Berlin Phil oboe’s US class arouses disquiet
OrchestrasA social media activist has circulated a video of Albrecht Mayer, solo oboist of the Berliner Philharmoniker, teaching a class at Ann Arbor Michigan with the use of touch, which is no longer considered acceptable in the US.
There have been 15,000 views and 122 comments in a matter of hours.
You can watch the short video below and here.
Mayer has posted a happy photo (below) at the end of his Ann Arbor class with the caption: Maddie – My most gifted student from my masterclass in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is always a great pleasure to accompany and promote talented young musicians. Good Luck, Maddie!
Oh God……..and then we elect a serial rapist and abuser President.
The original poster of this – Katherine Needleman. From a previous post on this very website, which again focused on her complaining about others:
We first remember this from her [Needleman’s] Wikipedia page:
In 2016, Needleman released a CD of duets for oboe and piano. Upon its receiving a review that contained some criticism of Needleman’s playing,[2] Needleman was caught harassing the reviewer, an oboe specialist. She broadcast the reviewer’s private information over Facebook pages and incited friends and colleagues to send threats and abuse.[3] The influential British journalist Norman Lebrecht describes Needleman’s organisation of an ‘online hate mob’ as ‘reprehensible conduct’, saying she should ‘learn to cope with bad reviews’.[4] The founder of BIS Records, Robert von Bahr, explained that he ‘couldn’t find any trace of Needleman trying to hold back her minions/lynch mob at any stage’, and that not speaking out against about the abuse, at the time or subsequently, ‘speaks volumes’.[5]
Then we remember that she was fired from Peabody for ‘getting into an altercation with a student’, as well as general ‘routine abuse’ towards multiple other students.
Now we see this. What is her main allegation? After turning Carney down for sex, he ‘stopped listening to me while we were tuning’, ‘made faces during rehearsals’ and ‘occasionally blocked my way in staircases’. Really: read it for yourself.
The BSO investigated the allegations against Carney twice, in 2006 and again this year with the help of outside law firms. Needleman’s claims were dismissed both times. Nineteen of Needleman’s colleagues were interviewed for the investigations and did not back her story. Still not content, Needleman now claims that both investigations are ‘biased’ and has taken her story to the media.
In the reviewer incident, Needleman was caught creating fake accounts to make posts attacking the reviewer. This week, similar posts have been found giving unanimous praise to Needleman’s story, including on this website. Comparing the language of the two, the evidence quite strongly suggests they were also written by her.
Needleman is just a bitter nasty person. She knows she is a nobody compared to Albrecht’s sublime playing
I hear almost every Baltimore Symphony subscription program, and to my ears she is one of the best, most interesting principal oboists I have heard in 40+ years of concertgoing around the world. She plays with a nuance and characterization that I rarely hear from others.
Whether she is right or wrong to call out Albrecht Mayer here (and I quite admire his playing, too), there is no need to disparage her playing.
“I hear every concert” that must be because you sit in the principal oboe seat.
I said “program.” I hear about 15 of the 20 or so programs they do at Strathmore every year. The orchestra is terrific, Katherine Needleman is great. And I say that well aware of (and not defending) some of her eccentricities.
Seriously, can’t people separate the artist from the person? The denizens of SD do so for far more unsavory characters in the music world.
The person cannot be separated from the artist, they are one and the same.
Professional flutist here…
Then clearly you are a poor artist.
From the posts here, Needleman comes across as a deeply unlikeable and vindictive woman.
How can anyone support her?
There are problems everywhere she goes but each time she believes she is a victim. Does she never reflect on her own actions?
Her behaviour is very strange. She calls herself a social activist against men, but her own behaviour over the years shows multiple examples of bullying.
