Latest: Crisis intensifies at New York Philharmonic
OrchestrasTwo players have been suspended while the board figures out what to do with past complaints of misconduct.
Meanwhile, a board member arrested recently for the possession of child pornography continues to occupy his seat. He happens to be head of the NY Phil’s Pride event.
UPDATE: We are informed today that Roy ‘Trey’ Farmer resigned from the board ‘early in April’, presumably when charges against him became known.
We hear that the musicians’ committee has walked out of first CBA union contract negotiation with president Gary Ginstling given no authority to discuss pay increases.
Average pay in the orchestra has fallen to eighth in the US, with LAPhil, SanFran, Cleveland, Boston, the Met and even Washington NSO getting paid more.
There is talk of strike backstage. Expect a no-confidence vote soon.
So, the NY Phil is now an institution where male pederasts can serve on the Board but female brass players are denied tenure for complaining of sexual assault. Not good. Dudamel has a lot on his hands when he arrives.
Plus ce change….
Music Directors really have no say about any of this. He will need a brilliant principal oboe ASAP.
It’s not hard to find an oboist to play in the NYP, Kenny. Seems much harder, though, to get them to show some moral backbone.
And as Music Director Dudamel absolutely would have a say – all he’d have to do is make an ultimatum and see what happens. This isn’t unusual, it really does happen all the time.
There has been a lot of Principal Oboe drama at the LA Phil in the last decade, much of it instigated by Dudamel. I’m sure he has an oboist in mind, even if they only stay in N.Y. for 6 months.
Dudamel’s problem is trying to hire a European oboist for a US orchestra. The US has its own school & tradition of oboe playing. Its roots are with Marcel Tabuteau, John Delancie & the Philadelphia sound. It looks & sounds much different than EU oboe playing. The pitch is even different – US oboists play at a = 440 – 442. EU oboists play 442 – 446 Most foreign conductors like Dudamel don’t know this. They’re attracted to the soloistic, high pitched virtuosity of European oboists. They know nothing about the US oboe tradition – where it comes from, why it exists, its history in US orchestras. Other US winds are accustomed to playing with US oboists. Learning to blend with an oboist from another continent can be a stretch.
Non-US conductors have no problem acknowledging the beauty of the Strauss oboe concerto, but have no clue, for example, that it was written at the suggestion of John Delancie, a US oboist.
Liang Wang, despite his sexual transgressions, plays in the US style. He trained at Curtis, as I recall.
As long as conductors like Dudamel remain ignorant about the US tradition of oboe playing, it’s not going to be easy for their oboe choices to fit in well the orch. The styles are just too different. That’s one reason Dudamel’s oboe choice in LA didn’t work out.
Caveat: I’m not an oboist.
The US oboe tradition is basically trash. American orchestras are mired in trash traditions all over the place. The country was practically built by using plaster to glue trash together. When you are
surrounded by trash at all times, you can’t produce anything other than trash.
Goodness. I’m certain that whatever country you live in has an emergency mental health line. It may be too late, but try in any case. Quickly.
Right, so following your logic the Strauss oboe concerto is also a piece of trash. Or Francaix’s Flower Clock. Or any of the other great works inspired by US oboists.
Since US orchs are so bad, tell musicians from your country & everyone else’s to stop coming here begging to work with them. Stay in your own country & let us wallow in our own orchestral trash. That includes hiring US oboists for US orchs.
Actually it is incredibly hard to find a brilliant solo oboists. When Elizabeth Rowe, solo flutist of the Boston symphony sued for equal pay when she found out after playing in the orchestra for over 10 years that the solo oboist was making, what was it? $20,000 a year more than she, the management told her the reason was because oboe was such a difficult instrument! She won her lawsuit.
Note that Rowe did not win her lawsuit. The suit was settled out of court and we don’t know if she got anything for it. It’s a confidential settlement.
She was actually earning about $80K less than John Ferillo, IIRC. I don’t know what the BSO told her but the simple answer is that John Ferillo was the best oboist in the business when the BSO hired him away from the MET and so it cost them. And the gap persisted.
And, John Ferillo sided with her and supported her during the trial!
The pattern is called male privilege, whether straight or gay.
In each case, the man is afforded the full benefit of the doubt under the law, thus the full protection of the law.
What the Philharmonic is willing to live with legally reflects what the Philharmonic is willing to live with socially.
What do I mean? Imagine a male brass player had drugged and sexually assaulted another male brass player but was reinstated because of a legal technicality. Does anyone think that the male dominant brass section of the Philharmonic would not have socially ostracized, hounded out, indeed, bullied or created an untenable working environment for the perpetrator?
