NY Phil trumpet had a star girlfriend at time of rape complaint
OrchestrasMore details are emerging of the events in Vail on July 24-25, 2010 at which two New York Philharmonic musicians were questioned about a rape. Eight years later, both men were sacked from the orchestra – only to be reinstated after union-led arbitration.
The alleged main perpetrator was the Philharmonic’s associate principal trumpet, Matthew Muckey.
Slipped Disc can reveal that Muckey had a girlfriend at the time. The pair had been together for at least two years.
The girlfriend’s name is Yuja Wang.
Here is what Yuja told Joshua Kosman in June 2010: ‘My boyfriend, Matthew Muckey, who is a trumpet player with the New York Philharmonic, is from Sacramento; we met three years ago when I was performing with the orchestra.’
In the week of the rape accusations in Vail, Yuja was playing halfway across the world at Verbier – two recitals, one solo and another with Joshua Bell. She returned to the US via China in the second week of August and has no connection whatsoever with the events that took place in Vail.
The issue is, when did she learn that her boyfriend Muckey was questioned about a rape, and what did she do about it?
Yuja is due to be artist in residence at the NY Philharmonic next season. Her ex-guy Matthew Muckey still holds the position of Associate Principal Trumpet in the orchestra. Questions will be asked. Yuja may need to find some answers.
Pictured: Yuja Wang, Verbier, July 2010
UPDATE: Muckey’s co-accused, principal oboe Liang Wang, is down to play a concerto with the NY Phil on May 8-10.
Or perhaps she’d prefer not to talk about it, and ignore you trying trying to garner hits for your website by writing Muckey articles with her name dragged into them.
On this note: Could James Levine be rehired?
“According to the Philharmonic, Jones’s investigation had operated under common workplace evidentiary standards, which would mean that she looked for a “preponderance of evidence” that the men were guilty.
Bloch’s review used a higher bar, that of “clear and convincing” evidence.”
https://www.vulture.com/article/new-york-philharmonic-sexual-assault-scandal.html?fbclid=IwAR2RPlaE7oqxRDgxM8PXZ5-AbWRhOsqfYU74Cf9bk9dZuW6yvrcentofLJk&mibextid=xfxF2i
It is Yuja’s moral contrast that is stark: Yuja is publicly cancelling Makela’s orchestras, but not cancelling Muckey’s orchestra.
Cancelling appearances with Makela’s orchestra isn’t a moral issue. It’s because as a soloist she doesn’t want to work with a conductor who she’s just split up with. It’s not relevant to the issue this article discusses.
Truly disgusting. CSO fans have made this sexual assault case all about Yuja Wang. No discussion about the role of, for example, the music director at the time Alan Gilbert. The number one takeaway for them is that Yuja Wang has no moral compass and therefore good for Makela that he finally got rid of her! They think she is a baggage to the pristine image of the CSO. What a lovely bunch of people. No wonder she hates the CSO and Chicago.
You (and other CSO supporters) better hope Makela didn’t do something worse
The mere hint that Mäkelä might have raped or done something even worse to her or someone else is a very very serious allegation that should not be allowed on here without any substantiation.
Yuja’s response is the litmus test.
It would be extraordinary that if Makela did something worse than drug date rape someone, that Yuja would not immediately cancel all of their concerts, but is waiting, until up to days before rehearsal, to cancel, one concert at a time, which means she and her agent are still contemplating for her to perform together with Makela.
Would that be the state-of-mind of a woman (the highest paid and most powerful woman soloist in classical music) whose ex had done “something worse”?
Au contraire, it’d rather put the CSO at ease.
Yeah why wouldn’t Wang be thrilled to go to the CSO where she has been called frog legs for years and barred from playing with the orchestra? Such a mystery. Fans of the CSO should probably not talk with such moral certitude about anything.
I think the tables have turned, it is Makela now who would want to cancel appearances with Yuja, who brings so much baggage with her…
Have you seen a recent photo of Wang? Apparently she’s now having sour cravings too (eating lemons backstage in Boston…) “Baggage” is such a terrible word to use in context but I guess Makela doesn’t care at all.
What baggage??
Care to substantiate??
