{"id":13374,"date":"2026-05-18T06:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/13374\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T06:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:18:12","slug":"trial-begins-between-pianist-jayson-gillham-and-melbourne-symphony-orchestra-over-gaza-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/13374\/","title":{"rendered":"Trial begins between pianist Jayson Gillham and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra over Gaza comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

The long-awaited trial of a concert pianist suing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) has begun in the Federal Court.<\/p>\n

Jayson Gillham is suing the orchestra for discrimination based on his political beliefs after a 2024 performance in which he performed a solo piece dedicated to journalists killed in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The performer introduced the piece by saying Israel targeted journalists in an effort to prevent the documentation and broadcasting of war crimes, prompting the orchestra to cancel an upcoming performance citing safety concerns.<\/p>\n

The orchestra argued Mr Gillham would have anticipated that people would be upset, with management responding to the incident within minutes.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Supporters of Jayson Gillham gather outside the Federal Court of Victoria on Monday. (AAP: Jay Kogler)<\/p>\n

His next concert was cancelled following the performance.<\/p>\n

In his opening address on Monday, MSO barrister Justin Bourke KC told the court the organisation had no forewarning about his comments and felt misled by him.<\/p>\n

“He knew he was overstepping the line, he knew he was going to make political statements about Gaza,” Mr Bourke said.<\/p>\n

Mr Gillham’s barrister Sheryn Omeri KC said the case was fundamentally about the right to freedom of expression for workers and whether those rights could be limited by the implied terms of a contract.<\/p>\n

She said the pianist’s comments were lawful and audience members who did not want to listen to them could have left the Southbank venue.<\/p>\n

\"Jayson<\/p>\n

Mr Gillham is an internationally renowned pianist. (Supplied: Jayson Gillham)<\/p>\n

“There is no right not to hear things that make us uncomfortable, even very uncomfortable \u2026 there is a difference between feeling uncomfortable and feeling unsafe, and nothing [in] that speech would have made anyone feel unsafe,” Ms Omeri said.<\/p>\n

The orchestra received one written and two verbal complaints after the concert, followed by 487 complaints about its decision to cancel Mr Gillham’s next performance, the court heard.<\/p>\n

But Mr Bourke argued an unfettered right to free speech on the stage could have profound consequences, affecting ticket sales, sponsors and donors.<\/p>\n

It would ultimately be unworkable, especially if an artist wanted to speak on stage for an hour, he added.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The case is being heard in the Federal Court in Melbourne. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)<\/p>\n

“We are entitled to have control over our own stage, especially when statements are going to be made that are highly controversial,” Mr Bourke said.<\/p>\n

Justice Graeme Hill encouraged lawyers on both sides of the dispute to limit their rhetoric about events in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Intergenerational conflicts in the region between Palestinians and Israelis escalated on October 7, 2023, when Hamas \u2014 a designated terrorist organisation in Australia and Western allies \u2014 launched an assault in southern Israel that killed more than 1,200 people.<\/p>\n

Since then, more than 72,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, according to figures from Gaza’s Ministry of Health cited by the United Nations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The trial is expected to run for three weeks and the orchestra is expected to call around 20 witnesses.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The long-awaited trial of a concert pianist suing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) has begun in the Federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1109,1350,11199,260,11200,11202],"class_list":["post-13374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-melbourne","tag-court","tag-gaza","tag-jayson-gillham","tag-melbourne","tag-melbourne-symphony-orchestra","tag-mso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}