Renowned Hungarian-born British pianist Sir András Schiff has become the latest musician to announce a withdrawal from planned concerts in the United States, for explicitly political reasons. He will no longer perform any of the planned dates for the 2025–26 season.
“This is not an easy decision to make,” Schiff wrote in a statement issued on Wednesday afternoon. “Some people might say, ‘just shut up and play.’ I cannot, in good conscience, do that.”
“We do not live in an ivory tower where the arts are untouched by society. Arts and politics, arts and society are inseparable,” Schiff continued. “Have we learned nothing from the course of history – as recently as Europe in the 1930s?”
Schiff was due to perform at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles in October, and has planned appearances in Philadelphia and New York City through the spring of 2026.
Schiff was resident in New York City for a period after his emigration from Hungary, but never obtained citizenship due to repeated absences for touring. “Some of my closest friends live in the States,” he wrote. Schiff remains a steadfast critic of the Hungarian government under president Trump’s close ally Viktor Orbán, who has been Hungarian president since 2010.
Schiff joins a small but gradually growing list of European artists who are refusing to perform in the US. Last month, German violinist Christian Tetzlaff announced he would no longer take US performance engagements, citing president Trump’s diplomatic embrace of Russia.
Meanwhile, French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras has taken an alternative approach: he will perform his US engagements this season, but donate his fees to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s United24 foundation.
“As artists, we must react to the horrors and injustices of this world,” Schiff concluded in his statement.
“The American people have spoken – and we have heard them. Yes, indeed, there is a ‘new sheriff in town.’ Which has made it a very different ‘town’ – one that some of us no longer wish to visit. It is no longer obligatory.”
