Michigan hushes up music scandal
OperaRemember the University of Michigan?
It’s where the last president was fired for allegedly coming on to a staff member. But that’s the least of its misdeeds.
It ignored years of sexual abuse by violin professor Stephen Shipps.
It dithered over claims of sexual assault by countertenor David Daniels.
It unfairly banned composer Bright Sheng for showing Laurence Olivier’s blackface Otello.
And more.
Now, students at the Voice and Opera Department have been told that Dr Scott Piper has been placed ‘on administrative leave’ and may not be contacted.
Dr Piper, a Paul Robeson Scholar Award winner, was a star pupil of George Shirley and Shirley Verrett. Piper was replaced in June as department chair and relieved of all involvement in the summer vocal program.
His suspension is said to be a ‘Title IX’ issue but the university is not commenting.
Watch this space.
The doctor is not in. And apparently won’t be anytime soon.
Given he was a horrible chair and human being to a lot people at the university, I’m glad karma has whipped around to get him back!
It’s a program that is going to continue to draw talented students, for a variety of reasons. It’s too bad they are so very poor at picking the people to teach those students.
I’m an alum, and when the School of Music sends me a fundraising appeal, it goes directly into the trash.
While I had a very good experience there (we possibly play different instruments), intra-departmental drama is nothing new and is something I saw some of even 20 years ago. My own major professor and the former dean hated each other’s guts and said dean would not promote my teacher to full professor, so that promotion only happened after the dean had retired, though it was well deserved much earlier. Of course that type of drama is inconsequential compared to the bad behavior by some of the faculty referenced in the post here.
He and his contact information are still on the website (and the page was updated on October 29th).
https://smtd.umich.edu/profiles/scott-piper/
Looks like the update on his directory listing was to remove the “Norma L. Heyde” named professorship.
U Michigan is also currently being sued for racial discrimination by two former faculty members in the Music Theory Department.
https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/52540197/Mukherji_v_University_of_Michigan_et_al
https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/51946420/Satyendra_v_University_of_Michigan_et_al
To be fair, Michigan hasn’t hushed up anything in this case nor ignored the situation. He was called out with an official complaint, there was a process, and now he’s suffering the consequences. But, I’m never surprised by the headlines on this blog. More accurately “Michigan Holds Professor Accountable for Inappropriate Behavior”
And there is this from Indiana: https://specials.idsnews.com/sexual-abuse-iu-jacobs-music-school/index.html
David Daniels was also a student of George Shirley. When is he going to be held accountable for recommending two of his former students to teach at UM (no way they get hired without his support) who turned out to be perverts? And many people knew about both of their proclivities, so I find it unlikely that George was unaware of what everyone else and their mothers knew for a long time.
And the university kissed George’s ass right and left last spring. He was the featured speaker at the SMTD commencement, they held a huge 90th birthday party for him and hosted the annual George Shirley Vocal Competition. Sadly, he has ruined his incredible legacy and they need to move on from him.
This is a truly insane comment. Think of how many years he has been teaching and how many students he has had. Do you really think he has to be held accountable for his students’ actions? Would you like to be liable for the actions of your coworkers or former teachers? Get a grip. Professor Shirley didn’t personally appoint these guys, and your comment shows that you know nothing about the hiring process. Shame on you.
us empire in action. fraud, abuse, corruption, waste.
Sexual abuse!!…in Classical music….didn’t see that coming…ha!
Michigan is a dumpster fire of predators and mass coverups.