Canadian orchestra sacks two principals over online comments
OrchestrasThe Calgary Philharmonic has fired principal oboe Alex Klein and principal clarinet Slavko Popovic after an external, month-long investigation into ‘deeply troubling comments posted online.’
The comments are alleged to have been disrespectful to women and minorities.
Neither the orchestra, nor the musicians, has anything further to say.
Both positions have appeared as ‘unfilled’ on the Calgary Philharmonic website.
Popovic is a Curtis graduate. Klein is a former principal oboe of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra who lost his position after the onset of focal dystonia.
The music director of the Calgary Philharmonic is the Norwegian Rune Bergmann.
Report here.
https://www.instagram.com/orchestraisracist/p/CFAXqvtgF7v/?img_index=1
That is about an investigation four years ago. The new investigation was initiated a month ago and has resulted in the two firings.
“You can’t fight white dominant culture and patriarchy with white dominant culture and patriarchy.”
Is THAT racist against white people?
Yes, it is. It’s also boilerplate dumb.
Like, exactly who and what are “white” people? They mean Anglo of course, but they’re afraid of being that blatantly bigoted.
Eh … I believe it’s termed ‘promoting racial equality’! Got a problem with that?!
Hang on. This is from 2020. Are these musicians being sacked now over comments from 4 years ago (which were investigated at the time), or is this a new incident?
Good.
How stupid are people? If these people hold such views, surely they know better than to post them online, in the certain knowledge that someone will shop them and there will be EVIDENCE.
I could wish that people did not hold racist or misogynistic views, but I do not have the right and no-one has the ability to command another’s thoughts. What I am objecting to here is the moronicism of people who know they are in the public eye.
I think that many of these people don’t realize that their views are well out of the mainstream because they think that their views, if not mainstream, should be so.
Fascism of this sort seems to be well ingrained in American culture …
Canadian culture, eh?
The moronicism? Please don’t assume they are morons. Clearly they consciously calculated that they will face no consequences, for good reasons: they both got away with similar or worse conduct before.
It’s called stupid.
What were the views?
Apparently they were anonymous and couldn’t be proven as to origin, and so an investigation (fishing expedition) was opened and other things came out.
It’ll all come back around. Errybody on the traditional/conservative side just needs to be more reserved until this woke craze blows over.
I know several female brass players who are competent musicians and certainly capable of leading a section. Susan Slaughter, Carol Jantsch, and Sarah Willis are but a few examples of female professional brass working at the top of their game.
“It’ll all come back around.”
To what? Please explain exactly what you’re waiting to return.
What’s your point? That racist/misogynistic conduct (or public writing) should be tolerated? I’m sure all the ladies you list will have tales of encountering hostility in their workplace. As would the spouse of one of SD’s most prolific contributors. Nothing “woke” about insisting on good, professional behavior.
Slaughter retired in 2010
Neither the oboe nor the clarinet classify as brass instruments (unless of course women or minorities say so, in which case I apologise).
Woke has nothing to do with it. Respecting others and not promoting stereotypes or even hatred are the values of a civil society.
What you call a “woke craze” will not “blow over” until misogynist nonsense stops.
Yes. Indecency should only be the concern of the woke. You seem to say we need only wait a bit longer and indecency will become cool and acceptable again.
“Woke craze”?
If you mean striving to be decent, considerate, respectful and understanding of others, to treat people the way you’d want others to treat your loved ones, and yourself?
That’s not going to “blow over”.
has nothing to do with left vs. right or anything woke. has to do with morality itself. morality that Jesus himself defined.
Not sure what you are suggesting here. Are you equating traditional/conservative views with racism and essentially endorsing them? There s a significant difference between fighting racism or misogyny and the “woke craze.”
Not good for their c v
Classic response that concerns expressed about this kind of conduct are just, eh, … ‘woke’! Student of Bannon by any chance?!
The sad part is that Klein’s comments about feminist warmonger Katherine Needleman ring very true.
In these matters, truth is the ultimate, capital offence.
Lol. “Feminist warmonger” =
“someone who repeats the actual filth men say to women”
“someone who posts screenshots of filthy pictures men send to women”
I understand it hurts to have your brethren called out.
Try smiling more.
It’s good to see that people can’t just get away with being horrible.
Wow. Slavko Popovic runs a terrific Facebook group (posting historic orchestral performances) which has no hint of negativity (in fact he once admonished one commenter to keep things positive).
