Menuhin Academy in trouble as big Swiss rolls
NewsSwiss media are reporting that the International Menuhin Music Academy, founded by Yehudi Menuhin in 1977, is running a deficit of two million francs after its main philnathropist Aline Foriel-Destezet walked away.
Its board president resigned in June and its artistic director Renaud Capucon appears to have departed. Le Temps alleges he was paid 200,000 francs a year.
Full story here.
Capucon, 48, is the premier French violinist, a friend of President Macron.
Yehudi Menuhin died in 1999.
At last the truth about Renaud Capuçon is no longer a “kept secret” only among the people in the music business. Rightly so, to many people he earns the nickname “Le Petit Napoléon”.
Attending his recent concert at Festival Berlioz in La Côte-Saint-André conducting Beethoven Eroica with his Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, at best his conducting skill is equal to seeing a charlatan waving arms on the podium.
99.9% the orchestra saved his life to painfully get through the symphony.
In my more than 65 years concert going experience, it was by far the worse Eroica symphony one could experience. I wonder how on earth he could in the first place got the post as the orchestra artistic director if it weren’t he with the helps and push of his influential friends making deals behind closed door.
I still remember very well hearing the same orchestra with Christian Zacharias, while Zacharias isn’t a trained conductor, the orchestra sounded day and night better than how they played the horrible Eroica symphony with Renaud Capuçon. Maybe this is the beginning of the end of Capuçon’s relationship with his orchestra too? Be good to see how things go from here!
Capuçon is mediocre, the best qualification to suceed in classical music institutitons nowadays. Stakelholders are ignorant and so they let these new class into sphere of power. Capuçon is at his best a fairly good candicate for concertmaster at top orchestra, nothing more.
Abuse of power is an equal crime which needs to be brought to justice similar to the Me Too movement. Renaud not only successfully enriching his own pocket by charging astronomical fees when he came to teach and to perform with the students of our school. He systematically favored inviting his good friends such as Gerard Caussé, Clemens Hagen etc to come to teach with the deals of very high fees.
Previous school faculties Pablo de Naverán, Ettore Causa went out of favor as soon as Renaud arrived.
Such practice of nepotism eventually ruined our great school reputation in addition to all the other problems reported in Le Temps paper.
Understandably Renaud was very upset not being selected as the successor of Christoph Müller to take over Menuhin Festival Gstaad. He wanted to rule in as many places as possible where the money flows in his favor.
SlippeDisc readers should read this other news:
https://www.heidi.news/explorations/le-violon-et-la-ferrari/laurence-ferrari-et-renaud-capucon-ou-l-art-de-cotoyer-les-puissants
Greed knows no limit. Renaud Capuçon’s playbook is the same as Gergiev’s. This bombshell finally exploded
Many more truths will be unraveled surrounding the bankruptcy of IMMA, the days of Capuçon’s “glory” are numbered…..
Not surprise if Jeremy Menuhin will come forward to speak publicly about this whole mess. Petit Napoleon is indeed who R. Capuçon is
The person at fault bringing Renaud to OCL was the ex-president Alexandre Curchod.
At the time many musicians of our orchestra were in favor engaging Bertrand de Billy as our chief conductor. We were forced by Curchod to vote for Renaud as the only candidate. The actual result of the musician voting was never transparently reported back to us. All we were told only that Renaud had enough votes to be our next chief while the truth was manipulated. Many of my colleagues don’t value at all Renaud’s ability as a conductor, we see him as a smooth Homme d’affaires.
Aside from his big arrogance and ignorance to the musicians will, Alexandre Curchod failed to be a good president of our orchestra. As a matter of fact, Antony Ernst who was engaged after Benoît Breascu became the scapegoat taking the blame of financial mismanagement while the truth was Renaud imposing many very expensive projects which caused deep financial trouble to our orchestra.
Obviously Renaud tried to deny he had any responsibility with the finance of the orchestra. That was a complete ignorance, the chief conductor must have inside knowledge of what is reasonable to do and what isn’t. Everything Renaud wants or wanted, including progamming repertoire with bigger orchestra causes our orchestra extra costs which could have been avoided if he were prudent!
With several of my colleagues we will not stop our mission to get rid of Renaud and to let the world know his way of operating is full of intrigue!
Musicien de l’OCL, unfortunately people like Renaud always finds loopholes to get away with awful things towards the institutions he is working for.
