More than 2,000 people in the music industry have signed a petition supporting a jazz musician and composer whose winning entry River to Sea in the 2025 Queensland Music Awards prompted Brisbane city council to revoke its funding of the annual event.
Australian pianist Jayson Gillham, who is locked in a legal battle with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, also issued a statement on Monday, condemning Kellee Green’s case as yet another troubling example of the suppression of political expression by Australian artists.
Green attracted criticism after her political stance on the conflict in Gaza was called into question after her win at the state music awards last Tuesday for her instrumental composition.
The Brisbane-based artist, who is also a teacher at the private Catholic girls’ school Brigidine College in Indooroopilly, delivered an acceptance speech at the awards, during which she accused the Australian government of being complicit in war crimes “by allowing the export of weapons and weapon parts to Israel to directly kill innocent Palestinian men, women, and children”.
She ended the speech with the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
Both the Queensland branch of the Independent Education Union and the school declined to comment on Monday. The school’s principal, Brendan Cahill, issued a statement to students’ parents last week saying Green had agreed to take leave from the school and had given him assurances she had not made any political statements to students. The school had also reached out to the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies, Cahill said in the letter, and was further investigating Green’s “personal musical recordings”.
Green has not commented publicly on her awards speech or her departure from the school.
Last week, the lord mayor of Brisbane, Adrian Schrinner, pulled the council’s $25,000 funding for the awards.
“Music should be a positive force that brings people together, not tear them apart,” the Lord Mayor’s statement said.
A further $450,000 in annual funding to the awards’ organiser, QMusic, is now under review, with the state government’s arts minister, John-Paul Langbroek, demanding an explanation from the organisation why the awards were allowed to become a platform for “divisive commentary”.
“I will be questioning the awards process, current eligibility criteria, and comments made at the awards ceremony,” Langbroek said in a statement.
QMusic’s chief executive, Kris Stewart, issued a statement last Thursday saying the association was “deeply saddened” by the council’s decision.
“We acknowledge the sensitive nature of this moment and the impact it has had on some members of our community,” the statement said.
“We do not wish for the Queensland Music Awards to be a platform for political debate. The intention of the event is, and always has been, to celebrate the work of our state’s artists and industry.”
The petition, launched by the Brisbane-based group Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra, criticised both the “inflammatory” and “unfounded” claims by Schrinner, and QMusic’s statement claiming the awards were not a platform for political debate.
The orchestra’s founder, Taiwanese-Australian composer and musician Matt Hsu, told Guardian Australia on Monday QMusic was using the guise of neutrality to curb artists’ freedom of expression.
“QMusic should be taking a more powerful stance in support of musicians,” he said.
Stewart did not respond to the Guardian’s queries on Monday, but responded to Hsu’s criticisms directly, saying in an email he was meeting with QMusic’s board to discuss the issue.
“I’ve wrestled a lot with this over the last few days – actually, that’s probably an understatement,” Stewart said in the email.
“I need to acknowledge that I probably have some gaps in my own cultural understanding around both sides of this debate. I’m heartbroken that we can’t see to find respectful ways to have a conversation on this, one in which artists should be centred, and that it seems to have become so politically divisive in our country, a place where freedom of expression and thought has always been central to our national character.”
Gillham, who is suing the MSO after it cancelled a performance after his onstage support for the people of Palestine last August, said on Monday he was deeply alarmed and concerned about the increasing pressure being applied to cultural organisations to silence and deplatform artists who make public statements in support of Palestine.
“The recent decision by Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner to withdraw Brisbane city council funding from the Queensland Music Awards following pianist Kellee Green’s acceptance speech – in which she spoke about the suffering of Palestinian civilians and urged peaceful protest and action – is yet another example of this troubling trend,” he said.
“Attempts to label such speech as “hate” in order to suppress political expression are not only damaging to individual artists, but also to the health and integrity of our cultural institutions and public discourse.
“Now, more than ever, we must uphold the principles of artistic freedom, open dialogue, and the right to speak out against injustice – especially within the arts.”
• This article was amended on 1 April 2025 to reflect that the petition was launched by the group Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra, not by its founder, Matt Hsu.
