Columbus Symphony renames annual Russian Winter Festival

The Columbus Symphony's annual performances dedicated to Russian classical music will return in 2023, but with the word "Russian" stripped from its event name.

• Next year's Russian music showcase is also reduced to one weekend instead of its usual two.

Why it matters: The Russian music showcase is among the symphony's most popular each season, filling a sold-out Ohio Theatre with the familiar sounds of Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff.

The intrigue: The main performance of the 2023 Winter Festival, Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 6, may have been selected as a subtle artistic response to the ongoing war.

• Shostakovich composed the 1939 work as a kind of protest that "rebelled against the Soviet government, standing in defiance of critics tying the composer to a nationalistic cause," a news release from the Columbus Symphony reads.

The big picture: Orchestras around the globe have grappled with Russian musical influences since the country's invasion of Ukraine in February.

• Valery Gergiev was fired as conductor of the Munich Philharmonic due to his close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin and The Polish National Opera canceled performances by a Russian-born composer.