As a full time violin professor in Lausanne, Renaud never has the time to give regular lessons to his students and yet he is receiving very well paid monthly salaries. The same job if he were to teach in Paris at CNSMDP, he would earn only 30% of what he is earning in Lausanne.
To show him looking like a dedicated teacher, Renaud demanded to the former director of the school Hervé Klopfenstein to appoint OCL concertmaster François Sochard as his assistant professor, giving lessons during the weeks he has to miss. The music school has a fix rule, a faculty member must possess teaching certificate degree but Monsieur Sochard doesn’t have a teaching certificate degree.
Whatever Renaud wants he gets it because the kind of people like Hervé Klopfenstein enabled the French élites like Renaud to behave as if he was Louis XIV.
And let’s not touch the subject of the crumbling Academie Menuhin where Renaud received at least 200.000 CHF per year for barely showing up to teach. No wonder the school is in ruin.
These people are totally disgusting!!
The appointment of Renaud Capuçon as OCL directeur artistique in 2020 was done in a manner very corrupt. Our then orchestra president Alexandre Curchod spoke glowingly about Renaud bypassing any possibility for our orchestra to have alternative names in the shortlist of candidates. Many colleagues including myself would like to have Bertrand de Billy as our chief. We worked very well with Maestro de Billy, including an unforgettable concert in Paris. He made our orchestra playing with good ensemble, intonations and high quality musical results. Working with him was always big pleasure. Maestro de Billy in return was keen to deepen his relationship with our orchestra but at that time came a big pressure from Curchod to eliminate Maestro de Billy’s chance to be our boss in order for Renaud to have an unopposed way to win the job.
In various meetings Curchod spoke to the orchestra members telling us the only world famous conductor who has a great reputation and at the same interested to be our chief conductor is Renaud. To begin with, what came out from the mouth of Curchod was indeed a very big lie!
Curchod said to us, with Renaud our orchestra would be invited to many important places, making recordings for Deutsche Gramophone and many more promises. All these big dream projects eventually costed big deficit for our orchestra!
Separately Renaud boasted he would like the city to build a new concert hall which he would championed (so far this is only a far away dream in his head).
Our orchestra inherited a good financial balance budget with money in the savings when the managing director Benoît Braescu left. When Renaud began his tenure in 2021, Antony Ernst was the managing director. Within not too long period of time, all the savings which Benoît Braescu carefully managed had disappeared. Where was all those money? Antony was indirectly a victim of the big errors by Curchod forcing the appointment of Renaud as our chief.
The last three years playing under Renaud have been a matter of trying to save the many concerts he conducted from possible major train wracks. I remember each time we had to perform Mendelssohn Italian symphony, my heart beat went crazy because our conductor can’t give any clear upbeat, let alone an upbeat that gives the right tempo. If he thinks he is Karajan conducting with closed eyes, he better go to a mental hospital to treat his brain to be slightly more normal.
Playing Fauré Requiem under Renaud was a total embarrassement, he has no clue what to do conducting music with a choir and orchestra. Let alone a symphony by Beethoven, he can’t show with his gestures the many sudden dynamic changes, clear entrances. With Renaud conducting, the entrances within the sections of our orchestra are always tentative. We play for ourselves, in many ways it would be much better without a conductor because seeing Renaud on the podium only disturbs us. Rehearsals are more than boring affairs because Renaud has absolutely no clue how to properly rehearse an orchestra. As a violinist he has nothing interesting musically to work with the strings of our orchestra.
On a couple of occasions when I was off from the orchestra, I listened to my colleagues playing under Renaud with absolute bewilderment to see how he could be our boss while so many conducting students conduct much better than our boss. Many of my colleagues and myself included are very frustrated and angry with this ongoing situation. We wish that Dominique Meyer would have the will to tell Renaud to resign. Our orchestra deserves a much better chief conductor than a corrupt man like Renaud
You are very brave to go public revealing all these details Musicien de l’OCL. Sadly your actuel president Edgar Philippin is no better than Alexandre Curchod.
1 head was beheaded (Curchod), another one came in trying to remedy the troubles (Philippin). Renaud Capuçon is neither a left or right winger. His playbook is hypocrisy for his own personal benefit. Trying hard to deny any responsibility with the financial trouble, Renaud let other people to clean up explaining his ambitious projects had nothing to do with his responsibility as directeur artistic. The person who hired him (Curchod) had to leave, Renaud washed hands, a new one came (Philippin), if doesn’t work, kick him out, bring another one in……..
