#MeToo at Juilliard

The other week, VAN Magazine published an important story by music journalist Sammy Sussman, about allegations of sexual improprieties at Juilliard School. These involved the late composer Christopher Rouse and current faculty member Robert Beaser, a former head of the composition department. There are also allegations of discrimination against women by composer John Corigliano. (Corigliano denies this.) Today, Michael Andor Brodeur reports in The Washington Post that Beaser is on leave, pending an investigation into his behavior, and also that hundreds of composers, performers, and artistic leaders have signed a petition asking Juilliard to investigate.

This kind of behavior is everywhere. If you know about sexual harassment, consider reporting it to a journalist, whether you're currently willing to go on the record or not. The more information that can be gathered, the more likely it is that this behavior will become public and investigations will result, whether the miscreant is punished or not.

Trinity Church Fires Julian Wachner

Monument in the Trinity Church graveyard

Well, that didn't take long. On February 28, Trinity Church learned of a sexual assault allegation against its choir director Julian Wachner, who runs their very well-funded music programs. (Trinity owns real estate in NYC and has an investment portfolio worth $6 billion, which is not a typo. This is the kind of thing that happens when you have held on to real property since the 18th c.) He was put on leave within the last couple of days, as Javier C. Hernández reported yesterday. Today, Trinity fired him, issuing a statement indicating that it "concluded based on recent information that Julian has otherwise conducted himself in a manner that is inconsistent with our expectations of anyone who occupies a leadership position."

I saw some comments on Facebook indicating that Wachner has a reputation for bullying people he works with in various capacities, which would be sufficient reason, in my opinion, to fire someone. Trinity's statement says that the investigation into him is ongoing.

Compare and contrast Trinity's actions with those of, say, the Metropolitan Opera, which heard those rumors about James Levine for decades before finally being forced to conduct an investigation that found credible evidence of his misbehavior.

 

Dale Clevenger

Dale Clevenger, former principal horn of the Chicago Symphony, has died at 81. He was a legendary player with a tarnished legacy, owing to his being a sexual harasser and his failure to step down in the face of  audibly diminished capabilities.

• Miriam DiNunzio, Chicago Sun-Times obituary
• Editorial thanking Clevenger and conveniently forgetting the above, Chicago Sun-Times
• Previously at this blog, for the forgetful

Sexual Abuse, Classical Music Edition, Part ???

Here are some links that've been floating around open browser tabs for too damn long.

• Music's Perpetually Open Secret: Allegations against Professor Dan Welcher at the University of Texas at Austin Butler School of Music went on for 18 years before being addressed.
• Women accuse opera legend Domingo of sexual assault.
• LA Opera investigation finds sexual harassment allegations against Placido Domingo credible
  
• Plácido Domingo had 'inappropriate conduct' with many women, opera finds
  
• Domingo barely apologized, then walked the "apology" back two days later.

You can look up all of the allegations against Domingo, which came from 20 women who'd worked with him at various opera companies. A least one was a dancer and the rest were singers. I have privately heard some stuff about his behavior - warnings given to singers along the lines of don't be alone with him, don't let him in your dressing room alone, etc. This would have been the whisper network doing its job.

In this NY Times article, we find LAO claiming the following:

Los Angeles Opera, however, said its investigation had “found no evidence that Mr. Domingo ever engaged in a quid pro quo or retaliated against any woman by not casting or otherwise hiring her at L.A. Opera, especially since casting and other hiring decisions are complex, performance-specific and determined by multiple people.” 

Here's an NPR article that quotes the Met saying this:

We take accusations of sexual harassment and abuse of power with extreme seriousness. We will await the results of the investigation into Plácido Domingo's behavior as head of the Los Angeles Opera before making any final decisions about Mr. Domingo's ultimate future at the Met. It should be noted that during his career at the Met as a guest artist, Mr. Domingo has never been in a position to influence casting decisions for anyone other than himself.

A couple of comments:

1. The Met was absolutely craven not to make its own investigation.

2. Re LAO's hiring claim: Yeah, they're complicated, but as General Manager and a big star, Domingo would certainly have had influence on casting. I'd love to see the basis of the claim that there was never any retaliation or quid pro quo.

3. Re the Met, hahahahahahahaha. Of course he was. You don't have to be part of the Met's administration to have influence. It's easy to imagine a conversation between, say, Levine and Domingo in which Domingo says "Oh, if you're thinking about casting for [opera], I recently worked with [soprano] / heard [soprano] elsewhere, and she just wouldn't be right for that role. Have you considered [some other soprano]?" And somehow, [some other soprano] gets the job. I mean, I have heard of at least one singer, a singer who was never GM of even one opera company, putting their foot down about a particular piece of casting and getting their way, not at the Met, and that singer was never a star on level of Domingo.