Alex Klein has posted on SD periodically and has always been to my mind positive and often highly enlightening – and I think we all feel pretty bad about his travails at the CSO over the past two decades; nobody should have a career ruined by work-related injuries. I don’t know what he’s been posting elsewhere.
I know Slavko personally, he voiced his concern that a prominent member of a peer orchestra was a “dirty jew” so I think that answers that.
But was he wrong though?
The comments by Klein and Popovic were directed toward the principal oboist of the Baltimore Symphony, Katherine Needleman, who is an activist for women in music. She has a following of over 10,000 people on her Facebook page. She has posted the comments by Klein and Popovic that led to their being fired on her website, along with the comments of two other men who also attacked her. They can be read here:
https://katherineneedleman.com/men-write-about-me
The hyperlinks don’t work correctly, but if you scroll almost to the bottom of the page you will find the comments by Popovic and Klein.
I do not know if there were other allegations about Klein and Popvoic that were investigated by Calgary besides these comments.
The worst comments by the four men came from David Blumberg who seems to have threatened her with physical violence. He was put under a restraining order by a Baltimore County judge. His comments occupy the majority of the webpage I list above above.
Oh, so it’s retaliation.
She started the thing, they angrily responded, and they get punished for speaking out against her. She sounds like a real sweetheart.
Nice to see where you stand! Ultra-right apologist …
If you’d actually bothered to read the link that Mr. Osborne so kindly provided, you’d realize that these writings from them were entirely unprompted and when one of the terminated musicians for some unexplainable reason sent the messages to Ms. Needleman, she posted them on her website. So they actually “started the thing”, if you insist on such crude terminology.
….”she started the thing”…? How did you do your math, here, Jim C? Katherine Needleman has simply publicized things said to her and about her, as well as to and about other women.
It’s literally the words of the men causing the men trouble.
She seems to be passive aggressively attacking men by making a straw man argument against them, after which quite a few irrational followers gang up on the man. Then the men become frustrated and vent, making trouble for themselves.
Her game appears to be to bait people then sit back and watch the calamity ensue.
This is what I see happening on her website.
I’m gonna guess when you’ve ended up in HR meetings, you’ve also viewed it as “retaliation.”
There isn’t anything from Klein there other than a statement that he feels attacked by Needleman out of professional jealousy.
Everyone is entitled to free speech under international law- as long as it does not provoke ‘hatred’ of any kind.
Must one explain this every time? They can say these things (and BTW they are in Canada, not the United States) without being prosecuted. But it doesn’t mean it could cost them their jobs.
I don’t agree. Why should everyone be ‘allowed’ to post comments of a clearly misogynistic (or racist or homophobic) nature … providing they’re ‘legal’? Sounds to me like defending the indefensible!
Everyone may be entitled to free speech, but that doesn’t protect them from consequences. Both of these men are now paying the price for their bad actions. They are not victims.
Good. They can go play for the New York Philharmonic.
Didn’t the first violinist of the Dover Quartet also write an apology email to Curtis because he called one of the Curtis administrative workers a “c u n t”? My colleague said Mr. Link also made disrespectful comments to women including condoning one of male classical music figures who sexually assaulted the previous violist of the Dover Quartet, Ms Pajaro. Please investigate, Ms. Needleman.
Now if they only called out for the support of Hamas and the elimination of Israel and its Jewish population, all would have been just fine in Canada
I, too, love red herrings.
That’s pretty shabby.
You’re right. That would have been not just ok, but honorable.
If you had Alex Klein’s life you’d go crazy too.
Interestingly enough, I distinctly recall that on one of the SD articles about the Josh Jones tenure debacle, Mr. Klein posted several very “woke” comments, the tenor of which was antithetical to that of the alleged posts that got him fired.
When SP was hired, I spoke to Calgary Phil personally and, at their request, to provide a reference on the phone to confirm the comments made online and share the screenshots. They hired him anyway, which was jarring, to say the least. Maybe the HR department should be sacked, too.
Not at all suspicious that he “left” a principal seat in Chicago for Calgary…
He left Chicago in 2003 due to focal dystonia. He got the position back c.2015, but didn’t get tenure. Either the dystonia still caused problems or Muti was less enamoured with his playing than Barenboim. He then ended up at Calgary. So, nothing to see here.
Alex Klein is a national hero in Brazil! Very sad to see him out of work again after two stints with the CSO.
May he go back!
There has been significant harassment from some individuals who seem to have no better use of their time than to target and harass talented players. These two individuals are prime examples of being unfairly attacked by what can only be described as a ‘woke mob.’ They were having a private conversation that should never have been made public. A minor US Oboist creating a situation that the top Oboist on our planet gets sacked is horrible.
