Features
Pussy Riot For TMW?
The hottest story surrounding this year’s Tallinn Music Week is that at least one member of Pussy Riot may show for a discussion with Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Russian journalist Artemyi Troitsky.
Photo: AP Photo/Morry Gash
Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (in pink) and Maria Alekhina (in white) exit the police station after being detained for an alleged theft at their hotel Jan. 18 in Adler, Russia. No charges were filed.
Troisky, who in 1988 was described by the New York Times as “the leading Soviet rock critic,” will talk to Ilves about how rock music can shake a country.
Conference organiser Helen Sildna is coy about making a statement.
Apparently Pussy Riot confirmed they’d come to Tallinn but that was before they were arrested and beaten in Sochi during a demonstration.
Sildna says she’s had no contact with the group since.
“There’s an element of risk in announcing them,” she explained, obviously not knowing whether Pussy Riot will be available at the end of March. Ilves historically makes the opening speech at TMW and in the past has been openly critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the way the government has treated the young punk feminist group. He’ll likely have more to say on the subject since Feb. 17, when the world saw that footage of Pussy Riot being horsewhipped by Cossacks.
The act was trying to perform near the Winter Olympics site in Sochi.
“In a free society it’s risk-free. In an un-free society it’s not risk-free. It’s not all fun,” Ilves said when talking about freedom of speech at TMW 2012, while a screen above his head showed Pussy Riot’s original arrest at a Moscow cathedral two months earlier.
Ilves is always a hit because he’s a politician who can genuinely claim to be a music fan.
He’s also a humorous speaker, a national leader who grew up in New York and spent – he admits – a lot of his time hanging at CBGBs.
Every time he speaks at TMW it’s standing room only and – with the conference expecting a sellout crowd of 750 crowd – there won’t be very much of that. He appears to have at least as much pulling power as any of the acts playing the evening showcases that go on around TMW.
There are 226 of them, with 149 of them from Estonia. TMW will also be the platform for a formal announcement from the International Music Managers’ Forum vice chairman Volker May that Estonia is now a member.
MMF Estonia was founded last summer by three Estonian managers – Toomas Olljum of Made In Baltics, Danel Pandre of Full House Agency and Fred Krieger of Star Management.
In cooperation with MMF Finland and MMF Estonia, TMW will also stage a “meet the managers” networking session. Tallinn Music Week and the city festival that runs parallel to it are March 27-29.