Cleveland conductor is completely cleared
NewsAfter a four-month legal investigation, the Cleveland Institute of Music has cleared its director of orchestral studies, Carlos Kalmar, of accusations of sexual discrimination and harrassment.
Kalmar, 65, a Uruguayan of Austrian extraction, has not been identified on this site during the course of the investigation. He joined the CIM in May 2021.
The investigation results were shared internally at the CIM last night. You read them here first.
Dear CIM Community,
Thank you for your patience as the Cleveland Institute of Music worked
to conduct a thorough and fact-based investigation into Title IX
allegations involving Carlos Kalmar. The investigation was led by
Carole Rendon, a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of
Ohio and partner at the BakerHostetler law firm. Rendon was retained
to ensure that the investigation was fair, impartial, and independent.
The Title IX investigation is now complete and earlier this afternoon
I communicated my findings to the parties. While the findings of a
Title IX investigation are not normally communicated beyond the
parties, in light of the public attention surrounding this case, I
have decided to share this update with you.
As CIM’s Acting Title IX Officer, I thoroughly reviewed the
investigative report which included written reports, voluntary written
statements, videos, interviews with more than thirty CIM students,
faculty, and staff, and additional evidence provided by both parties.
Based on the evidence found in the investigative report, CIM has
concluded that the specific allegations against Carlos Kalmar did not
violate the Sexual Assault, Sexual Harassment, and Sex
Non-Discrimination Policy Under Title IX.
The investigation found that the alleged conduct could not constitute
sex discrimination or sexual harassment as prohibited by Title IX
because the conduct did not have “the purpose or effect of
substantially or unreasonably interfering with a person’s
participation in educational programs or activities…” Moreover, the
conduct was not on the basis of sex, nor was it so severe or pervasive
as to create an objectively offensive environment such that it denies
anyone equal access to educational opportunities at CIM based on
gender. Therefore, the Institute was obligated to dismiss the Formal
Complaint of Sexual Harassment in this matter.
Mr. Kalmar and the complainants have been informed of the decision to
dismiss this case. Each has five business days to appeal the decision.
Grounds for an appeal can be found online.
President Hogle, Provost Harrison, and I, as well as the entire CIM
administration, have always approached Title IX concerns with a high
level of seriousness. As in this case, our goal is to conduct a
thorough and fact-based examination leading to a determination
consistent with CIM’s Title IX policy. That examination is only
possible because of the courage and candor of all of the members of
our community who were involved in this process.
Details regarding placement hearings, required of new students and
optional for returning students, have already been distributed to
orchestral students; scheduling, repertoire, and other class
information will soon follow.
CIM will make sure that our students are fully supported to continue
CIM’s tradition of empowering the world’s most talented classical
musicians.
Thank you,
Dean Southern (he/him/his)
Acting Title IX Coordinator
Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs
& Dean of the Institute
Cleveland Institute of Music
The old boy network lives on.
Carole Rendon – yup – old boy…
Or truth and justice chalk up a rare win against attention-seeking psychopaths. Perhaps les armes to which your name refers is the foul, weaponised slander that always fires the first shot?
Victims of sexual abuse are all “attention-seeking psychopaths”? Go back to your rocking chair, old man.
I am not familiar with Carole Rendon — other than to strongly doubt she qualifies as an old boy or a member of its network — but the Baker Hostetler law firm is very respected, and she is a partner in it. I know nothing of the case, but am reasonably satisfied that if nothing else, she was thorough in her review.
Title IX is a federal investigation. OCR from the Dept of Ed. comes in and investigates. Not the school.
No. schools usually have a title IX office that does the investigation.
Oy vey, the investigator is a woman…
The title 9 officer handled the case unprofessionally and defamed Carlos. They should be fired and the school should be sued for defamation.
Your reading and comprehension abilities are not quite up to snuff…
I mean the person at the school that investigated the title 9 and presumed Carlos guilty before even investigating
She was fired, actually. And then an external investigator was brought in and conducted a thorough investigation.
This is a win for justice. Hopefully there is more to come in the form of a lawsuit. The school has handled this abdominally.
Abdominally?
Oh dear. Autocorrect!
It’s pretty funny! Like the Abdominal Snowman!
That was also my gut reaction.
One wonders whether Kalmar will want to stay at CIM?
Doubtful. Where would he go from there? Some high school orchestra?
Doubtful he’d want to leave that is.
Let’s hope not.
What does, he/him/his mean?
To appear inclusive academics (and others) put their “preferred pronouns” after their name on emails. I keep thinking of having my pronoun be your majesty.
Great idea. I support that.
It means socialist marxism.
You have no idea what Marxism actually is, do you?
Oh, please. He was not “completely cleared” of anything. He was found not to have violated Title IX by a Title IX officer that works directly for the school and only has CIM’s legal exposure in mind. Title IX is notoriously toothless, outdated, and is widely regarded as a joke that no real University has any fear of. Title IX quite frequently won’t even get rid of convicted campus rapists. Women are almost always the losers in these situations, not the accused men.
The “impartial” overseer is a Republican lawyer who was hired, again, to protect CIM’s interests against potential litigation.
There seems to be a real issue on this site with heavily misogynistic tendencies. That’s a problem that you and your mommies need to work out on your own time.
Seek help, Ben. You’re impressing no one with your inane pseudo-virtue.
> The “impartial” overseer is a Republican lawyer who was hired, again, to protect CIM’s interests against potential litigation.