If every private conversation were exposed, many would feel ashamed of their words. As the saying goes, “Let the one without sin cast the first stone.”
A private text conversation between the two of them? And somehow Katherine Needleman ended up with screenshots?
I can’t wait to hear this story.
If you read Needleman’s original post it’s pretty clear here what happened, but sway of commentators and narrative theories have muddled the facts as they were initially shared.
Originally, Needleman posted a few screenshots of a private email conversation between Klein and a Katie Berglof of the Seattle symphony where Klein gave his views of Needleman, and Berglof then shared these emails with Needleman, who in turn posted extracts publicly on her page. Klein was naturally torn apart by the attack of commentators. He said he had enemies who sent the messages to Berglof, but Needleman had all emails threads with headers, etc. As a way to further protect himself, he sent Needleman documents that were obviously highly edited showing a conversation of two other colleagues making disparaging remarks of Needleman. Which begs the question, how did he get these private conversations if he too was not part of that conversation? Obviously edited, the further comments then added two more people and narratives were formulated losing sight of the original issues. The main point of the edited documents is name calling. Unfortunately, Needleman’s page is full of comments detailing years of name calling and disparaging remarks toward the hated person, usually a man, du jour, so the reactions to name calling are lost in the sea of Needleman and her now 15,000 followers and their own verbiage. Anyone seeing the comments of a Rae Rae Messenger will understand my point.
The private messages/email being made public are the real issue here. Two people were fired for having private conversations, made public.
Here is where it gets confusing. Klein was mad his private correspondence was made public. So his best option is to then share private correspondence of two colleagues for Needleman to again make public? That’s not a rational response for a 60 year old mad. Tit for tat is pretty grossly used here.
We are in an era where private conversations are being leaked or publicised by others and we are being fired, threatened, shunned, and judged, based on what was said in private. We all have a right to our privacy. We all have a right to our opinion. When we lose those things, the long term results will not bode well. We all have private conversations that are intended to never to see the light of day, no matter how mild or salacious the content. No person reading this or commenting on this issue would survive in this world if their private correspondence were made public. We all have our views and we have a right to have them.
We don’t actually know why Alex and Slavko were fired. Everyone immediately assumed it was related to Katherine Needleman, but nobody has confirmed that officially. I assume the Calgary Philharmonic has been advised by lawyers here and built a solid case on more than e-mail screen shots.
I think these French conductor “dick pix,” circulating, might be more interesting to look at?
She sounds like major trouble. Kind of thuggish too, I think.
Katherine Needleman has appeared multiple times here before. If you do a search you will see her history.
What do you mean by “thuggish?” Please define this term, and exactly what you mean by it.
well, I was personally aghast at reading what those two said. a talented player doesn’t get a free get out of jail card merely because they are talented. it takes a lot more than that to be a human being whom anyone could respect.
If he’s a good player, who cares?
“Hey that guy raped his colleague, but he’s a good player, so who cares?” – you
“Minor oboist?” First of all, the competence or stature of said oboist is not relevant to her right to call out bad behavior. But whatever her personality traits, with which I have no firsthand acquaintance, Katherine Needleman is an extraordinary oboist. Not only principal of a top American orchestra (I hear them regularly; they are) but she sounds great every time I hear her play there.
Whoever the intended audience, Alex Klein’s remarks were pretty vile. Also rich for him to question how she got her job. As I recall the history, the BSO did have an audition (my brother auditioned and was bounced in the first round) so while I don’t know what happened in said audition, they had one and she ended up getting hired.
Meanwhile, as I recall (and I will stand corrected if someone in a position to know tells me I’m wrong), the CSO in the 1993-95 period held two open auditions to replace Ray Still. And as seemed to be their practice at the time, hired nobody. They then unsuccessfully pursued Richard Woodhams. And then, without another open audition being held, Alex Klein emerged as the new principal oboe. Now, he was likely the best athlete available at the time and before the great misfortune of focal dystonia he was a great success, so good call by the CSO. But to my knowledge he didn’t get the job by emerging as the winner of a blind, arms-length, multi-round audition – the standard to which he seems to be holding Ms. Needleman. Ironically, when he won the job again in 2016 I believe he did just that.
