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Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s former managing director, Dr Sophie Galaise, has told a court that she did not lead the decision to cancel pianist Jayson Gillham’s concert after he made comments on stage referencing Gaza, contradicting earlier evidence of a former colleague.
Gillham is suing the MSO in the Federal Court for unfair dismissal under the Fair Work Act for expressing a political opinion. The MSO is defending the claim, accusing Gillham of deliberately misleading it and not seeking prior permission to make any controversial political statements. The trial began on Monday and is expected to continue for the next two weeks.
On Friday, Galaise told the court that it was not the content of Gillham’s remarks that had led to his cancellation, but rather the fact he had not flagged them before the event with the organisation.
In August 2024, when Gillham appeared at an MSO recital in Melbourne as a guest pianist, he introduced a new piece of music, dedicating it to “more than 100 Palestinian journalists” killed in Gaza. 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”.
The MSO had decided through a working group of the board in December 2023 that it would maintain neutrality on the Israel/Gaza issue, Galaise told the court on Friday.
Sheryn Omeri, KC, for Gillham, pressed Galaise on whether she was trying to minimise the impact of the comments – which were made to introduce a new piece of music called Witness by Connor D’Netto – on the MSO’s Jewish donors and audience members.
Galaise said she was looking after MSO stakeholders more broadly.
The “Gillham incident” as it came to be known at the MSO, occurred at a recital in the Iwaki Auditorium on August 11, 2024, before an audience of 156 people. After the concert, three written complaints were made to the box office staff, the court heard.
Galaise was quizzed about how her version of events differed from that of the MSO’s former chief operating officer, Guy Ross, when detailing what transpired at a meeting of the MSO leadership team on the Monday after the event.
Ross gave evidence that then director of artistic programming Andrew Moore spoke at the meeting, saying he and Galaise had met earlier that morning and decided it would be best if Gillham was replaced at the planned Thursday night concert at Melbourne Town Hall.
But on Friday, Galaise disputed Ross’ characterisation of the meeting.
“We had to validate a lot of information before making a call on this,” Galaise said. “I believe I requested legal advice on the employment matter, Mr Ross was in charge of getting legal advice. I do not recall if it was Mr Ross or Mr Moore who got the advice. It was a busy day.”
The week after the recital was a very busy one, she said, with the orchestra preparing for a tour to Singapore and Galaise presenting to the MSO’s finance committee to seek approval for a planned European tour the following year.
Omeri specifically asked Galaise about the contributions of one sponsor, the Gandel Group, which she said “are as committed to Israel as Australia” – referencing statements from the group’s own website – and the fact they were to contribute $300,000 towards the cost of the orchestra’s tour, and whether that had influenced the decision to cancel Gillham’s concert.
“I suggest to you that you were thinking you had to make a good presentation, from the start of August 12, that was on your mind. You heard on August 11, that [Jayson Gillham] made comments which you perceived to be anti-Israel, you had to take swift action to protect one third of the funding of the European tour,” said Omeri.
Galaise said that was not true.
During cross-examination, Omeri put to Galaise several variations on the question: “If Gillham had dedicated the piece to women and lamented the lack of significant action to address the gender pay gap, you wouldn’t have cancelled him or taken any of the subsequent actions.”
Galaise did not accept that was the case, saying that if the MSO had received complaints or people felt threatened, “We probably would have done the same thing.”
Rather than the issue being one of the content of Gillham’s remarks, Galaise maintained it was the fact his comments were political and personal, and had not been authorised.
“I was managing a situation that was highly sensitive and taking care of going forward for the rest of the week,” she said.
She also said the events that week were “unrelenting” and that she had a psychologist recommended by the CEO of the Sydney Theatre Company, to work with the leadership team of the MSO in the weeks after the recital, as they had been impacted by the events of the week.
Omeri pointed out that in the weeks after the event, the MSO received 487 complaints about Gillham being cancelled and 56 messages supporting his cancellation.
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