation of a Palestinian Australian author<\/a> causing the collapse of a writers’ festival<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But this is not the same situation as political statements being a part of the work or performance, and they shouldn\u2019t be confused – the \u201ccultural context\u201d is quite different. To take their first case, the scrapping of the children\u2019s book had nothing to do with the author, nor the fact that she is Indigenous (why even mention that?), nor the content<\/em> of the book, but that the illustrator<\/em> of the book had posted a viciously antisemitic article on Substack in the wake of the terrorist attack at Sydney\u2019s Bondi Beach (I won\u2019t link to it, but you can find it in this story<\/a> in The Guardian<\/em>). Whether that was a good or bad decision by the publisher I leave as an exercise for the reader, though I do think it is up to them (and remember there have been protests over <\/a>not<\/a><\/em> scrapping<\/a> books by notorious figures). If someone had written a brilliantly researched and presented account of the geological features of the Dampier Peninsula in Western Australia, and then<\/em> made horribly misogynist statements on social media, what would the reaction be to a university press going ahead and publishing it anyway? I have written before<\/a> that if a publisher, or an orchestra, or a gallery, contracts with an artist whose politics are well-known<\/em>, then there\u2019s an obligation to stick with them, even in the face of protest (and any politics is going to draw at least some sort of protest from somebody). My university\u2019s last-minute cancellation of an exhibition of the work of Samia Halaby remains a stain on its reputation. But I would grant that something new<\/em> coming to light might warrant a reconsideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What the Gillham case is about is not \u201cfree speech\u201d, but that he thought his<\/em> speech, addressing his<\/em> cause, at a Melbourne Symphony performance, ought to have been permitted. He can negotiate such an arrangement, but he can\u2019t claim it as a matter of right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cross-posted at https:\/\/michaelrushton.substack.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports: Jayson Gillham believes artists have a right to bring their whole selves to the stage. \u201cI believe that everyone has the right to freedom of expression,\u201d the internationally acclaimed, London-based pianist says. That\u2019s why the British Australian musician, 39, is suing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) for discrimination based on political belief, after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/image-1.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-1dO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1175,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2014\/03\/dont-just-stand-there-build-something\/","url_meta":{"origin":4700,"position":0},"title":"Don’t just stand there, build something","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"March 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The San Diego Opera is closing down, unable to see a way to reconcile its finances. 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