Yes there was an audition for the Baltimore job. Ms Needleman took part and didn’t get past the first round. Several more rounds ensued and there was a winner. The music director didn’t like the winner, so the position was open again. Ms Needleman’s teacher Richard Woodhams strongly advocated the audition committee (which included another of Ms Needleman’s teacher) to give her a trial. She played one program with the orchestra for her trial and was hired. Other candidates who placed higher than Ms Needleman at the audition didn’t get the same opportinity.
That doesn’t sound any more unseemly than how many other auditions go down. IIRC Alex Klein spent time at Curtis (though officially is an Oberlin grad) and would have studied with Woodhams; isn’t it possible he did the same for Alex with the CSO? Turned it down and advised them to “check out this guy?” And proved their fitness by actually playing in the orchestra.
Do you know of any other oboe audition that was as unseemly? Alex Klein studied briefly with John deLancie, not with Woodhams. And Woodhams doesn’t seem to have been an advocate for his male students.
No, he studied with Woodhams at Curtis the short time he stayed there.
Any audition where the hiring did not result from an open audition that resulted directly in a winner – and that’s a lot of them – would probably meet that test.
I think the “minor oboist” is in reference to the person in Seattle, not Needleman.
“Let the one without sin cast the first stone” — that approach gives us a world without any consequences for bad behavior.
The sort of people who refer to being called out for misogyny and racism as “woke” are the very sort of people who need to be scrutinized heavily in their own lives. Most of the time, it’s a pretty strong “tell.”
minor oboist = faculty at curtis. really? wow…
What did they say? I think it’s relevant to know before jumping into left wing vs right wing politics.
Apparently it’s not !
To my understanding, Alex Klein sent a private message to someone he thought was a friend. His comments were disparaging towards the principal oboist in Baltimore, disagreeing with her methods. He did not post them publicly, but his friend forwarded these comments to Katherine Needleman, and it is KN who made them public. So, were what were supposed to be private comments, not intended to be public, grounds for dismissing Alex Klein from Calgary? That is the question we must ask – is it possible that anyone, at anytime, that sends a private text, or uses Facebook messenger, or any form of private communication, likely to be dismissed for voicing a opinion about someone, once these opnions are made public without permission? If so, this could happen to any one of us, then.
Baltimore, that sounds like Alsop. We should be very careful to not discuss conducting in her presence or, even more crucially, in her absence. Better stick to the weather.
I would imagine there is more to his dismissal than this one post. But as is often the case: Those who talk don’t know; those who know don’t talk.
But for Alex to dismiss Ms. Needleman as “little position she has in the oboe world” is small and petty. Is he disparaging the Baltimore Symphony? He’d be lucky to play in such a fine group these days.
If you read the original post, Needleman clearly states Klein sent all documents. Nothing was sent by a third party.
You have to assume everything you write and put your name on can be made public. Everyone should know that by now. The NFL player Josh Brown had his private journal that he had been instructed to write as part of a marriage therapy program turned over the police. Then they were made public back in 2016.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/giants-kicker-josh-brown-speaks-domestic-abuse-allegations/story?id=45215260
As children are taught from day one, once something is on the internet it is there forever. And there is no such thing as “privacy” on any social media.
Klein is the one that sent all documents to Needleman, she confirmed that in her original posting.
Shameful. Pretty soon we’ll all be mute for fear of offending.
Welcome to the new McCarthyism.
Wow, you have it so hard, having to keep your sexist comments to yourself.
Well what can I say… This was a long time coming. Slavko Popovic is one of the worst in the industry. Plenty of evidence of his racism, sexism, being a terrible person, narcissistic and sociopathic tendencies… Known him for a long time. He still has employers as of today in 2024. Li DeLun foundation being one of them. Play with a pro and U of Calgary being others potentially?
He doesn’t deserve any sympathy. In fact, he should be glad CPO gave him a 2nd chance in 2020. So dumb he threw it away and continued his behaviour. Guess he doesn’t care about others than himself. Now he’s probably online paying his lawyer to take down any truths about him claiming it’s defamation.
Fired by the Brott Music Festival. Ties cut off by his former mentors and Curtis Institute. Not to mention the plagiarism. From stealing Afendi Yusuf’s NYO bio to other assignments at Curtis.
I feel bad for the people who are wrongly accused in this day but Slavko Popovic deserves much worse than this. Those who are protecting him will probably see even more evidence of his acts of hate. No amount of protecting this guy can shelter the truth.
As for Alex Klein… [redacted] Where to even begin with this one?
Do these 2 individuals just lie through life with no accountability because they’re above average instrumentalists?
