A Melbourne Symphony Orchestra executive suggested cancelling a concert by Jayson Gillham before he had read the comments the classical pianist made about Israel killing journalists in Gaza, a court has heard.

Gillham is suing the MSO over a cancelled Melbourne concert he was contracted to perform on 15 August 2024, which he claims was an attempt to silence him over his stance on the Gaza conflict.

At a performance four days earlier, the pianist played a short piece called Witness, composed by multimedia artist Connor D’Netto, which he dedicated to Palestinian journalists who were killed by Israeli forces.

Introducing the work, Gillham told the audience more than 100 Palestinian journalists had been killed and that the targeting of journalists in a conflict was a war crime under international law.

Israel was killing these journalists to prevent the reporting of war crimes, Gillham said.

Guy Ross, who was the MSO’s chief operating officer at the time of the concert, gave evidence on Tuesday, the second day of the federal court trial in Melbourne.

Ross was presented a number of messages he had exchanged with other MSO executives, including one where he called Gillham an “idiot”.

Another showed Ross had said Gillham’s contract should be terminated even though he was yet to be given a copy of the comments the pianist had made at the concert.

Ross told the court in the hours after the concert, he exchanged messages with another executive, the then director of philanthropy and external affairs, Suzanne Dembo.

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He told Dembo in the exchange it was a “Crappy situation from Jayson”, “Bloody hell I’m furious” and “I knew something like this would happen but not from a soloist FFS [for fuck’s sake]”.

Ross said in court on Tuesday that the messages reflected that he was concerned about the effect of the comments on the MSO, and that he was also checking in on Dembo as she was a Jewish colleague who had previously been upset “by things like this”.

“I just didn’t think it would happen from a soloist, a guest soloist to the MSO,” Ross told the court.

“Guest soloists are the epitome, the ultimate artistic professionals, and the organisation rises to our guest artists, they inspire us, and I just didn’t think this kind of behaviour and conduct would come from a guest soloist.”

The MSO had previously reached a position on the conflict that reflected “there was suffering on both sides”, Ross said.

“All voices were heard on this, and a very deep reflective process of listening to the divergent views was taken at the leadership team and at the board level on this, noting that essentially the MSO taking a side on this matter was going to be very detrimental to the organisation’s cohesion, and its ability to sustain operations in a highly charged environment,” Ross told the court.

The executive team met the morning after the concert and delegated tasks, including contacting Gillham’s manager, getting legal advice and working on communications to send to the audience, Ross said.

Part of the discussion involved the need to act decisively, Ross told the court, given the fact the Sydney Theatre Company was seen to have acted slowly after a similar issue during a performance of Chekhov’s The Seagull, which had “a very big impact on their donor and their Jewish community”.

Under questioning from Gillham’s barrister, Sheryn Omeri KC, Ross said he did not believe the MSO would have said no to Gillham if he had asked them for permission to make a statement before performing Witness.

“I think we would have worked with him collaboratively … to present his interests in line with our interests,” Ross said.

“The wording may have changed, the wording might have been constructed in a way that would have been palatable to the MSO, but Mr Gillham would have been able to make a statement.”

He later clarified that he did not think the MSO would have allowed a statement that referred to the killing of more than 100 Palestinian journalists, that these were targeted killings that constituted war crimes under international law and that they were being committed to cover up the reporting of war crimes.

Ross also agreed that despite him believing there was a convention that musicians should check with their hosts before making political statements on their stages, this had not been conveyed to Gillham, and nothing regarding this was in his contract.

He also said he believed Gillham would have had his contract cancelled if he made similar statements that were pro Israeli hostages, anti Hamas or related to the treatment of Aboriginal people since colonisation.

Earlier on Tuesday, the court heard from the final two witnesses for Gillham, both experts in classical music, who said that it was not “convention” for guest artists to tell their hosts if they planned to make a political statement on stage.

Morgan Hayes, a professor of composition at the UK’s Royal Academy of Music, told the court that he had witnessed the Israeli composer Ilan Volkov make a speech that also related to atrocities in Gaza after leading the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in 2025.

Hayes later confirmed with Volkov that he had not received permission from his hosts beforehand.

A member in the crowd called out “fuck off” during Volkov’s speech, according to a video taken by Hayes that was played in court.

Hayes agreed that it would not be ideal if a political statement was made during a concert that led to unrest within the audience.

“It could put the musical experience at risk if a guest classical artist considered they could say whatever they want on an orchestra’s stage, correct?” Justin Bourke KC, for the MSO, asked Hayes.

“Correct,” he responded.

Angus McPherson, an ABC Classic music programmer, told the court in his evidence that while there was no convention requiring a guest artist to tell their hosts about any statements they intended to make during a performance, it would be expected the artist would not seek to harm the reputation of the host.

The trial before Justice Graeme Hill continues.