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

Andris Nelsons Puts His Foot in His Mouth, Bigtime

Headline in the Boston Globe:

BSO’s Andris Nelsons says sexual harassment isn’t a problem in classical music

Nelsons made this ridiculous claim last week, on Boston's public radio station. He missed the stories about Dale Clevenger, former principal horn of the CSO; he must have missed the much more recent stories about harassment at Berklee College of Music in Boston (not primarily a classical music school, but still). And apparently he wasn't paying attention during the part of the his training as a new manager at the BSO that covered sexual harassment law. (If that wasn't covered, it should have been.)

By now, the BSO legal department has probably got him in their office explaining that just by making that statement, he created an environment in the orchestra where anyone being sexually harassed might be afraid to come forward, since their music director has said that it's just not a problem in classical music. And perhaps Kristine Opalais has had a word or two with him as well.

In the News

Sexual harassment has been in the news bigly a lot, ever since the charges against formerly-beloved comedian Bill Cosby came out. And then there was the Access Hollywood tape, the allegations that pushed out Roger Ailes, the allegations that pushed out Bill O'Reilly, and more recently the allegations about Harvey Weinstein, James Toback, and others in the entertainment business.

Classical music isn't immune to this problem. Here are a few articles on the subject:

• Dan Kempson, Opera's Sexual Assault Secret, Medium
• Susanne Mentzer, Classic(al) Sexual Harassment, HuffPost
• Blog post about Dale Clevenger, formerly of the CSO, this blog

The same in this field as everywhere else. What's being done to clean up this particular area? What are the unions doing?

Dale Clevenger to Retire

Via All is Yar, the word comes of a press release from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra announcing the retirement of principal horn Dale Clevenger.

I have a couple of reactions to this.

• The San Francisco Symphony had better make it worth Robert Ward's while to stick around.
• Clevenger is taking a teaching job at Indiana University. If IU is aware of Clevenger's reputation as a harasser, really, they should read recent coverage of the Chetham's/RNCM scandals carefully.

Personnel Matters

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has been famous for its brass section for a good long time. Now the CSO has a problem in that brass section, as a recently-published article in the Chicago Reader makes clear: Critics in Chicago and NY have noticed that principal horn Dale Clevenger's playing isn't what it used to be. John von Rhein, Lawrence Johnson, and Andrew Patner in Chicago, and Steve Smith in NY, have all remarked on this in published reviews. Andrew Patner is quoted extensively in the Reader article.

Clevenger is a legendary player who has held his position for 44 years; he is now 69 years old. If you click through and read the Reader article and the comments to the article, you'll see that the CSO has several problems on its hands.

• Clevenger's playing
• Clevenger's behavior toward women, if the allegations in the comments are true
• Clevenger's unwillingness to step down
• Muti's unwillingness to follow the contractually-mandated process for removing Clevenger from his position

This is a sad situation all around. Knowing when it's time to quit takes a particular kind of grace; a musician has to be attuned to his or her own weaknesses, has to have the humility to listen to others, and has to be willing to call it a day. There's an old saw about quitting before people are saying it's time, when they want you to hang around for a while longer.

In San Francisco, Glenn Fischthal stepped down voluntarily several years ago as principal trumpet, finishing his career at SFS as associate principal, because he felt his skills were not what they had been. He retired at the end of the 2011-12 season because he had developed aura migraines. Now, that's grace.

It seems Dale Clevenger thinks he can recover his former skill. Any professional musicians want to weigh in on the likelihood of this? I am doubtful, given Clevenger's age (69) and the exacting demands and known difficulties of the horn.

Further, if Clevenger is a serial harasser of women, he's creating what's known legally as a hostile working environment. Should women joining the orchestra or who are already members have to deal with this? It's the job of the CSO's management to make sure its employees behave themselves.

As for Muti and other conductors: if you're not willing to deal in a forthright manner with players' declining skills, perhaps permanent guest conductor is a better job for you than Music Director. It's tough, but that's what you get paid the big bucks for.