Controversial conductor is arrested in London on underage sex charges
OrchestrasIt became known today that the orchestral conductor Jan Latham-Koenig was arrested on Wednesday at Victoria train station.
He is appearing now at Westminster magistrates court, charged with arranging/facilitating a child sexual offence and sexual communication with a child not involving penetration. He is also charged with communicating with a boy aged under 16 in order to engage in sexual activity with them.
Latham-Koenig, 70, was born in Britain and has enjoyed an extensive international career. In 2020 he was awarded an OBE for services to music and UK/Russia cultural relations. He has continued conducting in Russia since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Recently, he signed on with Valery Gergiev’s former agent in Munich.
In the past year he was named artistic director at the Festival Puccini at Torre del Lago and music director of the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.
UPDATE: He spoke to confirm his name and address at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. Judge Maria Karaiskos KC released Mr Latham-Koenig on conditional bail and adjourned the case to 9 February.
I miss the “BREAKING” title… 🙁
He has already been fired from the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires:
https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/culture/teatro-colon-fires-renowned-musical-director-after-child-sex-abuse-allegations.phtml
Tell me again that conductors by nature are not sociopaths? Do so in between your licking of their boots, of course.
Awful. And speaking of awful, is that his hair or a bad toupee?
It’s his own hair.
This guy reminds me of a certain former US President who does anything and everything out of the norm, in order to always be in the news so that people talk about him. Being on Putin’s list of favorites won’t help his career neither.
…. and now a sexual offence charge crowns his already doubtful reputation.
He just turned 70 last month and seems to be ageing poorly… BTW , that’s not a wig.
Whatever else may be said about him (I had never even heard his name prior to reading this article), he does indeed have a magnificent head of hair.
He was for many years artistic director of OFUNAM an orchestra in Mexico City and mentor to Ivan López Reynoso Mexico City’s opera current music director who last year was accused of sexual harassment by several members of the Bella’s Artes Ballet. his case was misteriously filed and the victims were offered money to keep quiet and or a scholarship to pursue their studies abroad and never to speak about the matter. I hope Bellaa Artes can learn something from the British authorities that abusing a post is no joke and knowing how to conduct music scores does not grant intenctual and moral superiority. Latham Koening just screwed up his carrer.
Oh darn ….i wonder who will conduct Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Ópera de Bellas Artes in Mexico City this season? Any alternatives Mr Lombardero or Mr. Kleinburg?
Brother in Law of SIR Nicholas Kenyon who is on the Honours committee which awarded him the OBE …. You could not make it up !!
I listened to the episode covering this man on the podcast ‘a mic on the podium’ that came out recently. What a shame that this is really who he is! …
It is a shame that it has taken this particular incident for someone to finally mention this superb podcast on an august website such as this – one would have thought after interviewing 140 different conductors that it might have been mentioned in dispatches before now? I would have thought it highly unlikely he would have confessed to any alleged crimes on a podcast, don’t you?
Jan Latham Koenig (real name: Jonathan King) was not just born in Britain, he is British. The faux-mitteleuropaeisch slant reminds us of Leo Stokes, born in Marylebone…
Or the ballerina Alicia Markova (born Alice Marks in north London).
No, Jan Latham Koenig is his real name.
*Railway station
There are bad people across ALL professions, social classes and identity groups. Anything involving children…throw the book at him!!
There were rumors already when he was music director in Strassbourg
Worked with him for 6 years here in town.
We had to put up with a lot of deranged nonsense from this disturbed weirdo during his tenure.
On one occasion during a New Year”s Eve concert, we played Satie’s “Parade” which requires an obligatory gunshot sound. Meanwhile, behind the orchestra a silent film by Jean Cocteau called “Relache” was being shown. The film contains moving images of coffins and death. This DID NOT go well with the audience who followed the evening with champagne and partying.
The city received approximately 60 letters of complaint (before the Internet) from those who were present, saying that the programming was not suitable for such a festive occasion. JLK never got sanctioned neither from the administration, nor by the town.
I could go on and on with more stories and anecdotes, but this one really stood out.
He would also dine practically every night at the most expensive restaurant in town called “Le Crocodile”, since he lived right next to it as though it were his own cafeteria. It’s closed at the moment, but their menu varies from 70-150€ per person.
For JLK, it’s all about himself. Luxury is all that counts.
The New Year concert showed how selfish he can be towards others. He never had any consideration for his musicians, nor their opinions. Gossiping about the latest internal romances was one of his interests as well. There are probably many other musicians who have worked with him and who can relate to what I have said about this man’s awful behavior.
I suppose that reality has finally caught up to our bubble boy. His career is now kaput.
I am IN NO WAY sympathetic to the plight of Mr. Koenig if the allegations against him are indeed true.
In the name of accuracy:
(1) The film in question is entitled “Entr’acte”, not “Relâche”, and was directed by Francis Picabia, not Jean Cocteau. (2) As humor is, as Leonard Bernstein once observed, “highly dependent on personal taste”, the macabre, coffin-and-death infused humor in “Entr’acte” could be viewed as funny, so the reactions of the thin-skinned audience members who protested against it must be viewed as purely subjective.
Again, not in any way supportive of the charges facing Mr. Koenig, but it’s just possible that the members of the New Year’s audience cited in this response were not attuned to Picabia and Satie’s brand of humor.
I appreciate your precise info Adam Stern; you can call it whatever you wish.
However, there were other works that same evening that were in context with the new year. The entire performance finally turned out to be a fiasco–which is the idea of what I’m trying to convey here.
The more I think about this dude’s latest revelations, the more it makes me angry to have worked with him for so long.
No matter what his lawyers do to save him from this, he’s cooked. I don’t think that any musician or orchestra will ever want to be seen on stage with him ever again.
I’m a big believer in ‘bad folk’ getting their comeuppance….. sometimes you have to wait quite a while, but eventually it all catches up with them.
There were complaints about his improper and dubious sexual behavior and advances towards musicians, soloists and journalists not to mention his ties to agencies to dismiss artists and soloists whom he claimed he didn’t like to have them replaced in mid rehearsal periods by his own agencies. This happened while he was director in Chile and in Mexico. They let him do as he pleased so he was not only a sex offender but a real music- gangster for lack of a better word.
Never come across the chap but he sounds awful. However he is not yet guilty, only charged. Assumptions of innocence should apply at this stage, which some commentators seem to have forgotten.
Would Lennie be proud????
I’m available as a fill-in in Buenos Aires if they need one!
According to Geoff, we should wait until Putin sits in front of a jury and gets convicted before we can really start calling him a war criminal right ?
Slipped Disc is a British publication and a British citizen is entitled to certain protections under English law. To quote from the relevant IPSO guide:
>> There are also rules about what a newspaper (or any member of the public) can publish which might be in contempt of court. Once somebody has been arrested or civil proceedings have started, they are protected by law from the publication of information which might mean that their trial cannot take place fairly.
Citizenship has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not English law applies. He would enjoy the same protection if he were a foreign citizen arrested on UK soil.
Thanks Nik. I was trying to reply to the silly Putin point.
Quelle Horreur!