This is from a previous SlippedDisc page:
“I can’t speak to the BSO issue at all, nor will I try to. I can speak to Ms. Needleman’s overall behaviour at Peabody, however, which did follow a pattern of breaking other people down. She routinely left her own students in tears, and was hardly kinder to others’ students. I’m not sure what Peabody incident it was that apparently was referenced here before, as there were several, but one particularly egregious one involved her behaviour while acting as a sectional coach for a rehearsal of the school’s orchestra. One of the clarinettists, an adult MM candidate, had her legs crossed in front of her at the ankles, and Ms. Needleman called her out on it and gave her a dressing down in front of the whole group. The student had apparently never, at any time in her training, had an instructor admonish her for this, and is a very fine player nonetheless. Needleman’s tone, true to form, was caustic and insensitive, and caught the player very much by surprise. The student ended up fleeing the sectional, ashamed and in tears. Needleman subsequently tried to insist that the student be pulled from the concert and have her orchestra grade reduced. I don’t know how this last ended up playing out, other than the fact that it ultimately required the involvement of the music director, woodwind department chair, and senior administration. Ms. Needleman was a perennially difficult presence at Peabody, having thorny relationships with students, faculty, and administration alike. I’m not surprised to see her involved in yet another controversy.”
So she tells it like it is and doesn’t take any crap? Good for her.
But if a man makes a joke in a masterclass it is bullying?
Clear double standards. One rule for her, another for the men she attacks. If you support her, it’s clear your standards are messed up.
Must I remind you she shared naked photographs online of a male player as ‘revenge porn’ due to a grudge she had?
She sounds like the Trump of pro oboists!
“Does she never reflect on her own actions?”
She’s probably too busy pegging her husband.
Nineteen co-workers, two expensive investigations. There was absolutely nothing to support her story and then she cried about ‘bias’.
The common, recurring problem in all of this sorry saga is Katherine herself. Her other episodes show her to be a nasty piece of work.
Why does Baltimore keep her given the trouble she causes?
Also how she failed her first-round audition at Baltimore.
Lots of great players don’t get past the first round of a blind audition. It’s not “failure.” I don’t know how she ended up getting the job, but she’s done it quite well for 20 years.
Can you name one great player who finished near the bottom of an audition?
Not “bottom of an audition.” Most people get eliminated in the first round.
I’m not going to name names, because it’s not my story to tell. But I do know of several players who became superstars in the field who either won their first job after taking many auditions – and it’s reasonable to assume in some of those they didn’t advance past the first round – or who got their job after an orchestra hired nobody via an open audition.
Those superstars you refer to did not get a job after finishing behind others in an audition. Failing at a different audition is totally different from failing at the audition of one’s current job, when most of the field placed higher than you. This was the most unusual. The funny thing is, Ms. Needleman always insinuates other people (male players) got their jobs through connections, not on merit. Perhaps her assumption came from her own experience.
And this has what to do with Albrecht Mayer
Needleman edited and posted this video to attack Mayer.
There is clearly something wrong in her head if she believes Mayer deserves to be banned from teaching for making a half-funny joke, while she recently shared revenge porn of a colleague and generally has a consistent history of bullying others, men and women alike.
Thank you for supplying essential context. Can we stop clutching our pearls now?
You can afford pearls??!!!
So Pell, you are saying the Needle is doing the exact same behavior as she criticizes others for doing? How fascinating. Her minions would protect her no matter what, just because they are desperate for someone to exalt. And they are all afraid of her too I imagine, considering they have all seen first hand what she does to anyone that doesn’t oblige everything she speaks.
Ah, Katherine Needleman again. Read the comments on this previous article about her:
https://slippedisc.com/2018/09/principal-oboe-files-metoo-complaint-against-us-concertmaster/
Man hater, clear and simple. Imagine trying to hound a critic out of a job because he gave a criticism of her playing in a review?
Ironically, the word “man” is in her surname.
More appropriately, it should be Needle-prick
Why are comments like this allowed?
