Maestro’s bro was ‘in the know’
Facilitated abuse: accuser
Conductor James Levine had a wingman in his alleged abuse of young men — his younger brother, according to a police report.
Tom Levine, a painter who lives in Chelsea, was part of an entourage attending to every need of the renowned Metropolitan Opera maestro and knew of his relationship with at least one of his alleged victims.
“His brother, who is his manager, his assistant, all of them were in on the game,” according to a police report filed by Ashok Pai.
Pai, who grew up in Illinois, alleges James Levine began to come on to him when he was 15 in 1985, holding his hand in “a sensual way” and telling him, “You can use me any way you want to,” according to the police report.
The next year, Levine began inviting the then-16-year-old to his hotel room, where the maestro would masturbate in front of him and fondled his penis, the report says.
Pai, now 48, said he also saw the conductor in New York City, where they often had dinner at Café des Artistes or Shun Lee, restaurants close to the Met’s Lincoln Center home. He contended that Tom Levine “was also around during dinners” he had with the maestro.
Tom Levine, 72, also signed his name to checks Pai received from 1988 to 1993, the accuser said. He told police the conductor gave him about $50,000 over the years for tuition and expenses.
Throughout James Levine’s long career, his brother has been at his side. He and an assistant reportedly took care of the maestro’s everyday needs such as cooking and laundry.
In addition to working as an artist, Tom Levine often acted as his brother’s right hand, even shining his shoes and once cutting his food up at a dinner party, according to a Boston Globe report.
“I don’t resent the work at all,” he told the newspaper in 2006. “It allows me to do so much. Unless you’re Bob Rauschenberg, then you have to have another job. You teach or you build walls or you do electric. I’m very lucky. I have a boss who is artistically oriented. I have a great job.”
James Levine, 74, made millions of dollars as the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and from guest-conducting gigs. Last week, the Met suspended him from his role of music director emeritus after The Post revealed the alleged abuse.
In addition to Pai, three other men told The New York Times that Levine abused them. Two of the men said the alleged abuse began when they were 17. One of the men was 20.
“You could ask [Tom Levine] if James Levine spent time with me behind closed doors,” Pai told The Post.
Tom Levine did not return requests for comment. James Levine has denied the allegations.
Illinois prosecutors on Friday announced they would not bring criminal charges against James Levine, because the age of consent at the time of the sexual allegations was 16. It has since been raised to 17, and 18 in cases where the accused abuser “is in a position of trust.”
“No similar legal protection existed during the time frame in which these acts are alleged to have occurred,” a spokesman said.
Tom Levine’s work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the National Gallery, among other galleries.
In 2014, he had a show at the Washburn Gallery in New York. The abstract paintings depict human figures. In one work, an amorphous person seems to grab another’s butt.