US conductor admits taking $150,000 from sex fiend Jeffrey Epstein
NewsThe conductor Leon Botstein, who is president of Bard College, has been confronted by the Wall Street Journal with a $150,000 gift that he accepted from the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Botstein, 76, had previously said that apart from an unsought $75,000 and 66 laptops, Mr. Epstein had not donated anything to Bard.
Botstein now says he took the money and later gave it to Bard as part of his own $1m personal gift.
Bard College issued a statement:’Had the extent and horror of Epstein’s crimes been known, Bard would not have accepted his support.’
Epstein died in a New York jail in August 2019.
Botstein… when you think you have seen the worse..
So this was a personal gift given directly to Botstein, who later gave it to Bard? Any idea why Epstein would give a personal gift to him?
My first guess is that he did it to gain influence in some way in some thing.
Timing of this event is important. My guess it happened long before the world found out about Epstein’s crimes. Accordingly this fact is if no practical importance. Botstein is doing incredible job at Bard both as an education, a musician and a humanist . Bard’s work with refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine has been absolutely incredible and Botstein doesn’t deserve this smear campaign.
I do agree with you. Maestro Botstein’s advocacy of lesser works by otherwise well-known composers and his thematic programming with the American Symphony Orchestra is the very example of diverse and inclusive programming which other orchestras are only just now beginning to catch up with. For long years, he’s found numerous ways of having women, minority, and ‘non-minority’ composers represented on his season’s concert programming without condescension or dumbing down his offerings. At the same time, he advanced what the audience learned about serious music. One of my favorite in-depth discussions was where he and the orchestra dissected Richard Strauss’s ‘An Alpine Symphony’ so that by the time he finished, you understood that work was not merely a scene or sound painting but also an expression of notice of the passing of an era at the end of the Beethoven/Brahms era and the beginning of the Schoenberg/Berg era.
For some of us, Dr. Botstein is the music professor we wished we’d had when we were undergraduates.
Wrong. He was already a known sex offender.
I first read “sex friend”…
The unexplored dark side of arts funding in the US–which perhaps now will be examined more closely. Most of us have assumed that this was limited to throwing tacky parties and putting names on buildings. The not-so-public aspect involves various forms of enforced a**-kissing (a term I use advisedly).
The movie industry is also heavily involved in this sort of thing. (Look at the list of ‘producers’ on any current movie.) So, of course, are universities.
What’s the alternative? Arts Council of England?
people will dance with the devil
What he did is the classic definition of money laundering/washing.
What you did is the classic definition of libel.
Hello. Itzhak Perlman was one of Epstein’s best buddies. He attended numerous private events at Epstein’s home and flew on his jet multiple times. He’s in the flight logs and he’s listed in the little black book that was leaked onto the web, and in the documentary “Filthy Rich” they say Perlman was one of eight guests at Epstein’s 40th birthday. Why is nobody talking about this?
Perlman is among the untouchables. I’m sure Anne Midgette has tried to compile a dossier. He’s too big a fish not to try to fry.
Anyone see a common denominator amid all this?
I know what you’re hinting at – and you are revolting. But consistent with the many right-wing bigots who pollute this comments section.
It’s revolting to notice a pattern? Why?
’Had the extent and horror of Epstein’s crimes been known, Bard would not have accepted his support.’ Exactly. Botstein, who is a superb conductor, likewise.
I only knew Botstein from his work in recording Strauss operas.
However, I’m waiting for one of Epstein’s ‘massage therapists’ to say Botstein had sex with her various time when she was underage, he knew it and she’s po And his claim is he never met her but will fork over millions to settle the lawsuit out of court.
Laugh but it happened before!!!
If a sex offender makes money legally and gives it to another person legally who then gives it to a university, where is the crime? The money is clean.