Violinist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra was suspended without pay for not getting Covid vaccine
At a hearing before an Indiana Senate committee in February, a violinist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra testified that he was suspended without pay after his request for a religious exemption from the orchestra’s vaccine mandate was denied, and was barred from entering the building where the orchestra practices and performs.
Peter Vickery is the leading violinist with the orchestra and also the assistant concertmaster.
On Feb. 16, 2022, he testified at a hearing on House Bill 1001, which was drafted to provide stronger protections for citizens from overly coercive corporate vaccine mandates.
But just before he and several others testified before the Senate Committee on Health and Provider Services, it was announced that the bill would be substantially weakened as it moved through the Senate, amended to remove most protections for individuals in order to assuage the concerns of the business community, which had continued to insist that corporations have the right to force their employees to be vaccinated.
Vickery told the state senators in his testimony that he’d been suspended without pay since November of 2021.
“My name is Peter Vickery. I am a resident of Indianapolis, proud father of six, going on seven, children, and a professional violinist and the assistant concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the largest arts organization in the state. I grew up in Indianapolis and eventually got a job here six years ago. As of November 2021, I have been suspended from the orchestra without pay because I'm not vaccinated. After the 2020 Covid shutdown, the ISO returned to work in May of 2021 … working for six weeks in the summer and continuing in the fall. Until November, unvaccinated musicians were allowed to work while following the Covid protocols the ISO had in place, which included mask when possible, and twice-a-week Covid testing of burden that only unvaccinated workers had to bear.”
He said in the summer and fall of 2021, unvaccinated musicians were allowed to work if they followed the orchestra’s Covid protocols, which included wearing a mask and taking Covid tests.
“Yet when November rolled around, I became too dangerous,” he said, “not because of any real Covid risk whatsoever, as I was testing twice a week, but because of a discriminatory perception of my unvaccinated status.”
“According to the ISO, being unvaccinated posed a direct threat to my coworkers, and this threat could not be mitigated by any reasonable accommodation,” he said. “This, despite the fact I had worked safely for months before; was being tested twice a week and had Covid antibodies detected in my blood in September.”
Vickery said the orchestra refused his request for a religious exemption in order to be able to say that 100% of their employees were vaccinated.
“I requested a religious exemption from the policy but was denied,” he said. “I am currently suspended without pay and cannot even enter our building.”
He said two other musicians in the orchestra had also been suspended for not getting the Covid-19 vaccine although they had requested both medical and religious exemptions and both had natural immunity from prior SARS-CoV-2 infections.
“Our livelihood has been sacrificed in order for the ISO to achieve a 100-percent vaccinated workforce,” he said.
But suspending the three unvaccinated musicians and barring them from the building didn’t stop the virus, with Vickery saying in his testimony that between January and February of 2022, 11 of the orchestra’s 70-80 musicians got Covid-19.
Vickery said it’s evident from his experience that the federal protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which forbids employment discrimination based on religion, are not sufficient protection for citizens. (The amendment that was on the table said employers should grant vaccine exemptions in compliance with Title VII and also the Americans with Disabilities Act — whereas the original language of HB 1001 had said employers “must allow” a religious exemption if requested in writing.)
“The citizens of Indiana need more,” said Vickery. “We need protections against the kind of harsh discrimination I've experienced. The federal protections are not enough.”
Two Democratic senators asked questions of Vickery: One asked whether the orchestra had paid for his Covid tests (they had) and the other whether any of the 11 members of the orchestra who got Covid in January or February had been hospitalized or died (none had died, said Vickery).
A Republican senator, Ryan Mishler, asked whether Vickery would still oppose the bill if the choice were between HB 1001 and no bill at all.
He said he would.
All Republicans on the committee voted in favor of the amendment that weakened the bill.
Their names are Ed Charbonneau (chairman); Vaneta Becker, Stacey Donato, Liz Brown, Justin Busch, Michael Crider, Kevin Boehnlein, Jean Leising and Ryan Mishler.
HB 1001 was passed by the full Senate on March 1 and was signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb on March 3.
Vickery is a 2010 graduate of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He previously performed with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and was concertmaster of the Terre Haute Symphony.
Crossroads Report reached out to him by email to find out what happened after the Feb. 16 hearing, but has not yet heard back from him.
It appears from the website of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra that he remains the assistant concertmaster and first-chair violinist.
My questions would be:
Did the orchestra end the suspension and ask him to come back to work?
Did the orchestra apologize for violating his rights until Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
Did the orchestra give him back pay for the four months during which he was suspended without pay?
And for the readers:
How do you think a musician, or any artist, is affected by having his or her ability to work taken away as punishment for not agreeing to have an experimental treatment injected into his body?
This is a marathon, not a sprint and those of us who have maintained our integrity have to wait out the culmination of the long democide game, where we will be the last ones standing. It is unfortunate that so many have been deceived or coerced but within the next several years, the cumulative damage that they have done to themselves will come home to roost. The "system" as we have known it, is corrupt to the core; a diseased, worm-filled apple. It cannot be fixed. Congress is bought and sold to the highest bidders, with barely a Statesman present.....the 99% are the shadow archetype; the politician. Same with the legal system, where state agency employees ride a gravy train into the courts, contributing to the growing tapestry of iron-fisted, authoritarian mommy-state policies that grow and spread, taking over every aspect of life. The Police State, as it was, has now completely gobbled up the medical system, creating an overarching Medical Police State that is ever bigger, ever wider. All of these things are Anti Life; and they will eventually suffocate themselves completely out of existance, as they are in opposition to organic, Eternal Life; nature....God. This is the artificial world that man-playing-God has been trying to master for eons. It will fail. The created can never exceed the Creator. Meanwhile, people need to focus on building the world that they want for their children.....find or create new opportunities, rather than trying desperately to cling to what is dying. Top-down, hierarchical power structures which preach tyranny and obedience must topple; their time is done.
Lunacy like this really gets your blood boiling. The hypocrisy takes ones breath away.