‘Reputation shredding’: MSO board was urged to reinstate pianist Jayson Gillham

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra board member Martin Foley wanted to reinstate Jayson Gillham to stop the “reputation-shredding” fallout from cancelling the pianist’s concerts because of comments he made on stage about Gaza.

Foley told the Federal Court there was intense pressure on the organisation after Gillham was stood down, and he considered it unfortunate that the board had not been consulted earlier in the process.

The former minister said he had raised reinstating the pianist’s performances at a board meeting on August 14 on the condition Gillham abide by certain conditions and release a joint statement.

“I reinforced the view that it was unfortunate the board had not been brought in earlier, and [given] the rapidly evolving reputation-shredding events that were under way, the MSO needed to change its position,” Foley said.

“It was clearly a matter of making sure that hopefully there was an agreed position between the artist and the organisation as to a solution to the unwarranted and unhelpful attention the organisation was subjected to.

“We had conflicting narratives and substantial attacks on the organisation publicly and bringing the two sides to a shared position struck me as a very sensible outcome to resolve the mess.”

Gillham is suing the MSO under the Fair Work Act for wrongful dismissal for expressing a political opinion. MSO is defending the claim, accusing Gillham of deliberately misleading it and not seeking prior permission to make any controversial political statements.

In August 2024, he appeared at an MSO recital in Melbourne as a guest pianist, when he introduced a new piece of music, dedicating it to “more than 100 Palestinian journalists” killed in Gaza.

He went on to say: “A number of these have been targeted assassinations of prominent journalists as they were travelling in marked press vehicles or wearing 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.”

Called Witness, the work by local composer Connor D’Netto was written for those slain journalists and was a late inclusion in the event program. Between 150 and 200 people attended the recital.

The MSO cancelled its next event at which Gillham was scheduled to perform, and released a statement saying his comments were not appropriate and “an intrusion of personal political views”.

Foley was part of an MSO working group established in December 2023 to determine how the organisation should respond to events in Gaza and Israel. Asked on Wednesday what that group concluded, Foley said: “That the MSO should seek to hold a neutral position, one that puts the civilians as the key issue in that conflict.”

Foley said the idea of reinstating Gillham was “difficult given what had evolved” and he believed a statement would have to be released explaining why the parties had come to the decision to move forward.

“You would need one [a statement]; you couldn’t just miraculously pivot,” he said.

Foley said that while the MSO had taken political positions in the past, it was always done on a long-held “no surprises” principle.

Sheryn Omeri, KC, for Gillham, quizzed Foley about what would have happened if her client had asked for prior permission to introduce Witness the way he had.

“Well that’s hard to say,” Foley replied. “With the greatest of respect, he didn’t come to me and nor would he. I’m a director, I don’t deal with musicians.”

When pressed to speculate, Foley said he would have sought to “engage the artist to arrive at an agreed position that doesn’t have surprises for the organisation, seeks to protect the organisation and the audience in so far as it is possible”.

Omeri also raised changes made between a draft and final version of an MSO statement explaining the cancelling of Gillham’s concerts.

The court heard the word mistake was replaced with error and an apology to Gillham was removed.

Foley said the draft was prepared on the basis it would be an agreed statement between the parties, but the final version was an MSO-only document after Gillham told them his wellbeing was not in a position where he could perform again.

The hearing continues.

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