MUSICAL MISCONDUCT
Classical artists describe a profession rife with sexual harassment
Violinist Zeneba Bowers was 26 when, she says, she asked William Preucil, the concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra, out for a drink after a lesson in 1998. Bowers was a member of the New World Symphony in Miami, the elite training orchestra, which had hired Preucil, then 40 and widely hailed as the greatest living concertmaster, to teach the New World’s young musicians.
For a young violinist like Bowers, the chance to talk shop informally with someone at Preucil’s level was a precious opportunity, and Bowers said she would deliberately take the last lesson of the day with the hopes of talking with the teacher afterward.
On the night that they went out, Bowers says she was flattered and thought she had been accepted into an insider network when Preucil, after a few drinks, asked her back to his hotel room for a cigar. But once in his room, she says, he began aggressively kissing her, undoing her buttons, pushing her onto the bed. She says she was stunned and horrified, and fought him off and ran home. A few minutes later, he called her and threatened to blacklist her if she told anybody, she says. “We’re both adults,” Bowers says Preucil told her. “You know how this works.”
Bowers called her best friend immediately. Her friend confirmed the call to a Washington Post reporter.
Preucil said through a Cleveland Orchestra spokesman that he was not available for comment. He has since been suspended and placed on leave by the orchestra while it investigates the allegations. Onstage, classical music is larger than life. But the preparation behind the scenes takes place in more intimate environments than most workplaces, dressing rooms, rehearsal studios or windowless practice rooms, in hours of oneon-one instruction. And in a field that venerates authority and embraces the widespread fallacy that great artists live outside the mores of society, these conditions can create fertile ground for harassment. The downfall of movie producer Harvey Weinstein in October led to the toppling of prominent men in many fields. Classical music’s #MeToo moment erupted in December when star conductor James Levine was suspended from the Metropolitan Opera after people came forward with claims of abuse. Levine, who was later dismissed, denied the charges and is suing the Met, which is countersuing him. Twelve international orchestras cut ties with powerful conductor Charles Dutoit, who was the artistic director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra between 1977 and 2002, after multiple women accused him of abusive behaviour, including rape.
Dutoit denied the allegations, telling the Associated Press in January, “I am shaken to the core by this bewildering and baseless charge . ... I submit my categorical and complete denial.” Conductor Daniel Lipton, who resigned from Opera Tampa last year, was accused of unwanted kissing and groping by two women after word that Canadian officials had issued an arrest warrant for a sexual assault in the late 1980s. Opera Tampa officials had bought out his contract in July because they had concerns, according to reports. Lipton denied the charges. “Not everything which one prints is correct,” he said. “Things which have been put in the press are totally inaccurate.”
Flute professor Bradley Garner retired from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music toward the end of an internal investigation that uncovered allegations that he had made unwanted sexual advances to students for years. Garner’s lawyer, Subodh Chandra, said Garner resigned because university officials denied him due process.
“He submitted an affidavit under oath, in which he denied the allegations,” Chandra said.
Over a six-month period starting last November, The Washington Post spoke to more than 50 musicians who say they were victims of sexual harassment. These artists, many of whom shared their stories for the first time, described experiences ranging from sexual harassment to sexual assault, at every level from local teachers to international superstars. Opera singers spoke of attempted assaults in dressing rooms or in the wings during performances. Students described teachers inappropriately touching their bodies during lessons.
Young artists in conservatories and training programs, such as the New World Symphony, are especially vulnerable, interviews showed. Individual teachers have enormous power over their students’ future careers: A good word can open doors, a bad one can shut them forever. High-profile instructors like Preucil — whose alleged interaction with Bowers in Miami has not been previously reported — attract donors and new talent, and institutions might be reluctant to discipline them. Deborah Borda, president and chief executive of the New York Philharmonic and the highestranking female administrator in classical music, says she was harassed early in her career, an incident she says is still both vivid and painful to recall.