The international movement Arts Against Aggression expresses profound concern regarding the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s current programming choices, specifically the Stravinsky & Prokofiev with Heyward concert scheduled for October 4, 2026.

Despite recent apologies for the display of Russian imperialist symbols on BSO promotional materials, and the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra’s forced decision to drop a pro-Putin violinist Vadim Repin, these actions appear to have done nothing to alter the institution’s course. The BSO continues to peddle the same narrative surrounding “Great Russian culture” that serves as a core pillar of Russian state propaganda.

It is deeply troubling that while ‘Music Director Jonathon Heyward employs the firepower of Russian masters for a high-octane launch of the BSO’s Classical Series’—as the BSO describes it—the Kremlin continues to employ the firepower of its missiles and drones to murder Ukrainian civilians daily. Just this past weekend Ukraine was subjected to renewed terror. Across regions from Sumy and Zaporizhzhia to Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Kyiv, Russian strikes have killed and injured dozens, while destroying schools, homes, and critical infrastructure. 

If the BSO feels the necessity to “employ the firepower of Russian masters” such as Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev during Russia’s genocidal war in Ukraine, it has an ethical obligation to provide its patrons with the full truth about these composers. The BSO must educate its audience about the composers’ strong Ukrainian roots and the destruction Russia is currently wreaking upon their fatherland:

*   Igor Stravinsky descended from the Ukrainian Cossack Soulima-Stravinsky family. His mother had deep roots in Kyiv, and his father, Fedir, built his career at the Kyiv Opera, maintaining a lifelong affinity for Ukrainian culture. Stravinsky spent many formative summers at his family estate in Ustyluh, in the Volyn region—a region now frequently targeted by the very Russian missile and drone strikes that are destroying Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and harming its people.

*   Sergei Prokofiev was born in Sontsivka, in the Donetsk region. His early life was deeply rooted in this land, which has been under Russian occupation since 2014. The Donetsk State Music Academy and the Donetsk Sergei Prokofiev International Airport—both named in his honor—have been devastated by Russian forces.

It is time for American orchestras and musicians to cease promoting Kremlin narratives about the “superiority” of Russian culture, which serve only to whitewash ongoing war crimes. The BSO’s current programming choices risk normalizing the culture of a state currently engaged in a war of aggression. 

We urge the BSO to move beyond performative apologies and take meaningful steps to ensure its artistic mission does not align with the propaganda efforts of a regime committing atrocities against the very people who helped shape these composers’ identities.

-Arts Against Aggression