‘An orchestra being gassed should be an alarm signal’: the musical activists targeted in Paris
by Kim Willsher in Paris from World news | The Guardian on (#798J1)
New World Orchestra's musicians are shocked at French police targeting peaceful gathering with teargas
As riot police encircled Place de la Republique last week, lobbing teargas canisters to disperse demonstrators, the conductor Etienne Jarrier and his orchestra played on. They kept playing even after everyone else had disappeared and teargas was being fired into the central Paris square.
It was only when Jarrier noticed his musicians were being directly targeted that he ordered them to stop. There were teargas canisters landing in the double bass and music stand cases, and starting fires the musicians had to stamp out," he told the Guardian.
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