Vancouver Symphony Just Says No to the Olympics

Posted at 10:11 AM on January 5, 2010 by Gillian Martin
Filed under: In the media, Musician stories

Remember the fuss when the big name classical performers at President Obama's inauguration did not play live at the event, but mimed to a recording of themselves?

Or the lip-synching controversy that erupted after the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics?

My personal view is, "Well, that's show biz," at least when it comes to enormous public events in which music is only one small part.

But Bramwell Tovey, conductor of the Vancouver Symphony, took a much harder line when the organizing committee for the upcoming Winter Olympics asked the orchestra to pre-record. See what he had to say here.