The fact is this: The Philharmonic may have been legally required to reinstate two sexual predators, or keep a child sexual predator on the Board, but in no way was it socially required to welcome them back as though nothing happened, and it most certainly has a legal duty to create a non-hostile and safe working environment for women and children in the presence of 3 (alleged) sexual predators.
at least you did not write white male priveledge since a fried of mine was drugged and dragged into the shower by P Diddy. Many bass players also play classical upright bass. In fact, I was talking to a bass player friend who said the classical world is worse than Cosby world.
Dudamel is used to it. He grew up in a program where this was commonplace.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/27/venezuela-me-too-yo-te-creo-sexual-abuse-el-sistema-youth-orchestra/
It is the Pride that guarantees privilege in the woke world of NYC.
“Meanwhile, a board member arrested recently for the possession of child pornography continues to occupy his seat. He happens to be head of the NY Phil’s Pride event.”
MARK 7:
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
23 All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.
Selling bibles?
have been reading a lot of articles about christians molesting kids lately. Not sure if pushing your filthy religion has is going to sway anyone.
I suspect within the next few days the first board resignations will occur. Rather than arbitration for these two, they should have spent the money to litigate. They now have a much bigger problem than the treasure that would have been spent. Local 802 supported rapists while allowing two innocent women, one raped by the musicians they supported to be fired. Disgusting.
It’s tough to raise money in this environment; the Development Dept isn’t at fault but they will suffer.
Your continual bashing of 802 is outrageous. I take it you’re not a union member.
No, what’s outrageous is how the Union is protecting rapists. Plain and simple. If you support the Union you’re part of the problem. Convince us otherwise.
NY Mike…..local 802 is akin to the Catholic Church. While some of theiur negotiations are good, much of the stuff they push, like endless rehearsal breaks is over the top. Local 802 has also brought the ticket prices well beyond where they should be as well. Unions destroyed American manufacturing, the reason shoes, clothing, bedding, tools and other products, including your Apple phone are not made in the US any longer. I was in wholesale sales in everal of those industries and left when it all went to China. 802 is a mess and frankly there need to be laws on the books that handcuff some of their negotiating abilities including forcing orchestras to take back rapists.
How many chances does one get to adjudicate these allegations? 3, 4 so far and since it don’t go one way or the other it’s being charged again. Who can possibly discern what actually happened 14 years ago? This seems grossly unfair. Keep these kinds of things in the courts, not in Star Chamber procedures.
You’re confusing processes. Prosecutors in Colorado and New York opted not to file charges. They still could, whether because of new evidence or political pressure. Just like Georgia prosecutors didn’t initially prosecute the McMichaels over the lunching of Amaud Arbery. Nothing but public pressure changed that.
The Philharmonic around 2012 paid off Cara Kizer (in connection with her denied tenure) and had her sign an NDA. They can release her from the NDA.
In 2018 the Philharmonic fired Wang and Muckey after another investigation found they had grounds to do so. Then an arbitrator ordered them rehired.
The Philharmonic is still bound by that arbitrator’s ruling, but is not obliged to keep the two onstage. They may not be able to fire them – unless some new evidence emerge – but they can negotiate a resignation. All parties presumably recognize the situation is untenable.
It’s never too late to right a wrong. And what happened to those two women was wrong.
tampon with the dna wasn’t groos/good enough for you James? You are cool with having colleagues next to you like that? geesh
“Who can possibly discern what actually happened 14 years ago?” Everyone but you.
Farmer’s name does not appear on the NY Phil website on the list of current board members.
One thing I don’t understand: if the NY Phil didn’t want these two creeps in their ranks and they were only there because the arbitration forced their reinstatement, why did the Phil program Liang as a soloist in May? Why highlight him?
I’m sure they’ll replace him with a more deserving soloist in May rather than risk the disruption to concerts.
Yes – this is what I wondered too…and I also wondered if there is any proof that Liang did anything wrong? I keep searching for it…
Liang’s first gig was with the San Francisco Ballet Orch.
I played Clarinet there with Liang.
I can’t imagine what he’s supposed to have done,
but he was a wonderful collegue then, and I know the Women WW Players there would agree.
Of course, people can change.
Still…
Yeah, tenure & the prestige a big NY job can change everything.
a bad guy won’t say I am a bad guy, you know..
One klick.
Social media have tried and convicted him, so there ya go.
Many principal players have it in their contract that they must be featured as soloists every so often.
Yes, I imagine it’s in his contract but I assume Wang at this point isn’t going to want to appear in front of a likely hostile orchestra and audience.
Or change the program such that no oboe concerto needs to be played.
Sherry could play it equally fine.She is a wonderful player…And i don´t know if guest conductor Dame Jane Glover would feel comfortable to be onstage with Wang,given the circumstances….
My guess: principals contracts (or at least his) give them certain guaranteed levels of solo work. If not, they might be afraid he could sue for constructive dismissal if they didn’t (while giving solo work to other principals).
Same with ‘why didn’t they just pay him to stay home’.
I imagine that a concerto performance may be part of Wang’s contract.
