# Gidon Kremer: why I quit the celebrity ratrace - a 'must read.'



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

The letter from Gidon Kremer to Martin Engstroem, director of the Verbier Festival, announcing his withdrawal.
Via Norman Lebrecht, who says, 
"It is the first coherent declaration of dissent to the celebrity culture in classical music."

This is a fascinating document and statement. It confirms what many of the older classical devotees and musicians feel or seem to 'know,' and I think it most important for the younger participants, both listener and player, to read this and take it in....

This comments on a truly worrisome state of affairs regarding classical music and all the arts, really. It could sound to a younger generation like the cliche grumblings of the elders that 'things aren't what they used to be.'

This, however, is an unprecedented grumble in music and arts history, with an unprecedented force at play as its 'cause.' Read on...

https://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/07/gidon-kremer-why-i-quit-the-celebrity-ratrace.html


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