Among the ripples of the police investigations into 1980s student rape at Chethams, the RNCM, Guildhall and other music schools, a private school reached a quiet settlement this week with a former student who had been sexually abused by a teacher between 1976 and 1983.
He was not the only victim at Sevenoaks School. Stuart Neilson, an ex-pupil, has come forward to tell Slipped Disc that he was abused by the same teacher. He is not seeking damages, but has formed a support group. So far, eight ex-pupils have said they were abused by five teachers at the school during the period concerned. Stuart Neilson wants Seveoaks School to acknowledge responsibility for the abuse, rather than passing the buck to its insurers.
The chief abuser, says Stuart Neilson, was a technology teacher called Gerd Sommerhoff, a minor celebrity who once presented science programmes on the BBC. Sommerhoff, described in his Wiki entry as a ‘pioneer of theoretical neuroscience’, went on to teach at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was awarded the OBE. He was the grandson of Elise Schumann, third child of Robert and Clara Schumann, and had been brought to England as a child in 1931. Sommerhoff died in April 2002. Stuart Neilson is concerned that his offences should not be forgotten.
He wonders if there are wider ramifications to the case. During the time of these abuses, there was a chaplain and housemaster at Sevenoaks School called Peter Hullah.
The Rev. (later Bishop) Hullah went on to become head of Chetham’s. He once walked in on the convicted rapist Mike Brewer while he was fondling a naked girl. At Chetham’s, as at Sevenoaks, the Rev. Hullah turned a blind eye.
Stuart Neilson tells us that, as a pupil, he discussed sexual bullying and abuse with Hullah. ‘I am absolutely certain that he was aware of the nature and extent of the sexual abuse, and that he was both chaplain and a housemaster,’ he attests. At Mike Brewer’s trial, Hullah admitted being party to ‘a cover-up’ to arrange Brewer’s removal from the school. Except for his evidence at the trial, Hullah has maintained total media silence and refused requests for interview.
The Gramophone offshoot, Limelight, is being wound up by its owners Haymarket Media as part of the sale of Gramophone to new owners.
Haymarket is open to offers for Limelight until December 13, after that it’s curtains.
While Slipped Disc regrets any contraction in classical music media, it cannot shed too many tears for a magpie operation that habitually lifted its online content from other music sites and failed to credit the original source, or to apologise when caught. Limelight was on a loser. Australia deserves better.
Press release:
photo: Lebrecht Music&Arts
On Sunday 15 December, the Young Vic will present a celebration of the life and work of Patrice Chéreau who died on 7 October 2013.
Friends and colleagues will present excerpts of the films, opera and stage productions of one of the great theatre artists of our time.
The evening will include …
Memories of Chéreau and reflections on his work from Daniel Barenboim, Dame Gwyneth Jones, Kerry Fox, Katie Mitchell, Alex Ross, Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Lan and others.
John Fulljames, Associate Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House, will discuss Chéreau’s production of Der Ring des Nibelungen with Donald McIntyre who sang the role of Wotan.
James Rutherford will sing Abendlich strahlt der Sonne Auge from Das Rheingold accompanied by David Syrus, Head of Music for The Royal Opera.
Jack Laskey and Tom Brooke will perform an extract from the Young Vic’s 2011 production of Jon Fosse’s I Am The Wind, Chéreau’s only UK production and his last theatre production anywhere.
Email contact: memorial@Youngvic. org
The Irish baritone Sam McElroy, fiancé of the pianist Gabriela Montero, has been involved for five years with an extraordinarily talented child, a boy called Rex Lewis-Clack. Rex is blind, autistic and a musical savant. Sam wants to put his life on a secure footing. Take a minute to read about a rare gift.
The Genius Next Door.
By Sam McElroy
In 2008, I moved to a quiet corner of coastal Los Angeles, where my neighbor happened to be a young boy called Rex. Rex Lewis-Clack was born blind and autistic. Following post-natal neurosurgery to remove a cyst, the medical community gave him long odds of survival, and normal function was more or less ruled out.
Yet, at the age of two, Rex was given a keyboard for Christmas. What followed was nature’s reminder that for every action there is an equal and opposite one. Rex relaxed his tight fists and began to play the keyboard as though recognizing an old friend. It seemed that, while language might prove an obstacle for him, the syntax of musical harmony and melody were already encoded within him.
