Maestro molested me at 16
Conductor groomed me for abuse, says man as Met shelves baton star
THE METROPOLITAN Opera suspended James Levine on Sunday and launched an investigation after two more men stepped forward with molestation allegations against the famed music conductor.
The opera nixed Levine from conducting the New Year’s Eve performance of Puccini’s “Tosca” a day after news surfaced of an Illinois police report lodged against the maestro.
“Based on these new reports, the Met has made the decision to act now, while we await the results of the investigation,” said Peter Gelb, the opera house’s general manager. “This is tragedy for anyone whose life has been affected.”
The Met has hired Robert Cleary, the former U.S. attorney who led the Unabomber prosecution, to conduct an investigation.
The Met said in a statement the allegations against Levine date to the 1960s and continued until the 1980s.
So far, Levine has publicly been accused by three men, including one who told the Daily News that he was groomed for years of sexual abuse.
Ashok Pai, who filed a police report in Illinois last year accusing Levine of sexual misconduct, recalled the conductor’s mentorship that he said took a perverted turn.
“He basically sexually assaulted me hundreds of times,” Pai told The News.
“It was something I needed to do,” Pai said after coming forward. “It’s just healing for me.”
Now 48, Pai said he first met Levine at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Ill., in 1973 when he was just 4 and developing a love of classical music. Levine, now 74, directed the summer music show from 1973 to 1993.
Pai gave The News a redacted version of the report he filed with police in Lake Forest, Ill. The report is an eight-page description of his alleged history with Levine, as well as a college recommendation letter Levine wrote for him on Metropolitan Opera stationery in 1987.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra said it was unaware of any inappropriate behavior by Levine during his tenure there from 2004 to 2011.
The New York Times identified two more men claiming to have been victims of Levine, one recalling alleged abuse that began in 1968.
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra bass player Chris Brown, 66 said he and Levine, then 25, pleasured one another at the Meadow Brook School of Music in Michigan. He was 17.
“I don’t know why it was so traumatic,” he told The Times. “I don’t know why I got so depressed. But it has to be because of what happened. And I care deeply for those who were also abused, all the people who were in that situation.”
Another alleged victim, James Lestock, told The Times he was similarly abused by Levine at the same school. Levine allegedly groomed all three victims for abuse by encouraging their musical talents.
Pai recalled Levine encouraging his love of classical music, telling him he showed promise as a violinist, pianist and conductor.
“He told me I was the greatest guy — he had never seen so much enthusiasm in his life,” Pai said. “It was a spiritual thing going to the symphony. He violated that trust.”
Pai said he’d thought Levine offered a means of escape from a “tough family.”“I thought he was someone who would save me from my life,” he said, adding he received gifts of conductor’s batons from Levine in the mail.
In 1985, when the accuser was 15, their relationship took a turn while Levine drove him home following a classical concert, he said.
“He started holding my hand in a very sensual way,” he said. “That’s when it started.”
Levine allegedly fondled Pai’s private parts when he was about 16 at the Deer Path Inn in Lake Forest, near the Ravinia Festival. The hotel was the site of “hundreds” of encounters, Pai recalled.
The age of consent in Illinois is 17.
Levine could not be reached for comment.