For their own well-being in the conditions of the raging omicron and the general morbidity of employees, the leaders of creative teams are fighting in various ways.
The artistic director and director of the Mariinsky Theater Valery Gergiev, for example, prefers not to notice positive PCR tests in musicians, especially before responsible performances that promise a good fee. Read more in our material:
Tsar Valery and infected serfs: revolt against Gergiev at the Mariinsky
But Gergiev, as it turned out, is flowers. Truly miracles of tyranny and arbitrariness were demonstrated by the director of the Russian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra Gayane Shiladzhyan.
According to the theater and music manager, being healthy, vaccinated and with a QR code is not enough to be eligible for a job. You also need to have a high level of antibodies. After listening to the WHO statements, Gayane Azarikovna decided that her musicians with an antibody level below 300BAU needed urgent revaccination, regardless of whether the recommended period after the first vaccination had passed or not.
As a basis for the persecution begun at the Russian Philharmonic, the director took the results of the analyzes that the orchestra in its entirety passed in the Helix laboratory service in December. As a result, 13 musicians with low antibody titers were blacklisted. Before undergoing early revaccination, all of them can get into the building of the Moscow International House of Music (MMDM), where the orchestra is based, only upon presentation of the result of daily express tests, which the musicians must take at their own expense. The presence of a valid QR code does not matter.
A copy of the relevant memorandum from Shiladzhyan addressed to the head of the security service of the MMDM got into the net and caused a wave of indignation among the cultural and other public.
“… For the safety of the work of the team and all those in the MIDM building, I ask you to temporarily block the cards for the entrance to the building of the following employees of the orchestra who have QR codes and are vaccinated, but with very low antibody levels … I ask you to allow the above employees to enter the building building MMDM on an individual basis until revaccination against COVID only according to the results of negative daily express testing … During the revaccination, the list will be updated and the pass cards will be restored, ”the document says.
A copy of the memorandum of the director of the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra Gayane Shiladzhyan to the head of the MIDM security service A.V. Glazkov, published by the ClassicalMusicNews.ru portal
At the same time, neither in Moscow, nor in the regions, nor at the federal level, orders have ever been adopted on the access of employees to work by the level of antibodies. Moreover, not only revaccination, but also primary vaccination in our country is officially considered voluntary. Not to mention the fact that providing information about the level of antibodies to third parties is a disclosure of medical secrecy, but this is already a question for the management of the Helix company.
However, all these “little things” are of little interest to Ms. Shiladzhyan, as well as the fact that musicians who have been suspended from work need to feed their families. She is much more concerned about the “large sums of money” spent on renting halls and advertising concerts, as well as the risk of a refund of funds paid by the audience for tickets in case of cancellation of performances. In a correspondence with a ClassicalMusicNews.ru correspondent, the director of the Russian Philharmonic stated openly that “the orchestra cannot afford to cancel concerts due to illness of the artists.”
The statement is more than strange, especially considering that the Russian Philharmonic is not a private shop, but protected from all sides, especially during a pandemic, a state budgetary cultural institution subordinate to the Moscow Department of Culture. Or does Ms. Shiladzhyan, like Gergiev, have personal interests in “large sums of money” for rent and contracts for orchestra performances?