Now 18, and recently graduated from high school, Rex is a well-documented musical savant. He has been profiled three times by the
CBS’s “60 Minutes” telejournal, and was the subject of a Discovery/Science Channel investigation into “Ingenious Minds”. His mother, Cathleen, a graduate of Stanford University and a former currency trader, became an educator for the blind, and in 2008 authored a moving account of her life with Rex. “Rex: A Mother, Her Autistic Child, and the Music that Transformed Their Lives” has been translated into several languages.
Cathleen soon discovered her new neighbor was an opera singer, and asked me to consider teaching Rex to sing. The account of the subsequent five years merits a book in itself, and maybe one day I will write it, but central to the story was another brush with serendipity.
In 2010, Cathleen invited me to the Hollywood Bowl. The venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero was in town to play with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic, and Cathleen felt Rex would benefit more than anyone from hearing Gabriela give one of her signature encores, an improvisation based on a theme suggested by the audience. Gabriela had also been profiled by “60 Minutes”, in a piece called “The Gift”, and her ability to create new musical content in real time was the sort of inspiration that could nourish Rex’s mind for years to come.
The day after the concert, I ran into Gabriela herself, quite by chance, in a Starbucks on Melrose Avenue. We got talking, and we have been talking, and laughing, and making music, and living together ever since. I left Los Angeles soon after we met, to be with her on the east coast, but just two months ago Gabriela and I moved back west together. Back to where it all began, and engaged to be married.
On December 15th, I will present the launch concert of our new “Rex And Friends Charitable Foundation”, in Hollywood. The foundation aims to provide music education grants to those with blindness or autism. Gabriela will be our special guest, sharing the stage with Rex in what promises to be a deeply touching evening of music-making and spontaneous creativity, and closing the circle on a perfect round of serendipities.
For many of the foundation’s intended beneficiaries, music is the only language which makes any sense, their eyes onto the world we all take for granted. I invite you to take a moment to find out more about Rex and our work at the foundation. With even the most modest kindness, the global crowd of musicians and artists can contribute the gift of music to Rex and his friends. And they will cherish it.
Thank you, on behalf of Rex and Friends.
Links:
– “Ingenious Minds”: Discovery/Science Channel
– Attached photo: a joyous Rex in front of the new Rex and Friends billboard, Los Angeles, featuring Rex and Gabriela.
Nice story in Ria-Novosti. The Ministry of Culture has put out a tender for hiring four luxury sedans BMW at a cost of 15 million rubles ($500,000).
Why four? There’s a minister, Vladimir Medinsky, and six deputy ministers to shuttle around.
Each car must be compatible with ‘the presidential communication “Kavkaz-9” (the system must be installed in a sedan BMW-750Li) and special government communications “Rosa” (for cars BMW-740Li), as well as sound and light signals.’ In case nuclear war breaks out, or Valery Gergiev defects in Munich…
Too silly for words, when Russian orchestras have gone months without pay.
The ceremony was conducted in the Greek Orthodox rite in Winchester Cathedral. The music was by Tavener, Bruckner, Bach, Stravinsky. Report here. More here.
First television coverage here.
The great Swedish tenor, never knowingly outsung. Watch the video here.
El Sistema founder Jose Antonio Abreu announced last night that the LA architect who built Walt Disney Hall, is coming to Venezuela to do another. This is an event of continental magnitude, giving the country a potential lift on the scale of Sydney Opera House.
Announcement in Spanish here and below.
Maestro Abreu anunció la construcción de la Sala Dudamel en Barquisimeto (+video) Luego de una reunión con el presidente de la República, Nicolás Maduro, realizada este martes en el Palacio de Miraflores, el maestro José Antonio Abreu anunció la construcción de la Sala Dudamel en la ciudad de Barquisimeto. El fundador del sistema de orquestas informó que “uno de los puntos que tratamos esta noche fue la construcción de la Sala Dudamel en Barquisimeto, la sede de la orquesta en Lara, producto del máximo arquitecto actual Frank Gehry quien donó el proyecto en honor a Gustavo y en honor a la orquesta y que va a ser una referencia mundial de primer orden. Esto es un primer paso que estaremos dando para el primer trimestre del año”. Siga leyendo en el enlace
h/t: Roberta Ferrari. And Repubblica.
Anyone name the conductor?
A clip of Prince William has come online, doing ‘Living on a Prayer with Jon Bon Jovi and Taylor Swift during a charity gala at Kensington Palace on Monday. Check it out here.
Catalan composer Josep Soler, 78, has refused to receive the Gold Medal of Merit in Fine Arts awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture. He said: ‘I don’t accept the authority of the Spanish Government and want nothing to do with this prime minister, Rajoy, who ignores culture and education.’