This is nothing more than more of the same. Namely, rot, corruption, which has infected the whole of the classical music and opera space. It stinks up to no end.
This is a culture wide problem, not restricted to classical music.
The rape accusation is extremely disturbing and if true, a horrible incident.
At the same time, let us remember the phrase
“Innocent until proven guilty”.
Yes. But that applies to a criminal trial. The Philharmonic is not bound by it.
A finding of “not guilty” does not mean someone is innocent of wrong doing. and there are so many other reasons these two should have been kept out of these seats. Justice is not black and white.
I’m sorry, I must have missed the part where the NY Phil has the power to send people to jail.
3 in 1000 sexual assault cases result in conviction. You are a rape apologist.
More people thumbed down a post that said “innocent until proven guilty” than upvoted it?
Because even this dumb-cluck Canuckistanian (^-_-^) knows that the phrase “innocent until proven guilty” is WRONG and misleading. The correct phrase is “PRESUMED innocent until proven guilty”. Don’t you Yanks know your own legal system?
Welcome aboard Gustavo!
I bet he stays in LA, why parachute into this mess. And it’s only going to get worse for the NYPhil when Ronan Farrow et al start some serious investigative work on this story that NY Mag just sketched out with a lot of holes (NDAs, payoff for the female brass players, etc…)
From the New York Times article:
The orchestra committee, which represents players, said in a statement that it is “the overwhelming sentiment from the orchestra that we believe Cara” and that “we don’t believe these are isolated incidents involving Matt Muckey and Liang Wang.” The committee added that the orchestra has a culture of “not taking musician complaints seriously so musicians often do not feel safe in raising accusations of sexual harassment and assault” and called on management to take action to provide a safe workplace.
Sara Cutler, the president and executive director of Local 802, who took office last year, struck a different tone on Monday than her predecessors. She said in a statement on Monday that the decision to keep Mr. Wang and Mr. Muckey off stage for the time being “are good first steps but they can’t be the last.”
“As a woman, a musician and a new union president,” she said, “I am horrified by what was in the story and we are committing the full resources of Local 802 to erase the culture of complicity that has raged at the NY Philharmonic for too long.”
Is she planning to do anything about the complicity of her own organisation in having these players forcibly reinstated?
Let’s get real – musical cognescenti have known for years that the ny philharmonic have never been the same since LB left in the late 60s. It had only gotten worse during the Mehta years. Today sure the playing is back to respectable levels but the strings have never achieved that homogeneous sound that is characteristic of the great orchestras of the world – which obviously includes the Cleveland, Boston and Philadelphia. And yet they wonder why their pay lags their peers….? lol
Actually, Bernstein left the NY Philharmonic in technically worse shape than when he inherited it. Listen to the recordings. Nonetheless, one did not care because of his charisma and his insights as an interpreter.
Player by player, NY Phil musicians rank with the best in the world. But this is not sufficient for having a great orchestra. And in fact there is a whole history to explain why. After Toscanini, except for the small “interlude” of Rodzinski, the NY Phil did not have leaders to drill them, though many were superb interpreters.
Barbirolli was not capable (to build an orchestra, that is), Mitropoulos was not interested, Bernstein was not willing, Boulez, let’s not go there again, Mehta hired marvelous players but did not know what to do with them. Only Masur had started to drill them in something respectable, though even he could not tame the Avery Fisher Hall acoustics, and was not a great interpreter. I could continue, but you get the spiel.
I disagree with your comment about Barbirolli, look at what he did with the Halle in England!
I suppose he took what was at that time a fifth rate orchestra and raised it to a third rate. OK, point taken. And he was not helped by what many call the “London raid”, i.e. when London orchestras were actively poaching the best players from the regional bands – that in a time when one could still make a decent living as a musician in London. Silvestri and Charlie Groves (perhaps the last one to a lesser extent, but please correct) also had to deal with this.
Nonetheless The Halle only became first rate under Mark Elder, though his predecessors also slowly improved. But there is no doubt that execution standards of the NY Philharmonic declined during Barbirolli’s tenure; again, listen to the recordings.
This is not to say that Glorious John was not an inspired conductor, a great one in the right repertoire. Even some documents from his New York years attest to that.
Absolutely. He took a modest provincial orchestra and turned it into a great one.
“Modest provincial orchestra”: just listen to yourself. The Halle under Barbirolli regularly outplayed the Vienna Philharmonic.
Hate to say this but from this side of the Atlantic all US orchestras are provincial. A large endowment fund, a fawning press and a handful of punchy recordings made under imported European maestros seven decades ago does not add up to a great tradition.
Sorry, listen to the recordings. There was some inspired music making in Halle under Barbirolli, but you have to put with loads of sour notes and iffy ensemble. The Halle was never better than third rate at that time. EMI was aware of that, which is why in the 60s they tried to record Sir John with better bands in London – his gigs in Vienna didn’t go as expected.