Is this the same Katherine Needleman who distributed naked images of a male player from a different orchestra?
https://slippedisc.com/2024/05/exclusive-a-case-of-revenge-porn/
In Norman’s words: “What is at issue here, therefore, is not a man sending inappropriate messages to an unwilling female recipient. It is, plain and simple, a matter of revenge porn, instigated by a jilted lover seven years after the event.”
Did anyone take this to the police? Her actions her were astounding.
Oh, it’s coming…….. and it will be harsh.
David, get therapy.
If they both just left one another alone there would be no issue. Every time he is brought up and referenced on her page he makes a post. Every time he makes a post, she ignites her fanatics to unleash and attack. It’s a vicious cycle of ego and power.
TDS has afflicted you quite badly
Well, we can rejoice. Biden’s time in office is approaching an end.
Serial rapist? According to who? And what does that view have to do with this posting?
Hard to make out much of that, let alone see what he was doing, but the gist seemed to be that there are circumstances when a good teacher wants or needs to touch the student to illustrate how to do something, and not to misread it.
It’s amazing how things can get turned on their heads. As a student I would have easily discerned the difference between an appropriate and an inappropriate touch, and would have told the perpetrator of the latter in no uncertain terms to knock it off. But the snowflakes apparently cannot, so the slightest illustrative physical gesture is given the blackest interpretation and reported to the higher authorities (ability to deal with adversity themselves being utterly outside their limited list of capacities).
Common sense is all that’s needed (and of course appropriate behaviour).
Needleman has a history for this – search her name online and see what comes up. 🙂
I don’t really understand what is happening in this video. Since we can really only see Mayer in the frames, it looks perfectly harmless.
The video footage does not show him touching a student himself. It seems that he had asked a volunteer from the audience (another student?) to act as “assistant” in doing the actual touching, although the video footage does not show how this was set-up/arranged (the excerpt seems to relate to a juncture where the “assistant” was already on stage, although we cannot see the student nor the “assistant” at any point).
She’s making more money from this type of “journalism” than she’ll ever from music. There is a reason why the student and the “assistant” are hidden in the video. Gotcha! The queen strikes again.
Of course if this was a woman teacher discussing the body mechanics of playing the instrument, including pointing and yes physically handling, there would be no issue.
Forget the fact that he’s the best (even snobby American double reed players can agree). He’s a man. He’s fancy. And he dared to instruct a young player of the opposite sex.
Let’s see the fallout when male players refuse to teach or work with female players. The danger is too great…
I beg to differ- I don’t call anything she does “journalism” and someone even called her a wonderful “writer.” She is a lot of things, but journalist and writer aren’t on that list!
Mayer is perfectly appropriate and seems an excellent teacher. However, the constantly outraged continue to attack all touch, all human interaction and try their hardest to make us all cold, unfeeling robots. Thankfully the tides have already turned and “backlashes” such as these are now few and far between.
why do you spend anytime on her? She has obvious mental issues.
In one of her recent social media posts, she has a picture of a concert brochure that begins with Daniil Trifonov playing Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Barber.
In a rant lasting 100s of words, she complains about there being too many white men in this concert…
And she would ban Wagner, never wants to play his music again — any composer who is not 100% pure in fact, she would gladly cancel.
This may not be as big a tragedy as it seems. Wanda Landowski died decades ago. Yuja Wang is still alive and tickling the ivories. I suspect that the audiences at her concerts have many men of many races there.
A comment about her contained in a previous SlippedDisc article:
“I heard through the grapes that she was also suspended from the BSO in the past for homophobia against a colleague at the BSO.”
Who has more details about this?
“What mighty contests rise from trivial things!” (Alexander Pope)
Piece of (Needle)Work can’t even fathom existing at the level of Albrecht, her colleague Tondre, or any other major orchestral oboist. Instead she pedals feminist tabloid trash on social media, plays in a second tier orchestra and sits in her pity position at Curtis for the simple reason of keeping the institution out of the so called “headlines.” Her major claim to fame is being a warrior for other misfits and classical music rejects.
Nothing to see here.
