'#BoycottZukerman' spreads online after master violinist's offensive remarks against Asians

Pinchas Zukerman / Screenshot from the Manhattan School of Music's website

By Ko Dong-hwan

The hashtag, "#BoycottZukerman," has recently been spreading online after Israeli-American violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman was found to have made "anti-Asian remarks" during his online masterclass in June and other occasions.

The movement surged despite apologies from Zukerman and the Manhattan School of Music (MSM) in New York, where he is a faculty member.

"It was a culturally insensitive comment," said the musician in a statement following mounting criticism that his remarks offended many Koreans, Japanese and Chinese musicians. "I want to personally apologize to the students." Zuckerman also sent an email to his colleagues at the MSM saying, "I said the wrong thing and hurt many people."

MSM President James Gandre said, "Zukerman made inappropriate and abusive comments." The president, however, sympathized with Zukerman's remorse, saying, "He will do better in the future."

Zukerman, 72, was involved in a masterclass hosted by New York's Juilliard School of Music on June 25. According to the online music magazine, "Violinist.com," Zukerman claimed that Korean and Japanese people lack talent as musicians, specifically singers, during the masterclass.

"I know that Koreans don't sing," he said, when the performance of two Asian students did not meet his satisfaction, despite his instructions to "play more like singing" ― a metaphorical expression to put more artistry, musicality and lyricism into playing their instruments.

Zukerman, upon learning that the sister students were not Korean, then asked where they were from. When they answered that they were from Japan, he responded, "It's the same with Japanese people not singing."

He added another controversial remark at the end of the event that was being live-streamed online, "Koreans don't sing. It's not in their DNA."

Following the incident, Julliard posted online the recordings from the masterclass except those that featured Zukerman.

Violinist.com editor Laurie Niles said on June 27 that she "watched the virtual class unfold live, and I can attest that this was the appropriate course," in reference to Julliard's withholding of video of Zukerman's masterclass from its website.

Following the incident, people shared online a tweet with a video containing Zukerman's remarks against Chinese musicians. Twitter user "ninedragonspot" on July 2 cited Zukerman's remarks to "a young violinist who has been studying in the U.S. for 10 years with 2-3 U.S. degrees including ones from Julliard." The remark read: "You guys in China, you never use metronomes. You just go fast, fast and loud! Because if you go fast and loud, you'll be number one! Mmmm…don't think so."

Asian musicians cited by Korean news agency Yonhap said that they think his controversial comments "imprison performers from Korea, China and Japan within the framework of racial stereotypes." The musicians reportedly started a Facebook group and shared their experiences of discrimination.

Zukerman's over five-decades-long musical career includes hundreds of performances with world-class orchestras and collaborations with prominent musicians, such as Isaac Stern, Daniel Barenboim and Itzhak Perlman. He has served as chair of the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the MSM for over 25 years and taught at prominent institutions in various countries, including the U.K., Israel, China and Canada.

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