And when I said that the Halle is first rate now, I meant by British standards.
Living in the 1940s????nLOL.
I’d say Mr. Masur was never given the full chance to improve Avery Fisher Hall’s acoustics. He did want a pipe organ installed, which might have done wonders if handled by the right acoustician.
The NY Phil was a mess at the end of LB’s tenure, improved a little under Boulez, and then got a lot worse under Mehta. Masur was perhaps a bit prosaic in his approach, but he got the orchestra back into fighting shape.
The Mehta years were great. He hired some fantastic principals.
This is slightly off topic, but part of the credit monitoring from my insurance includes somehow warnings for convicted sexual predators that have moved in my neighborhood.
One recent name that came up is Derrick Trump.
You can’t make up this.
You’re reaching, Don. Wait a minute – is Don short for “Donald”?? You MUST be a racist, homophobic, misogynist, xynophobe, Nazi bigot.
I think a lot of people are having trouble understanding what the word “binding” in “binding arbitration” means.
Are you sure about SF Sym?
They took a big pay cut, orch very unhappy.
Are those who are siding with the sexual predators going to side with Roy Farmer too?
More people and organizations need to have a non-politicized respect for honesty, rationality, integrity and ethics. Playing games with virtue signaling as a way to mask a lack of those core values is what leads to situations like with flash pop-music sensation, flute player Lizzo.
I am curious as to if the past binding arbitration prevents the NYP from firing these musicians. We can’t predict if GD is going to make any ultimatums on this matter, so is the only “punishment” to pay them to leave? It feels unlikely that these two would resign even if their colleagues made their everyday work environment terrible. Seeing as the musicians have now publicly expressed their support for Cara, I can’t imagine how things would go should either or both of these individuals return.
What a mess. I’m a little behind on the story. Was Amanda Stewart denied tenure for being vocal about the incident? Or did she leave because she say the writing on the wall? Marvelous player and good person.
She was denied tenure for supporting Cara Kizer, and she was issued threats by a male brass player as well. (See previous links in the article).
What an incredibly sad, unfortunate and entirely avoidable set of circumstances. And things are almost certainly worse than what the public has yet uncovered. Sexual assault is a predatory pattern of behavior – these are rarely one-off acts of circumstance or coincidence. There are almost certainly additional victims who have, for a variety of legitimate reasons, declined to come forward. It is also likely that there are additional facts very detrimental to this particular case that have not been publicly disclosed. NDAs and large cash compensation packages are red flags intended to ensure such outcomes. The first step the NY Phil should undertake to legitimately address and deal with this matter is to release bound parties from their NDAs, which would allow them to speak freely of their own personal experiences unencumbered by legal liability and any attending restrictions that currently preclude them from doing so.
This WILL make an excellent SVU episode. Not the first time a recent true sex crime story has been fictionalized on Special Victims Unit..
Mariska Hargitay will make mincemeat of of those two…maybe have Ice-T slam them against the wall in the interrogation room.
(I vote for Linda Hunt to play Deborah Borda.)
…and the gentleman who curates this blog tried to convince us just week ago that the LAPhil was in some sort of crisis because two musicians are moving on and because they haven’t yet officially secured Jeremy Geffen as CEO. But hey, this total NY mess now gives Dudamel cover to stay in LA!
Dudamel doesn’t need cover, he just up and quit the Paris Opera one fine day, he can just up and quit the NY Phil today.
(He’s untouchable, no one would sue him, plus if they did, he can claim NY has a hostile workplace that is unsafe for women and children (choirs)).
LA would take him back in a New York minute (so to speak).
Yes, not the bravest man standing.
Dudamel has two years until he takes over, and can come in with “This is a new kind of institution…” And with half the orchestra now women and many of the old trogladytes retired (and likely Wang and Muckey gone by then), he might have a chance.
This is an awful matter, which has been handled in an atrocious way by pretty much everyone who has had involvement.
All pressure should be directed towards the relevant law enforcement agencies to have this re-examined and a case be brought to trial. It strikes me as off that it wasn’t done so at the time given the propensity of evidence, and absolutely baffling that original samples were not tested for the presence of GHB, which if confirmed at the time, would presumably mean these men would not be in position right now.
Everything that has ensued with the actions of the NY Phil with the Local 802 has been essentially trying to do the best job possible with absolutely nothing proven, which has made it nigh on impossible for them to make determinations that are legally sound or stand up to judicial interrogation.
Innocent until proven guilty is a fundamental human right and something that must be protected at all costs, but alongside that, the legal system must do everything possible within the scope of the law to ensure that the perpetrators of violent crime are brought to justice.
Well, the suspension is a correct first step to deal with the mess, although it really should be Matthew Muckey’s mug at the top of the article and not Liang Wang’s.