This is a little bit unfair to the wonderful orchestra that is the Baltimore Symphony, which has suffered through incompetent management and a few other things I am in no mood to discuss further.
It would be of course, absurd to claim that it is a better band than Berlin or Philadelphia. But it’s much better than what this dilapidated city has the right to even dream. And it has its own sound culture, especially in the strings.
I hear them almost every week at Strathmore (wonderful hall, BTW); they may not be Berlin but they are an outstanding orchestra, with very creative programming, and she is great, whatever issues there may be with her character.
This is where I hear them as well.
As for you know who, I wouldn’t call her a great player – I agree with those who said she’s no Mayer or Tondre or Woodhams. But she is a good player, got to admit that…
Based on her social activism, your use of they/them is very confusing here.
music schools and med schools need mental health counseling.
I believe we should go even further and ban all touching in dance.
Why limit it to dance? There needs to be signs everywhere that say: NO TOUCHING!
Especially in relationships.
Reinstate Alex Klein to the Calgary Philharmonic. And BSO needs to stop protecting her; she is bringing up claims that were researched twice and didn’t find problems. It’s disparaging to the organization!!
You can’t be too careful. No touch, no issues. A lot of men think women are ok being touched, and let’s face it, most of them aren’t. And I don’t blame them.
Checking Katherine’s Facebook page and reading her unhinged posts have told me everything I need to know about her. She clearly has issues. Those selfies doesn’t show a sane person.
“Tactus sine consensu” (Touching Without Consent) is the school motto of the University of Michigan, from the music department (pled guilty sex offender for life) to the sports department ($490M settlement).
Dr. Nassar did more than touch. He probed.
It’s ‘probe’ the German word for ‘rehearse’?
Nassar: That was Michigan State University! Not university of Michigan. Two different schools. The masterclass above was at the University of Michigan.
I am more troubled by the photo than the video.
1) Do teachers always announce publicly who their “most gifted student” is?
That’s a sure way to lose your other students and put pressure on your favorite.
2) Is it damning praise to be named the most gifted classical oboe student “in Ann Arbor, Michigan”?
Gee, thanks, that’s like being named the most gifted jazz flute student in Tübingen.
3) Finally, doesn’t it look like he’s trying too hard to be PC and DEI?
I believe it might be a linguistic thing…. I think he is using “most” like: “today was a most happy day.”
I agree. The word “most” might be synonymous with “very.”
2. The University of Michigan is located in Ann Arbor and widely regarded as a top U.S. music program, along with Juilliard, Curtis, Colburn, NEC, Northwestern, Rice, and Indiana. They have fancy faculty and you can find their graduates in all the top American orchestras.
What a bunch of disturbing comments these are focussing on Katherine Needleman, the messenger, instead of the inappropriacy of what happened in this masterclass involving pedagogue touching students, comments made about his ‘being married’, ethnic comments made about jewish people – maybe explain how any of these items are okay instead of engaging in a ‘kill the messenger’ level of child’s play.
Perhaps because of her previous bullying behaviour?
Now that you have brought it up, I recall reading ethnic comments Katherine Needleman made about Chinese people. None of her fans spoke out against that. I wonder why?
Yes. This is apparently the misogynistic hate page. This explains a lot.
To the European viewer, this seems to be a very normal lesson, where nothing inappropriate occurs.
Until he teaches the oboe d’amore…
Mayer’s method of breathing is inappropriate for the simple reason that in a master class situation where you are seeing the student for the first time, you are not in a position to begin imposing your method on a student, whose bodies mechanics, physiology you know nothing about. Often the belly method for female students is a poor method for the simple fact that the lumbar curve in a woman extends over three vertebrae as opposed to two in a man, to allow for a more flexible spine during pregnancy. (Whitcombe, Harvard Univ.) Never teach breathing in a master class. You are in a situation where nerves play a big factor unlike a private lesson.
