Nicholas Kristof updates his 2017 New York Times column on How to Reduce Shootings whenever a major new incident occurs, and until our community finds the wherewithal to banish unchecked sexual misconduct from our culture I’m going to similarly update and share this post whenever another icon predictably falls from grace.
I grew up in Mendham, New Jersey and graduated from West Morris Mendham High School in 1982. Among my classmates was a bright, gregarious, athletic young man named Mark Serrano. Awash in optimism on the sunny June evening of our commencement, none of my classmates could possibly have imagined that Serrano would later be revealed as the victim of a horrific pedophile priest, an early harbinger of the scandal that would eventually engulf the Catholic Church.
When that scandal blew wide open in 2002, media coverage centered on crimes committed in the Boston Archdiocese, but the first dominos began to fall some 17 years earlier in my small suburban town where the not-so-reverend James T. Hanley had been ritualistically sexually abusing boys at the Church of St. Joseph. Serrano disclosed the abuse to the local diocese in 1985 and brought a lawsuit that was quietly settled out-of-court. Hanley was subsequently removed from his position but never charged with a crime. His crimes were effectively hushed up until 1995, when one of Hanley’s successors shared the story with St. Joseph’s congregation. Even then, Serrano kept silent, in accordance with the confidentiality agreement he had signed as part of the settlement. He finally spoke out in 2002 when the Boston Archdiocese came under fire and it became clear that he was far from being the only child victim who had suffered sexual assault at the hands of a priest.
The Boston Archdiocese scandal caused widespread shock due not only to the astonishingly prolific crimes of priest John J. Geoghan – he was convicted of molesting 86 young men – but also to the fact that the Archdiocese had been made aware of Geoghan’s behavior but allowed him to continue serving, thus facilitating his continued abuses. The Archdiocese was eventually held accountable for covering up sexual misconduct by multiple priests in their jurisdiction.
Since then, similar patterns of sexual misconduct covered up by Catholic Archdioceses have been exposed in more than a dozen countries. While these horrific abuses continue to come to light, the church is beginning to recognize that victims must be supported rather than silenced and that pedophile priests must no longer be systematically protected. But while they may now profess a policy of responding to reports of sexual misconduct with greater credulity and expediency than in decades past, it remains appalling to realize how long it took, how many young lives were irrevocably scarred, and how many congregations remained under the spiritual guidance of men who had been assaulting their children, until the church began to take responsibility for the crimes being committed and covered up under its jurisdiction. This is a reckoning that should have begun in 1985 when Mark Serrano came forward, rather than nearly two decades later.
This progression from initial hush-up to full-blown scandal should sound very familiar to classical musicians right now.
Two years ago numerous men came forward with stories of having been sexually assaulted by former Metropolitan Opera music director James Levine, beginning in the 1970s. The Met was reportedly first alerted to his misconduct as far back as 1979 but took no action until this article appeared in the New York Post in December 2017; if in fact the Met had been aware of these allegations since 1979, they were effectively complicit in Levine’s crimes for nearly 40 years. Levine’s exposure prompted the Met to fire him, initiate an investigation (finally), and sue him. But the company’s response focused entirely on denying any liability rather than offering reparations to Levine’s victims, examining how the culture may have enabled or facilitated the covering up of his crimes, or seeking ways to prevent similar abuses in the future.
In July 2018, the Washington Post published an article by Anne Midgette and Peggy McGlone detailing sexually abusive behavior on the part of three prominent members of the classical music community. In two of these cases their employers, like the Met, had previously received complaints about their misconduct yet took no action prior to the public exposure. The conservatory where the concertmaster was on faculty reportedly handled a student’s allegations of abuse by arranging for her transfer to a different institution and covering her tuition. The opera company with whom the director was most strongly affiliated initially responded to the WaPo exposé by affirming their relationship with him and dismissing the allegations as too old to be of concern. The conductor’s first reaction was to hire a public relations firm and release a blanket apology “to all the women I have met in my entire life;” however, after being fired by his orchestra, he denied the allegations and threatened retaliation for defamation.
