Kenneth A. Jacobs, 69, former head of University of Tennessee’s School of Music’s composition program, and his wife Melinda Howes Jacobs, 59, were found dead in their Townsend home on Saturday.
Around 12:30 pm sheriff’s deputies and Townsend Police responded to a residence on Kelly Ridge Circle in regards to a welfare check after receiving reports there might be a suspect with a weapon inside. As they approached the home, they heard a gunshot.
The deaths are being treated as murder and suicide.
Jacobs was a highly regarded teacher whose music has been widely recorded.
Following a weekend exposé in Der Spiegel, the conservatoire published a statement today by its president, Bernd Redman, promising to clarify allegations of sexual assault and to take measures to protect its personnel.
The statement does not respond to Der Spiegel’s claim that it suppressed an internal survey showing sexual assault to be endemic. According to the article, 115 out of 800 academic staff said that they had heard ‘lewd remarks’, 56 had experienced lewd gestures’, 34 had been groped, nine had been shown genitalia, eight had been coerced into sexual acts, and one rape had been reported.
In a season trailer with NYC-Arts, the New York Phil president says: ‘One of the most gifted conductors I have seen in my career. Her name is Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. Hard to pronounce, so I call her MGT.
‘When I saw Mirga conduct it reminded me of the impact it had when I saw Gustavo for the first time.’