The same vitriol was spewed upon the oboeauthor of “Mozart in the Jungle”, Blair Tindall. She too was asked to feel her male teacher’s belly. This was the 80’s at the North Carolina School of the Arts.
maybe better breathing can help those nerves?
Mayer was not “imposing” anything; he was suggesting an approach he has found effective through many years of study and performance. That cumulative knowledge is precisely why he was invited to teach the class and he would be remiss if he did not dispense the maximum amount of wisdom possible upon those young players, all of whom were clearly eager to benefit from his lifetime of learning.
Music making involves a great control of the body. In a lesson touching certain parts helps the student a lot, and asking another student for help is common technique to avoid ambiguity. But the student must always been asked for consent to put him/her at ease and in control. I’m missing AM asking for permission. His remark about “beautiful” is absolutely unnecessary and unprofessional. This puts a student in a box and he probably would not say that to a male player. I’m wondering how he speaks to students that does not meet his aesthetic taste.
Alexy, what your comment and many others here seem to indicate is that European masters should cease teaching master classes in the United States. Many oboists have already done so, most notably Hansjorg Schellenberger (Albrecht Mayer’s predecessor as first chair in Berlin). It is just not worth it to go to your country, devote their best knowledge and experience to the betterment of your students, and be treated like a sexual pervert for doing so.
All human interactions (“all”) require a degree of trust and good will. However, you indicate that in your country anything a person does, say, comment on, exemplify, demonstrate or imply can and will be used against them, and that absolutely everything a male instructor ever talks about can be traced to an insatiable desire for sex if only you are creative enough to find that thread.
Sadly, and since a lot of Americans I know are silent about this abhorrent discussion, you lend the idea that “all Americans” have gone anti-knowledge, anti-science and multi-hating. You must know this is not fair to your own country and culture. But that, I am afraid, is how you guys come across to us across the pond, as a bunch of loonies with dirty minds and repressed sex lives who see sexual perversion everywhere.
Fascinating. The aura of self-satisfaction and superiority soars off the screen.
Enjoy your sinking ship in Europe. We ain’t bailing you out this time around.
Should teachers stop giving classes? Or have all cameras removed because something like this will be seem as some as inappropriate? As an older man myself, it’s very difficult to know where to draw a line. I didn’t see him touch anyone in the video. His arm is around the student in the photo and maybe that’s too much? Sad it’s come to this. I’m not going to leave my house.
If you don’t know where to draw the line, stay away from young women, please.
She’s a jealous fury. She even takes a swipe at U-Mich Professor Nancy King for dining with Mayer and his colleagues. Needleman can’t hang with the cool kids, nor can her legions devotees, so this is what she resorts to.
I stream the Berlin Philharmonic, and Albrecht Mayer’s playing stands out as wonderful even in that fantastic organization! It’s a shame we have to criticize experienced people like this while our elected officials are sexual criminals; is there no rational middle ground?
No, not in the USA. That’s for sure. I’m surprised Mayer even agreed to conduct his masterclass in the US, so fraught with victimhood and outrage is every music school. Perhaps things aren’t any better in Germany; that might provide a clue.
Since I studied in Germany, I can tell how things are here. The rector of the Munich Music Hochschule saw prison time for charges of sexual harassment. Br-Klassik.de (Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, head conductor Simon Rattle) 17.04. 24 reports not only on the fact that he has to go to jail, but quotes from the Spiegel magazine that sexual abuse at German music conservatories is worse than generally assumed. “You have to have sexual intercourse and then you would play better”, a remark of a professor during a student’s lesson.
Over a period of 40 years as a solo player in various orchestras, I experienced things that would never fly in the USA. During a rehearsal of Fledermaus, the orchestra was told by the head conductor to stay in their collective genital area for the duration of the 3 week rehearsal period. You can’t make this stuff up.