This morning, we awoke to an Associated Press article detailing decades of sexual harassment allegedly committed by Placido Domingo. The article documents the stories of nine women but alludes to the probable existence of countless others. Domingo’s long history of harassment is dubbed “an open secret;” as with James Levine, I imagine that there are very few opera professionals based in the US who were at all surprised to read about it.
Make no mistake: these press exposés can hardly represent the first instances whereby the institutions in question were alerted to sexual misconduct by these employees. We now know that the Metropolitan Opera was formally alerted to Levine’s abusive behavior at least as far back as October 2016 and may have been aware of the existence of such allegations since the late 1970s. The Met has yet to issue a statement in response to the allegations against Domingo, but their past persistent dismissal of rumors and refusal to investigate them suggests a culture whereby similar misconduct by other prominent employees could also easily be systematically enabled and covered up. It should not surprise us if additional stories of ongoing abuses and cover ups continue to emerge.
Here is what I have to say now to sexual predators and the producing organizations who protect them: It’s over.
If you are a conductor, director, administrator, or any other member of our industry who has sexually assaulted or harassed colleagues, especially those over whom you have authority, now is the time to step away from the business. You are not welcome among us. Don’t wait until the end of next season or the completion of your current contract. Just leave. You are easily replaced.
Employers, let’s just skip the part where you deny responsibility, try to minimize liability, or quietly pay victims to sign a confidentiality agreement and vanish. It is now time to proactively clean house, make amends when necessary, and establish policies to improve your culture and protect your artists. Don’t wait for the media exposé targeting your company or employees and cross your fingers that it never comes, because it’s coming. Sexual predation is so pervasive in our culture that I imagine very few institutions will emerge unscathed. Take the lead, take responsibility, show us how we can all do better, and we will venerate you for it.
- If you are a producing organization or educational institution and have received complaints about an employee or faculty member but failed to act on them, now is the time to initiate an investigation. These predators are going to be exposed and you are going to implicated as having aided and abetted them if you do not act first.
- If members of your organization actively covered up an employee’s sexual misconduct, now is the time to fire those responsible and come clean with the public about what happened. Stop deluding yourselves that the right way to handle these situations is to protect the predator, facilitate a quiet settlement with the victim, and quell the rumors. Their actions are going to come to light, and when they are held accountable for their crimes you will also be held accountable for enabling them.
I understand that there may be legal ramifications to conducting investigations and making the necessary disclosures. But aggressively avoiding liability will not endear you to the community. We all talk to one another, so if you knew about what was going on, it’s likely that we already know you knew, and we won’t thank you for lying and continuing to deny victims your support and compassion. Conversely, if you do some soul searching and take the lead in expunging such behavior from our culture, you will garner widespread appreciation.
I also understand why institutions may feel blindsided by such allegations of sexual misconduct and the suggestion that they are somehow accountable. But the fact that sexual misconduct has long been tolerated by our culture in no way means that it should be permitted to continue, and institutions must do everything they can to see that it does not. Such incidents cannot be treated as private interactions between individuals due to the power imbalance involved. The value of the predator to the company and its audience does not outweigh their victims' rights of justice and safety. The continued success of the art form is simply not dependent upon keeping predators on the podium. There are brilliant conductors, directors and administrators who are also compassionate, ethical human beings, ready to take the place of the rightfully disgraced.
So I’m calling on institutions to take the lead in stating that #TimesUp. Expect similar stories to begin surfacing about your company or school. If you are aware of the possible existence of such stories, get to the bottom of them before something requires that you do.
No one in our industry is going to dodge this bullet. Be proactive now, and there will be no need for damage control later. Your employees and students will feel empowered, valued and protected by the example you set, rather than disregarded and ashamed to have had anything to do with you.
The reckoning is coming. We insist upon it. Those who have made us feel unsafe should be doing more than just looking over their shoulders – they should be packing their bags.
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