Munich investigates third #Metoo suspect
mainThe Bavarian Ministry of Science confirmed today that it is looking into a third likely perpetrator of sexual abuse in the music academy.
The first – former president of the Munich Academy of Music and Performing Arts, Siegfried Mauser – has been sentenced to two years and nine months for sexual assault.
The second – a suspended professor of composition – has been charged with several counts of rape.
The identity of the third suspect is not yet known.
“The second – a suspended professor of composition – has been charged with several counts of rape.”
Given the average nature of compositional education in the country, would musical subjects also fall under the suspicion, one wonders.
The sexual exploitation of students has been a wide and overlooked problem in Germany’s conservatories for decades. They are largely a result of poor administrative practices. I think there needs to be a formal study by Germany’s university system of these problems that will also recommend practical reform measures.
A musicologist in Germany, Professor Freia Hoffmann, published a book about the problem of sexual abuse in Germany’s classical music community in 2006, but to little avail. It is entitled “Panische Gefühle: Sexuelle Übergriffe im Instrumentalunterricht.” (Feelings of Panic: Sexual Attacks In Instrumental Lessons) It is unfortunate her suggestions were not better heeded. It would have been better than having the Munich District Attorney step into the matter. Americans could also learn from her book, as illustrated by the recent Washington Post report about sexual abuse in classical music here in the States.
There are policies and procedures which can be put in place to reduce the opportunity for abuse and exploitation and one of these is music lessons should never be conducted in a room behind a closed door. No school teacher would be allowed to do this; there are protocols in place for this because – guess what – there are predators who cannot be trusted. We all need to know about these from kindergarten. Same as ‘stranger danger’ on the streets. We know from religious institutions, scouting and young peoples’ organizations that there are pedophiles aplenty and outright sexual predators. Take all precautions to protect children, but adults need to take care of themselves. Some resilience training also badly needed methinks. And there are both male and female sexual predators.
Music teaching behind open doors are, in a conservatory context, garantee for acoustic unsolvable problems – such buildings are already cacaphonic, let alone if all doors are left open. Students may be morally protected but musically deafened.
I can imagine such study:
“Das Problem der Triebsgestaltung in künstlerischen Transpositionsverfahren bei akademisch-ungebremster Zieldeutung”.