She was appointed by Obama and asked to resign by Jefferson Beauregard Sessions.
And you know that political contributions are public, right? I’ll give you two guesses which party she donates to…
You obviously don’t know s from sola about title IX in schools and universties
Truth. Ben is spot on.
And now the false alleger should be dismissed.
Punishing someone for not meeting the standard of proof is a sure-fire way to push all victims of sexual abuse back in the closet… or is that what you want?
I hope someone files a false suit against you Eric
Wow, what a sane, well-thought-out response. The lady doth protest too much, something something
Couldn’t hurt. Maybe climb the ladder with your legs instead of your mouth?
All 8 of them?
Just because he’s proven not guilty doesn’t mean his allegers were all straight-up lying. He may not have a lain a hand on anyone, but he is known to make creepy comments and make girls feel uncomfortable. Not everything’s so b&w
And sued for damages
Who cares about Kalmar? Get rid of Babayan. Everyone knows he’s a creep
?? Nobody thinks that..
Then you must not know any of his former students. CIM and Juilliard have repeatedly turned their backs on his allegers. He’s the one that should be investigated, not Kalmar
Alleging what?
Alleging that he would have students over to his house and try to have sex with him. Which is true, nothing ‘alleged’ with that
It’s high time that false accusers in such cases as this were dealt with and locked up where they belong.
Dean Southern left out the other 47 pronouns in all of their, um, complimentary close. How offensive to the marxist dems.
Interesting to go back to the post on here that first reported this story and read all the comments that condemned this man on hearsay alone. This outcome is why due process exists. The frankly fascist tendencies of the pronoun Stasi present a clear and present danger to any organization, which is why many employers surveyed are increasingly, and rightly, rejecting job applications from those who put pronouns in their resumes. These hysterical and deranged individuals are far more noxious and poisonous than the supposed “toxic” masculinity they/them are so intent on tearing down. While I’m glad that Kalmar was cleared, I’m still incensed that these pronoun miscreants continue to be allowed to terrorize countless institutions. Enough is enough.
Look, we just don’t like Kalmar, OK? He’s a jerk. Musicians don’t like him, his students don’t like him, he’s not a great conductor, he has an inflated sense of his own self worth & he’s done some very questionable things.
Good for him for lawyering up. The school saved its a**. But the fact remains that Carlos Kalmar is no hero. He is intensely disliked by many, many people. These issues will keep coming up until he rolls over & calls it quits.
Carlos is a great conductor. One of the best. He has a big personality with a bite to his humor. He also drives orchestras to be their best, so for those who are looking to coast through, it can be uncomfortable. Whereas those who enjoy a challenge and are ready to work hard love playing under him. But I can very easily imagine how ultra-sensitive Gen Z-ers might bristle at his demanding approach. But just because you “intensely dislike” him doesn’t make him a sexual predator.
Very sad to see a very fine career tarnished by this incident.
Being a ‘jerk’ and that fact that “we”, whoever you are, don’t like him is no justification for making unsubstantiated claims against him.
I don’t believe he himself “lawyered up”. The school called in an outside lawyer to chair the investigation and to make sure it was fair, impartial and independent — concepts which may be foreign to you.
I don’t know who “we” is, but I really, really like him as a conductor and person. Better than many conductors I’ve worked with. He is quirky and a bit weird, but brilliant, and if someone thinks that’s ‘creepy’, I don’t really care.
Imagine how much the mediatic lynchers wrote about this! They forget about the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ concept.
“Dean Southern (he/him/his)” Oy vey.
What with the he’s/his/him pronoun nonsense. Is that the American thing? Onward and downward.
Yes, pronouns are the latest rage in US academia. Hopefully seeing how they’re used here in an international forum, US academics can see once & for all how ridiculous & overdone these pronouns have become in our country. We don’t care about your choice of pronouns professionally. Save it for social interactions.
My observation is that this pronoun obsession is coming from a younger generation, mostly Gen Z. Older US academics are jumping in line, either to appear modern or to keep their jobs & are going into full force use of pronouns.
It’s become too much. Someone’s sexuality or “birth gender” shouldn’t be such a major factor professionally. We don’t need to know the pronouns of a person issuing the edict on Kalmar. It’s too much information, it’s irrelevant. We don’t care.
This pronoun madness is a uniquely a US obsession right now as far as I know & it’s become ridiculous.
It is also becoming a problem in Europe. The US loves to export its vacuous detritus and other countries are, sadly, too stupid to resist.
Which rat is leaking our school emails?
Probably Zsolt, lolz.
By its very nature, sexual harassment is a crime for which there is rarely forensic proof. It is hard to reconcile the real need to protect (mostly) women from predators and the US Constitution’s requirement that the accused are presumed innocent.
It was unclear from the start whether the complaint had anything to do with sexual harrassment, rather than discrimination on the grounds of sex, and the final report says clearly that “the conduct was not on the basis of sex”. So in general you may be right, but Carlos Kalmar is not in the ‘sexual predator’ category, and this calumny should not be perpetuated.
And yet the establishment simultaneously takes the knee before this trans ideology which aims to reduce women to mere social appendages, at best.
Thanks for the mansplaining, Anthony. I can always count on you for a condescending, uninformed, regressive, and highly defensive view of the world.
Not everything that hurts your feelings is ill-intended. Or actionable.
People like Katherine Needleman were all too eager to blast the allegations on her FB page, to the delight of her willing mob, and yet she remains silent that Mr Kalmar was cleared of wrongdoing. Shocking.