A court battle between the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and a concert pianist it sacked over comments about the Gaza war is set to reach its crescendo.
Federal Court judge Graeme Hill is due to deliver his judgment on Friday on the alleged unfair dismissal of British-Australian performer Jayson Lloyd Gillham.
Before playing a composition piece dedicated to Gazan journalists, the international concert pianist told an August 2024 recital audience Israel had deliberately targeted some journalists to prevent the reporting of war crimes.
He was sacked the next day and the orchestra cancelled a subsequent concert at the Melbourne Town Hall, citing safety concerns.
The case was fundamentally about the right to freedom of expression for workers and whether those rights could be limited by the implied terms of a contract, Gillham’s barrister Sheryn Omeri KC said.
The pianist’s comments were lawful and audience members who did not want to listen to them could have left the Southbank venue, she said.
But MSO barrister Justin Bourke KC argued an unfettered right to free speech on the stage could have profound consequences, affecting ticket sales, sponsors and donors.
It would ultimately be unworkable, especially if an artist wanted to speak on stage for an hour, and the MSO was “entitled to have control” over its own stage, he said.
In oral evidence, the pianist agreed he had not told the orchestra or his agent about his intentions to play the piece titled Witness, worried they would have found an excuse to disallow the performance.
The MSO argued Gillham would have anticipated people would be upset by his comments, with management responding to the incident within minutes.
The orchestra received one written and two verbal complaints after the concert, followed by 487 complaints about the cancellation decision, the court was told.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, after Hamas fighters stormed an Israeli music festival on October 7, 2023, and killed more than 1200 people.
As of December 2025, more than 260 journalists have been killed in the conflict, according to the United Nations.
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