Young composers New York debut cancelled for including Nazi melody
A debut at Carnegie Hall meant to showcase a young composer's work was abruptly cancelled after management realised it featured part of a German Nazi anthem.
A debut at Carnegie Hall meant to showcase a young composer's work was abruptly cancelled after management realised it featured part of a German Nazi anthem.
The New York Youth Symphony was set to perform the work on Sunday at the venue but management removed it, saying that such an explosive reference required a longer conversation.
No one has suggested any Nazi sympathy on the part of composer Jonas Tarm, a 21-year-old Estonian American, who intended for the work to deplore war including recent bloodshed in Ukraine. But the controversy raised a broader question - how explicitly do artists need to state that allusions to history's darkest chapters are meant to condemn rather than condone?
The New York Youth Symphony, which recognises performers and composers under the age of 22, said Tarm only informed the management last week that his piece included 45 seconds of Horst-Wessel-Lied, one of the Nazis' main anthems, banned in modern Germany.
The symphony said the nine-minute piece could have been "an important teaching moment for our students" but that Tarm refused to lay out his reasons for using Horst-Wessel-Lied.
"We believe deeply in a free creative process. But along with freedom comes responsibility, even more so when young people are involved," it said.