Bringing Dominique Meyer to protect Renaud Capuçon’s already damaged reputation is only another sign of “friend protecting friend”. As Dominique Meyer could not prolong his contract past 70 years old in Milan, an offer to take a little job in Lausanne by his good friend Capuçon was irresistible. Worse came Julie Mestre who looked for a good solution to leave her post with orchestre des Pays de Savoie. Another “friend protecting friend” scheme which obviously directed to protect Renaud facing further troubles ahead. Typical French way of hypocrisy at play…………
Judging by all of the comments, we can all agree that this guy should have never traded in his violin for a chopstick.
It seems that these money making “virtuosi” follow the same natural trend before their chops start to fail; they still have to keep up those mortgage payments and other expenses that await them. They also have to maintain the reputation and image that they have painstakingly created for themselves throughout the years.
When they finally get to stand on the podium, they imagine that their audiences and the orchestras they conduct, will be impressed to see how they’ve evolved in the musical world, when in reality it’s all a question of making more money. It’s never about music. There are many examples: Jean-Pierre Rampal, and Heinrich Schiff are 2 that I can mention right away.
Capuçon (..and don’t get those 2 C’s in his name mixed up!) is a good violinist, but he plays the same unaccompanied Encore EVERY time after a concerto: Gluck’s Danse des Ombres heureuses from (Orphée et Euridice). Out of all of the zillions of pieces for his instrument that exist, he chooses to play the same one continuously. I have witnessed this personally on tour with him, maybe 8 times in a row….
How can this aspiring conductor lack such imagination and creativity on his own instrument? I’m not surprised to see all of the negativity that has surrounded him since he decided to shoot for the moon.
As soon as you stepped through the school’s doors, it was clear that the place was bound to crumble eventually, unfortunately.
There are countless issues to address and expose just to scratch the surface of what the students and some dedicated professors endured under that administration.
Charles (president of the board) and Pascale Méla (director, or whatever her actual title was) were more concerned with ingratiating themselves to those with deep pockets than being present on-site and listening to the numerous, recurring concerns raised by students and professors. These concerns included, but were not limited to, medical aid, financial aid, and scheduling conflicts.
For years, students requested the bare minimum to make their student life more manageable—things like having a score library or an actual on-site administrator who could help both students and professors manage schedules, maintain practice rooms, and find classrooms for teachers. Yes, there were instances where teachers arrived to give lessons, only to find that no practice rooms were available. The house purchased in Tartegnin didn’t solve anything, contrary to what Mr. Méla claimed in the Le Temps article. You can’t expect eight violinists, five violists, and five cellists to practice at the level required in an old, poorly insulated house. It’s simply not viable.
Due to the poor and chaotic management, students became privy to almost everything happening at the Academy: salaries, unpaid tax notices, expense sheets—everything was left lying around and easily accessible. When students voiced concerns about their futures, Yehudi Menuhin’s legacy, and the Academy’s direction, they were met with hostile backlash and hollow defenses. They were told they weren’t grateful enough and that it was time to move on from Yehudi Menuhin because “he is no longer around.”
As for Mr. Capuçon, his visits were sporadic and sometimes spent on activities unrelated to teaching. I distinctly recall an instance where he filmed a Nespresso ad during his teaching hours. He showed little to no interest in his students’ present or future. The curriculums, which were clearly outlined on the website, were non-existent. While there are still some exceptional professors who care deeply about their students’ progress and are eager to help with their careers, Renaud Capuçon has never been one of them.
Another critical issue, mentioned in a previous comment, is the abuse of power experienced by both students and some teachers. There were legitimate cases of bullying and psychological harassment. When Mr. Capuçon brought in his friends, such as Gérard Caussé and Clemens Hagen, long-standing teachers at the Academy were met with salary cuts (to make room for these new, exorbitant salaries) and were subjected to tyranny from Mr. and Mme. Méla, Mr. Caussé, and Mr. Hagen. Some of these new teachers even favored students of their own nationality or ethnicity, abusing their authority over others.
All these individuals need to be held accountable for their actions, and many are waiting for that day to come.
As for the Academy and Menuhin’s legacy, we all hope that it will continue to live on, finding a new, honest board and an artistic director who will be truly committed to their role.