International reaction to TSO's decision to turf pianist

The controversy over the TSO cancelling the Toronto performance of Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa - classical music's Justin Bieber, according to the BBC - over social media posts of hers deemed anti-Kyiv, is no longer local.

Newspapers and media outlets worldwide have picked up the story about turfed musician, who will be paid, but not allowed to perform. The New York Times has collected many of the perceived offensive tweets Lisitsa has sent over the last year or so from her account.

While not many other big players have commented thus far, international coverage is as far reaching slavyangrad.org, WQXR (New York), In the Now (Moscow), deutsche-wirtschafts-nachrichten.de (Germany), and Sputnik, and Spanish site codalario.com. Canadian publications on the story include Macleans, The Globe, the CBC and the Huffington Post.

The Toronto Star is now reporting that Lisitsa's replacement, Stewart Goodyear, has backed out due to "mob-like behavior of [Lisitsa's] devotees." Bieber-mania indeed.

Read Lisitsa's own take on Facebook here.

Image via Facebook