Has any musician, orchestra director, etc. ever refused to play Wagner because he was an anti-semite?

The only thing I could find about his work not being performed is that it wasn’t performed at all in Israel until 2001. Wagner There’s a lot of interesting history on his wikipedia page.

I can’t imagine that there wouldn’t be, especially when you think of musician as anyone who plays an instrument and not just anyone who plays for a living (which, even then, is quite a lot with garage bands). I know I read an article just the other day about how the author remembered the jews they grew up with (presumably, neighbors and such) refusing to play Wagner on the radio.

I know that Wagner was played over the speaker systems in concentration camps. I can understand Israel wouldn’t play any, then. I’ve never heard of anyone not playing because of anything to do with anti – semitism anywhere else.

I dont believe so…musicians believe in the soul of music and would play any beautiful music, no matter who wrote it.

Nope. I love Wagner. His works are amazing.

‘I do hate myself, but it has nothing to do with being Jewish’

The Israel Philharmonic refused to play Wagner for many years. Zubin Mehta convinced them to play a Wagner piece about 10 years ago and it went off without too much controversy. The rationale now seems to be that great art is independent of the flaws of its creator.

For several years after WW2, the Bayreuth Festival was banned because of the Nazi sympathies of Wagner’s son; the venue being the property of the Wagner family. The festival performances were only allowed to proceed after the directorship was handed over to a grandson, who had no Nazi connections. NF