I stream the DCH and I much prefer Jonathan Kelly to Mayer. There’s something weird about Mayer’s sound, it’s unlike any other oboist I’ve heard, and instantly recognizable but I don’t care for it. Technically and musically he’s great. Maybe it’s a taste thing but he and Kelly are very different and I definitely prefer Kelly’s sound. At any rate, I don’t think any of the other wind/brass principals have such different playing styles as the two oboes and it’s a shame Kelly isn’t talked about as much, he’s fabulous too.
USians are bizarre.
We are certainly a unique people. Wouldn’t have it any other way!
Needleman presents women as weak and worthy of pity against a malevolent male society, inciting gender-based hate. This is not “social activism”, nor does it help women. This is about HERSELF, her frustration in never making it into a top job. She USES the women issue as a shield so she can spread her hate around unchecked.
On the contrary, women are not weak. They are powerful and can surely climb above social nemesis. What we ought to fight for is EQUALITY. Not hate.
No; she uses the ‘woman issue’ because one entire side of politics has used it for the last decades – having precious little else in the tool-kit. The people have, er, woken up it seems!!
You mean the misogynists, right? Lots of them in this group.
Nope. You’ve been swinging and missing all over this blog; perhaps you should find something else to do?
Low resolution dichotomy. And is this the only reason an activist feminist is being criticized here? Judging by the commentary I’m not seeing that.
Aren’t women inherently special and superior to men anyway?
Any ideologue or group even suggesting that one entire half of the world population is superior to the other deserves a flogging at a general election. Oh, wait….
When people are handed jobs, as opposed to earning them through an audition, they tend not to appreciate their positions or their colleagues.
Shame on the Baltimore Symphony!
This is a false statement about K. Needleman. Defamatory as well. An attempt to go after one of the top oboists in the world because she is trying to expose a cesspool of behavior in the classical music world that is slowly, but surely, finally being prosecuted with many going down.
I don’t think Needleman can justifiably claim defamation against anyone, because defamation just happens to be the underlying carriage of her entire so-called “activism”.
Sadly, and if one would consider the plight of women (and others in vulnerable circumstances), at this very moment there are real cases of abuse, rape, discrimination and feminicide happening and which will go unchecked because of silly distractions like this.
Needleman’s blog and page are not about women, but about her anger anger at not receiving the recognition that others – including many women – earned in the oboe world by practicing hard and reaching for higher standards. It her way of vomiting her self-loathing at being incapable of competing where it really matters: how one plays, and – most important of all, and something she never seems to understand – what music is.
How is that a false statement? She didn’t/couldn’t get out of the first round of the Baltimore audition. Many oboists were there and can attest to that. It is not defamatory if it is factual. Eugene Izotov was the one who won the audition.
Katherine Needleman joined the Baltimore Symphony in 2003. Eugene Izotov became principal at the MET in 2002 (IIRC the audition was in June) and it seems highly unlikely that he would have auditioned in Baltimore after winning the MET. In any case even if he won it, apparently he didn’t take the job so someone else did, ultimately Ms. Needleman.
And it’s by no means unheard of for an orchestra not to hire someone in an audition, and then end up hiring someone who didn’t “win” or even audition.
Ms. Needleman had two teachers working in her favor. One was on the audition committee, and another was a close friend of the chairman of the audition committee. After her failed audition, for some reason the music director vetoed the appointment of Mr. Izotov, so the position was left open. Mr. Woodhams proclaimed to the chairman of the audition committee that Ms. Needleman was a top talent in the country and was ready for any top job, that’s how Ms. Needleman got the job. Other people who auditioned and finished ahead of Ms. Needleman (most of field actually) didn’t get such backing unfortunately.
Students of Dick Woodhams are all over U.S. orchestras. Just as in an earlier generation students of John Mack were. It’s probably not the first time a well-placed call from one of them helped their student land a job or get into a final round. And Curtis students generally do well in terms of landing jobs.
Eugene Izotov was either in his first year as principal at the MET at the time of this audition or he auditioned for both in fairly close proximity; whatever the timing he surely would have taken the MET over Baltimore if that was the choice. So “they hired KN over Izotov” is surely false.