As you know, San Francisco Opera got out ahead of this by canceling a planned concert celebrating Domingo as soon as the news broke. This suggests a couple of things to me: the company wanted to do the right thing, and perhaps they knew of credible allegations from women who'd worked with Domingo at SFO. Also, ahem, Opera Magazine's "We've heard that..." column mentioned that SFO would open the 2020-21 season with Macbeth, which turned into Rigoletto by the time of the season announcement. One might wonder who was cast in the title role of the Scottish opera.

Gone Boy

You might have heard that both the Royal Opera and Met suspended / fired tenor Vittorio Grigolo the other week. The tenor groped another cast member during curtain calls, reports say.

He's really out, out, out of the upcoming Met Traviata:

New York, NY (December 12, 2019)—The Metropolitan Opera today announces two cast changes for its forthcoming production of Verdi’s La Traviata, opening January 10, 2020. Piero Pretti sings the role of Alfredo Germont at the performances on February 26, 29, March 5, 9, 13, and 19, 2020, replacing Vittorio Grigolo. Additionally, New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns joins the cast as the female solo dancer for the performances on January 10, 14, 18, 23, 26, February 3, March 5, 9, and 13, 2020.

As previously announced, Aleksandra Kurzak is Violetta, Dmytro Popov is Alfredo Germont, and Quinn Kelsey is Giorgio Germont in the eight initial performances of this revival of Michael Mayer’s production, opening January 10, 2020, conducted by Karel Mark Chichon. The production features choreography by Lorin Latarro.

La Traviata returns on February 26, 2020, for six additional performances, conducted by Bertrand de Billy and starring Lisette Oropesa as Violetta, Pretti as Alfredo Germont, and Luca Salsi as Giorgio Germont.

Apropos of Abuse

Sexual assault and sexual harassment aren't the only ways that people are abused. There are other crappy behaviors:

• Sexist or racist remarks
• Taking credit for work another person did
• Bullying, in or out of the classroom
• Retaliation for being reported for bad behavior

I'm hoping that journalists will begin to investigate situations such as the above, which are also enormously destructive and hurt individuals, their studies, their careers. From reading Twitter, let's just say that I'm convinced that this garbage behavior is shamefully common.

If anything like the above has happened to you, you could start by directly contacting reporters who've done some work already in these areas (Peggy McGlone and Anne Midgette at the Washington Post, for example) or by making a confidential report to the NY Times.

#MeToo Updates

Well, I was planning an update on what's been happening the last few months even before the big story this week. So you get two articles, I hope.

Updates on previous issues:

• Metropolitan Opera vs. James Levine: In March, the judge in the case dismissed most of Levine's defamation claims against the Met. At the beginning of this month, the parties settled. The terms are confidential; we don't know whether money changed hands or what was agreed to. Too damn bad, because I wanted to see Levine on the stand and any evidence anyone has. We will also never know what bodies might be buried where; what the Met knew and when; etc.
• David Daniels. New filings indicate that U. Mich. received more complaints against the countertenor than were previously disclosed. 
• Back in February, Bozeman Symphony music director Matthew Savery resigned over harassment and terrible behavior of all sorts. As quoted by Drew McManus at Adaptistration, at letter to the orchestra's board included this: "Of paramount concern is the bullying, harassment, mistreatment, discrimination and inappropriate behavior we have experienced, seen and heard from the current Music Director, Matthew Savery, toward our local and guest musicians, BSO administrative staff, and donors."

The second-biggest #MeToo story in the last few weeks has been about violinist Lara St. John. When she was a student at the Curtis Institute in the mid-1980s, she was assaulted by Jascha Brodsky, a famous violin teacher. She told friends about it, among them Bay Area pianist Eric Zivian, and she also went directly to Curtis's administration....which did absolutely nothing.

After the Philadelphia Inquirer published the store I linked to above, Curtis proceeded to offer a non-apology apology - more than one, in fact - and, unbelievably, sent email to alumni asking them not to comment on the story, talk to the press, etc. That...is not a good look for an educational institution. It is also amazing from a public relations standpoint. Doesn't Curtis have competent publicists working for them??

