The Annapolis Symphony Orchestra just announced that tickets for its 65th season go on sale on August 1, with Putin’s violinist Vadim Repin still on the program.
This year, Vadim Repin’s propaganda activities have led to the cancellation of his performances across Europe and in Palm Beach, Florida. Vadim Repin has been re-invited to perform with the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra at Maryland Hall on November 6–7, 2026, despite the fact that his performance was already canceled there in March 2022 in solidarity with Ukraine.
Repin’s new engagement is partially funded by the Maryland State Arts Council and the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County. Both the Maryland State Arts Council and the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County ignored Arts Against Aggression’s appeal to strip all public funding from Repin’s performance and blocked activists from engagement on their social media.
Meanwhile, in Russia on June 30, 2026, Vadim Repin applied for a $1.2 million state grant (₽94,616,450.15) for his own art festival, which is partially funded by the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives.
Established by Putin, this fund finances projects that promote Kremlin narratives, justify the war against Ukraine, and suppress Ukrainian identity.
The concern regarding the use of public funds to support artists with documented ties to the Russian state is significant and growing. This sentiment is clearly reflected in the open letter issued by Arts Against Aggression to the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra and Maryland Hall, as well as in a petition from the Ukrainian community in Maryland, which has already garnered over 750 signatures.
These initiatives demonstrate a clear community mandate to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to normalize or platform individuals who facilitate the instrumentalization of culture in support of a regime engaged in war and political repression.
We must look to international and domestic precedents for moral leadership on this issue. Research by Arts Against Aggression into Vadim Repin’s ties to Russian state-sponsored propaganda and funding has led to the cancellation of his performances in Italy, Germany, Hungary, and the United States, including at the Palm Beach Symphony.
Recently, the European Commission set a critical standard by cancelling 2.3 million dollars in grants to the Venice Biennale, directly citing concerns over the return of Russian state-affiliated presence.
This decision underscores the necessity of distancing public institutions from entities that act as conduits for state-sponsored narratives.
Ultimately, the decision to continue funding and platforming an artist so deeply integrated into the Kremlin’s cultural apparatus forces a choice for Maryland: to either align itself with international standards of accountability or to become an unwitting accomplice in the very state-sponsored propaganda that the democratic world is working to isolate.
Author: Dmitry Smelansky
