February 11, 2011
Pavel Khodorkovsky, president of the Institute of Modern Russia, to Attend Grammys on Behalf of Composer Arvo Pärt
Renowned c 
ontemporary music composer Arvo Pärt has designated Pavel Khodorkovsky, the son of Russia’s best-known political prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky, to attend the Grammy Awards ceremony on his behalf. Pä rt’s Symphony No. 4 is nominated for a Grammy in the Best Classical Contemporary Composition category. The symphony is dedicated to Mikhail Khodorkovsky and all oppressed people in Russia. Once Russia’s most successful businessman, Khodorkovsky has been in prison since 2003 on politically motivated charges and was sentenced to an additional six years in December 2010 in his second trial.
Symphony No. 4 opened to wide acclaim in 2009. Commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, Pärt chose a portion of Orthodox Christian text, “Canon of the Guardian Angel” as a basis for the piece.
“The music of Symphony No. 4 touches the soul. Mysterious yet stirring and approachable, the piece reminds me that the hope for my Dad’s release lies in us and our ability to press on against authoritarian forces,” said Pavel Khodorkovsky. “Arvo and the Grammys deserve much credit for helping focus worldwide attention on the plight of all political prisoners in Russia."
Pärt is one of a growing number of prominent intellectuals, artists, writers and musicians from Russia, United States, Western Europe and Latin America who have publicly expressed their support for Khodorkovsky over the past several years, among them two Nobel Laureates, Elie Wiesel and Mario Vargas Llosa, world renowned violinist and conductor Gidon Kremer, noted French philosopher and writer Andre Glucksmann, actor and director Terry Gilliam, Russian writer Boris Akunin, Russian nonconformist painters Boris Zhutovsky and Maxim Kantor and Andrey Sakharov’s widow, Yelena Bonner.
