Yesterday, Camille Thurman, a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, conducted by Wynton Marsalis, performed alongside the Moscow Jazz Orchestra, led by People's Artist of Russia Igor Butman, at the opening of the Moscow Jazz Festival, according to a report from RIA Novosti.
The participation of American artists at the Moscow Jazz Festival has also been fanfared by other Russian state media, including TASS and Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the official publication of the Russian government.
The festival features several U.S. artists, including Tierney Sutton, Tamir Hendelman, Darrell Green, Allan Harris, and Vanessa Rubin, alongside Camille Thurman.
The budget for the Moscow Jazz Festival is a record even for Russian cultural propaganda events, exceeding three million dollars (240 million rubles). Among its sponsors are Gazprom, which is sanctioned by the U.S., and the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives. The engagement of U.S. artists in this festival constitutes a violation of U.S. sanctions law and raises substantial potential legal concerns for U.S. performers and their representatives.
The festival's applicationfor government funding highlights that "the festival actively features performances by jazz musicians from new regions of Russia [Occupied territories of Ukraine]. In 2024, the 'Cruise Control' ensemble from the Donetsk Philharmonic achieved great success at Zaryadye Park during the festival. Following their experience at the festival, they organized events in Donetsk titled 'Echo of Moscow Jazz Festival’”.
Igor Butman, the festival's artistic director and a trusted associate of Putin, is under sanctions from Ukraine and Canada and holds dual citizenship in the United States and Russia.
The International movement Arts Against Aggression has sent an open letter to all Western venues hosting these U.S. artists, urging venues to cancel their engagements.
A specific appeal has been directed to the Rochester International Jazz Festival, where Allan Harris is scheduled to perform on June 22, and to the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, where Camille Thurman is set to perform on June 29.
Urgent Concern: Camille Thurman at Upcoming Obama Foundation Event
Dear Obama Foundation Team,
We write to flag serious ethical and potential legal concerns regarding Camille Thurman's upcoming performance on your venerable stage.
As detailed in our open letter– being simultaneously distributed to the U.S. and European jazz press – Ms. Thurman is scheduled to perform at the Moscow Jazz Festival this June (June 8–14, 2026).
The Moscow Jazz Festival is one of the major Russian propaganda events. With a budget of over three million dollars, it is sponsored by Gazprom, a sanctioned entity, and the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives, an instrumentality of the Russian state. Under U.S. sanctions law, receipt of compensation connected to these entities raises substantial potential legal concerns for U.S. performers and their representatives.
Notably, while Ms. Thurman's Moscow appearance is prominently featured on the festival's websiteand social media, it does not appear anywhere on her social media where she usually promotes her shows (just her website) – suggesting a clear awareness of the reputational and legal risks involved.
This is not an abstraction: as this letter is written, Russian missiles are killing Ukrainian civilians daily and have damaged or destroyed 1,783 cultural heritage sites and 2,540 cultural infrastructure facilities — including decimating Leopolis Jazz Fest and Jazz on Dnipro, which previously presented Herbie Hancock, Diana Krall, Chick Corea, and George Benson – the very cultural institutions and artists the Obama Foundation exists to uplift and celebrate.
Given the Obama Foundation's mission of inspiring, empowering, and connecting people, its association with an artist who participates in Kremlin–aligned cultural initiatives and violates U.S. sanctions imposed by President Obama is particularly incongruous.
We urge you to reconsider Ms. Thurman's appearance. We are distributing this letter to the broader U.S. and international press, submitting our concern to the US Department of State, and welcome the opportunity to speak with your leadership directly.
Arts Against Aggression
Author: Dmitry Smelansky