And for all your noble social concern, the most telling and hypocritical aspect of your post is the obvious relish you have publicly humiliating anyone you deem an offender to the mob code.
In fact he ‘deserves much worse’ to satisfy your bloodlust.
Sure Mischa, sure keep defending terrible people. Take a stance against this so called “mob”. I see to it that you’ll start a go fund me campaign for the Slavko Popovic racist and misogynist society. Maybe it’s better that I humiliate him privately and let Alex Klein share it to the world. Would that work better for you?
Li Delun is a once-a-year pickup gig, not a permanent employer. They’ve hired him in the past, but the previous installments in this saga were passed around more as gossip and not anything reported in the mainstream press, so I wouldn’t draw any conclusions from that.
Assuming both of them continue playing or at least trying to, though, it will certainly be interesting to see which freelance groups hire them now that the reasons for their availability are a matter of public record.
And why would someone in the audience like myself care about his “racism, sexism, being a terrible person, narcissistic and sociopathic tendencies”? Frankly, all I care is music quality. If you sacrifice music quality for diversity and other pseudo-values, I am against this.
My reply does not pertain to the case being discussed, but is just a statement in general:
There are a number of musicians in the industry who are tremendously talented at performing on their respective instruments, but as human beings are arrogant and narcissistic
(as evidenced by their conduct).
For many of us performers and listeners alike, participating in a concert is a mental/
emotional/
spiritual “exchange” of sorts.
If I personally find someone to be awful or insufferable, I do not care what they have to “say” on their instrument, regardless of the “music quality.” I won’t give them my time, money or attention.
Say I assault your mother then you pay for my concert ticket: I guess you’re ok with that
If you insult my mother I’ll indeed pay for your concert to enjoy watching you playing with a broken nose and a black eye. As a rule, musicians are not good street fighters.
As a rule, you seem very misguided. Based on your posts, I can see where you stand.
You’re assuming that the assholes are necessarily more valuable players than the people who get fed up with the assholes and leave.
That’s not necessarily the case. And one asshole can create a hostile work environment for a whole lot of people. You’ll hear it.
Not at all; I simply do not care if they are assholes.
There’s the “Woke Craze”, Bone, but there’s also the Human Decency “Craze” of yesteryear (currently in decline), which means conducting yourself like a gentleman and not talking (at least in public) like a prize schmuck.
Some people in the public eye seem to be incapable of keeping their darker thoughts to themselves.
“Everyone has the right to his own opinion. As long as it agrees with mine”.
Why is the oboist fired? He wrote, privately, that Katherine Needleman meddled into other people’s lives, which is true, and that she didn’t win the audition for her Baltimore job, which is also true. Is discussing facts in private ground for dismissal?
There is probably a lot more to it than that, but the Calgary Phil won’t talk. It’s Canada, not the United States, but I imagine they still needed to have their legal ducks in order.
The.internet.is.not.private.
What happened to the freedom of speech?
Nothing. The Canadian government won’t be prosecuting them. But that doesn’t oblige the Calgary Philharmonic to continue their employment.
You have the freedom to say what you want. Your employer has the right to also do so – by firing you.
But then again, people who bandy about “woke” as an insult usually can’t figure out this distinction.
Canada is lost. Everyone living there should leave immediately.
And go where? Trumpistan? No, thanks.
And just FYI, Alberta is the most right wing province in Canada. Calgary is marginally more liberal than other parts of the province, but I have heard more racist comments in Alberta than anywhere else I have travelled in this country.
That website of hers is at least as toxic as any of the material she has made public in her website’s “What Men Say About Me” section. The classical world’s Rose McGowan/Asia Argento.
Truly astonishing how this entire comment section is up in arms about a series of screenshots that probably had very little to do with either musician’s termination. What’s more likely is their long history of unacceptable behavior towards their colleagues was finally presented to the Calgary Philharmonic, and that constituted grounds for dismissal. Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire – everyone just seems to be losing their heads about seeing shapes in the metaphorical smoke instead of worrying about the fire.
The bureaucrats main concern is to protect themselves against any scandals and lawsuits, so they rush to get rid of any “problematic” employees. This is why Steven Hatfill was terminated by SAIC after the FBI leaked that he was a “person of interest” in their anthrax investigation. The “no smoke without fire” crowd like you cheered but Hatfill was later cleared of all accusations and even won several lawsuits.
Time to get in touch with reality Yuri. Sad to see so many theories of yours but non backed up by facts.
I just gave you the case of Hatfill as an example, and this is a fact. What fact do you have?