The St. John story is worth noting not only for the violinist's follow-up in the decades since Brodsky assaulted her, but for the fact that she went directly to Curtis, which took no useful action. Any time you hear someone asking "but why didn't she complain?", you should cite what happened with St. John. And tell people what happens to lots of whistle-blowers: retaliation from employers, difficulty getting hired elsewhere (because you're known to be honest and willing to tell the truth publicly), loss of income, etc.

Another U Mich Accusation

Found at Musical America, thanks to a Tweet:

On Monday, an article appeared in The Michigan Daily , UMich’s student newspaper, accusing Stephen Shipps, chair of the strings department and director of the university's strings preparatory division, of sexual misconduct. The story has … 

MA is behind a paywall and I'm not a subscriber. Covered elsewhere:

• Deadline Detroit
• Michigan Daily, where the headline is "Former students bring 40 years of misconduct allegations by SMTD professor"

Jesus fucking christ. The preparatory division would be pre-college students.

Daniels Out

Received from San Francisco Opera (as predicted), and put pretty bluntly to make it obvious what happened here:

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA REMOVES SINGER DAVID DANIELS

FROM JUNE 2019 PRESENTATION OF HANDEL’S ORLANDO

SAN FRANCISCO (November 8, 2018)—San Francisco Opera today announced it is removing countertenor David Daniels from the role of Medoro in the Company’s June 2019 presentation of Handel’s Orlando. The decision to part ways with Mr. Daniels, for business and professional reasons, was reached after considerable deliberation given the serious allegations of sexual assault, an on-going police investigation and a lawsuit filed against the American opera singer. While these situations remain under investigation, San Francisco Opera is unable to present the artist on the War Memorial Opera House stage.

The Company will announce a replacement for the role of Medoro at a later date.

# # #

For further press information, visit sfopera.com/press.

Today in Sexual Harassment

Updates to two stories:

• There's a second accusation against countertenor David Daniels, who is being sued by a University of Michigan student. The student is also suing the university. (Personal to San Francisco Opera: still waiting on that cast change announcement. The cover's web site says he is the cover, even.)
• After an investigation, the Cleveland Orchestra has fired its concertmaster and principal trombone. Note that the allegations against concertmaster William Preucil cover the period 1996-2007; in other words, this has been going on for a long time. I'll just guess that the orchestra chose to ignore any allegations that came to its attention.

There's no doubt that the Cleveland Orchestra could have done better. Here are the last few paragraphs from the WaPo story I link to above:

As for La Rosa, the report stated that the orchestra was approached about his behavior on at least three occasions, twice by universities. In one case, the orchestra was unable to investigate because the student did not make a formal complaint. La Rosa was issued a warning.

Gremillet said the orchestra will improve its whistleblower policy and create an anonymous hotline that will provide a better process for future complaints. “It’s a clear message that none of this will be tolerated,” he said. 

But he declined to discuss the report’s conclusion that the orchestra could have done more in the past. “The report speaks for itself,” he said. “That’s why we’re releasing it.”

Cleveland Orchestra Suspends Principal Trombonist

After the July WaPo story about sexual harassment in the classical music world, which included information about concertmaster William Pruecil the Cleveland Orchestra commissioned a full investigation into harassment issues at the orchestra. Now they've suspended principal trombone Massimo LaRosa, 43, who has been with the orchestra since 2007. The new WaPo story is somewhat hair-raising.

.....and Another Resignation

Earlier this week, it was David Daniels, whose autograph I have in the program of a long-ago, fondly remembered Poppea. Now it's the organist James David Christie, with whom I exchanged a friendly round of email when I tried to find out just what he'd played at the funeral of the late Senator Ted Kennedy.

Christie resigned from positions at Holy Cross and Oberlin, following reports from several of his former students about sexual abuse of different kinds that took place over a long period of Time. From the Globe's report, it sounds as though this was one of those situations where "everybody knew." Le sigh.

Future Cast Change Announcement, San Francisco Opera

Countertenor David Daniels has been accused of rape. The NY Daily News has the details, and they are damning, because they include the victim contemporaneously telling a friend and a psychotherapist about what had happened.

Daniels is scheduled to appear in next summer's Orlando. I have a theory about who his replacement might be, assuming SFO consults its contract with Daniels and finds a morals clause or other reason to release him from the production.

Update, 4:30, 8/22/2018: Daniels has taken a leave of absence from the University of Michigan, where he teaches, according to the NY Times.

Update, 8/23/2018: San Francisco Opera investigating the situation, committed to a safe environment for all, according to statements to the Daily News.