As the expression goes, don’t shit where you eat, and Yuja leaves a trail of ex-boyfriends in the same concert halls where she plays, she’s the poster child for no dating in the workplace.
“Frog legs”? huh?
Duh…Muckey isn’t conducting!
This smelly pot is well worth further stirring. I wager their union is proud of these men. How pitifully sad.
You should read up on the accuser and her strongest advocate in the NYPO. I think this has shades of E. Jean Carroll levels of crazy.
More Cadet Bone Spurs level of crazy .
Anyway, if they get sacked again, they could sell bibles to pay their fines….There are enough boneheads the US who buy that….
If I read the paper correctly, E Jean Carroll won a jury verdict………….
I still don’t understand what Liang Wang did?
Sure, he got into the hot tub with his best buddy Muckey (I can’t erase that image from my head), and he handed her the glass of red wine…. But beyond that, it’s obvious it couldn’t have been Wang’s wang that pushed the tampon way up there beyond reach.
Wang was suspected of putting date rape drug in her wine. He might have also participated in the rape who knows.
I think this calls for patrons and donors boycott.
Mainstream music critics, even the freelance reviewers, don’t dare print it because they might lose the free tix, free parking and press perks.
Not so. Many NY Phil staff would like to see them hung out to dry.
That’s general practice with the Dutch National Opera. If a reviewer writes something they don’t like, he’s out.
Um, why are disgusting and obscene comments like this allowed to stay up on this site?
To make you cry.
Or to make some Trumptard sods happy.
They found Muckey’s semen in the tampon.
Which means he didn’t use a condom.
The woman was also presumably sexually active with her husband.
Which means Yuja…
Yuja kicked him into touch.
This is wholly unfair, why does Yuja Wang have to do or say anything? There is no hint of her being involved in this crime and the whole situation must have been horrifying for her.
When a crime is committed the only person responsible is the perpetrator, nobody else; not the victim but also definitely not his partner. Why don’t you put a photo of him above the article instead?
As a woman, yes. To be artist in residence and to support this in any way if she has any doubt. Particularly because she knew one of the parties involved.
She has no problems empowering herself with her wardrobe with which I have no issue. It certainly draws attention in many ways, like wow, I really like that dress or those shoes or this look, and also yes- the wow, this is super short and she looks great. And she is also objectified for it, often on this website. Regardless, she is an incredible player so who cares, and seemingly stands behind what she wears as part of her strength, expression, and marketability.
But there needs to be some evolution in her awareness on this issue, no? She is a leading artist and it may be difficult to stay neutral here as a woman who is still young but established and powerful enough to support other women.
My question is, and I am trying to find out more from colleagues- Why is this coming out again now?
Is it because Dudamel is coming as well as Yuja and pressure, starting with the press, can be applied to re-resolve in some way?
There has been a response of some sort in their absence from this week’s program.
Buy outs?
Yuja Crush Gone Wrong!
Tampons, trumpets and testosterone.
A potentially lethal mix.
Great book title akin to Mozart in the Jungle
Were they even together in 2012? Honestly Norman, I think you’re pushing this way too far. Supposition and speculation like this is grossly unethical.
Unethical is the MO around here.
Sounds more like she’s in a position to not have many answers.
Perhaps she’s heard HIS answers, but are those likely to be anything other than denials?
Norman, what legally have these men been convicted of? Does this article say? It appears people in the comments have information of semen found and tampons and date rape drugs. Is this true? Have they been convicted of rape and accessory? If so they should be jailed. If not..
THEN YOU ARE LIBELING THESE MEN AND YUJA.
100% YUJA nor any person uninvolved has NOT AN OUNCE of responsibility to respond, cancel, not play concerts.
Let law enforcement enforce the law, and musicians play music.
The moral parade of cancelling and virtue signaling is destroying classical music.
I hope that these guys are guilty because if not, the AFM better sue every last one of you into oblivion for ruining their names.
Agree with you 100%. The case has already been through the legal system. If these people insist on digging it out of the grave again, I want to know why we are only getting one side of the story…..that is suspect to me, but then again, not surprising. It wouldn’t fit the “all men are bad/deceiving and all women are good/honest” narrative.
“The moral parade of cancelling and virtue signaling is destroying classical music.” Spot on. I would love to know who these people are virtue signaling to. Others in their echo chamber, I assume.
“China in the second week of August and has no connection whatsoever with the events that took place in Vail.”
That is an affirmation no one can assert without having subpoenaed and analyzed both their mobile and communications app records.
That is just police investigation 101.
(Indeed, it is very quaint to think, with 21st century instantaneous live audio and video technology, that the distance between “China” and “Vail” means anything….)
watching two many episodes of the wire?
It is not terribly complicated to find a behavioral history, when you look at the time period of Liang Wang’s time as principal oboe of the Cincinnati symphony. Incidents with women and students probably do not begin there, but it will show that the behaviors, while in the New York Philharmonic, were hardly the beginning. I wonder what the Cincinnati symphony, and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music have on file that could not only show trail of behavior, but premeditation based on patterns of abuse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTAVF7bD6Jc
“Hiii my name is Matthew Muckey, I play the trumpet, and I would like you to play with me, on Love project 2020”
With a group called “Liquid Open Viral Ensemble”
(Folks, you can’t make this up, even if you tried.)
This kid (Mucky) was an entitled asshole even BEFORE winning a very prestigious job at a very young age. I hope NYP does the right thing. And people need to leave this woman out of it all together. What a load of crap.
Learn to spell, bot. You are clearly lying just like Cara
This story is NUTS! When’s it hittin’ Netflix? I’d watch!
Clearly the relationship between Yuja and Muckey ended years ago! It began before this incident, and certainly ended afterwards. Yuja’s name shouldn’t be dragged into this mess! Did anybody blame Anne Hathaway for dating Raffaello Follieri? She didn’t know he was a crook when she started dating him, and certainly Yuja didn’t ask Mr. Muckey if he was a sexual predator when they began dating. Does anybody hire a detective to investigate the person they are dating?
“Does anybody hire a detective to investigate the person they are dating?” <— Yes. Some wealthy people do.
This incident has nothing to do with Yuja Wang. She wasn’t there at the time of the party or the rape, and she wasn’t involved in the bullying and pushing out of Ms Stewart and Ms Kizer.
But the brass section of the orchestra has a lot to answer for- including the threats to Ms Stewart and attempts to remove her from the orchestra. Was Alan Gilbert aware that this was happening and did he collude with the wrongdoers or was he manipulated by the wrongdoers as well? That’s the real issue here. The leadership were right to fire Matthew Muckey and Liang Wang, even if very belatedly. Reinstating them was wrong.
The real question is not whether Yuja Wang should or should not be performing with the NY Philharmonic- the real question is why the two men were rehired instead of Muckey facing trial and jail time if found guilty, when there is clearly evidence against him.
I would suggest Yuja kicked Muckey to the curb years ago. She has no relevance to this tragic story, especially as she was half way around the world when it happened. Sadly, local 802 forced the Philharmonic to take these two cretins back. I’m glad the story has now seen the light of day with the slime bags exposed.
Why would she need to “find some answers” about something she had nothing to do with? Of course she had “no connection whatsoever…” Leave her the fuck alone and place the focus on the perpetrators and the people who gave them their jobs back.
Let’s focus on Yuja Wang and NOT on the sexual predators.
Smart.
Norman, honestly, why are you so OBSESSED with her??
Perhaps “OBSESSED” is too nice a word.
“TROLL” is probably closer.
Just telling it as it is but totally prepared to for this comment to be censored !!
This is life imitates “Mozart in the Jungle”.
I do find it odd (though not surprising) that you’re focusing on Yuja Wang – who there is no evidence whatsoever that she knew about this, that she was indeed dating the accused trumpetist at the time, and who was out of the country – and not on, say, Alan Gilbert, who *was* the music director, obviously was aware of the investigation and assault, and who unquestioningly supported the decision to deny tenure to both musicians on BS musical grounds, weeks after praising their work.
Let’s not blame women for the crimes of men, especially when there is no evidence whatsoever tying them to it.
Sluty people are attracted to each other
WTF? Yuja Wang has nothing to do with the circumstances of the alleged sexual assault. It’s really shitty of you to have referenced her at all.