Woodhams did not help his male students in any way like he helped Ms. Needleman. In fact, Woodhams called Lorin Maazel and tried to put Needleman in the NY Phil job, after his other student Liang Wang had already won the audition. He clearly favored Needleman over his male students.
Izotov won the Baltimore audition but was vetoed by Yuri Temirkanov. That had nothing to do with Ms. Needleman. The position became open after that, which is when Ms. Needleman’s teachers worked their magic.
Needleman and his “teacher” thought she was good enough for the New York Philharmonic? Wow. Anyone who has heard both her playing and Liang Wang’s playing would easily recognize the completely different levels of their musical abilities. No wonder she saw the #MeToo movement as an opportunity to gain the attention she always craved, since she was just a no body in the music world before she began attacking famous musicians. So many of her sour loser followers just copied her actions… wow…
Needleman made a post bragging about how she got the job with the headline— :
“I am finally going to talk about my hiring despite having previously decided to not address it. I didn’t think it was worthy of being addressed because no one talks about how these men got their jobs, or how any of the BFM get their jobs. I felt it was insulting to have to defend myself as if I am somehow unqualified. I had preferred to let these assholes waste their time spinning their tales about how I was hired while I myself acted like the men who are just simply entitled to their chairs without question.
Of course, I want to tell you now that there was a blind audition, and I won from behind a screen, and they were surprised to see little 100-pound, 5-foot-2 me walk out because I had been breathing like a man from behind the screen and wearing flat shoes. “
She also likes to brag about what a privileged white rich lady she is because her husband is anesthetist.
I don’t know how she ultimately got the Baltimore job but there was an audition at some point.
And there are lots of principals in American orchestras who didn’t win their jobs through regular auditions; why single her out?
20 years later it’s clear that they made a good choice – I hear her regularly and she’s terrific, whatever you think of her activism.
“She is terrific”, based on what? Have you ever heard another oboist play? How does she compare to Woodhams, Mack, Tondre, or to the brilliant virtuoso Nancy King whose studio welcomed Albrecht Mayer? How can you possibly say Needleman is “terrific”, and how does that fit into this conversation about Mayer?
Activism is about results, not rhetoric. Needleman is not an activist but an impostor. She wants attention, which indicates she herself is unhappy with her own playing – raising questions about why would you be so adamant she is terrific. So she turns to slandering others and causing a stir so she can feel better with herself under the illusion that she is bringing major players like Mayer down to her level.
How many women has Needleman ever hired, or caused to be hired? None. She is fake and works against us women. Ironically, Needleman’s “activism” raises suspicion and repudiation from employers, concerned that by hiring women – or Needleman herself – they will be opening their doors to this level of bad news and public rejection.
Stop and think about it. Observe what is going on between the lines in this and several other blog entries where her “activism” is mentioned. You will see that Needleman’s “activism” causes more harm than good for women in the music industry, putting us in a bad light, victimizing us and denying us the fruit of our hard work, labeling us potential trouble makers because Needleman – who herself is incapable of embracing excellence – makes it look like the only way we women can ever succeed is by raising the gender discrimination flag, that we too, like her, are incapable of earning a job. That is the ultimate result of her “activism”.
Needleman is an impostor. She does not speak for women.
This is an excellent response. Thank you.
Well stated, Moni. This type of “activism” creates a culture of fear and paranoia within an ensemble, because the unspoken presence on stage of a “snitch apparatus” creates distrust and resentment among musicians.
As to your question regarding “how many people [she] has hired/caused to be hired,” I do not have an answer, but I would like to know if there exists any woman whom she caused to be fired?
Regarding your allegation that “she wants attention,” I will remind people that not too long ago, she publicly bandied about the idea of monetizing her “Queen of Filth” moniker(I feel unclean even having written that) into a 501(c)3. Embracing that kind of language is not “empowerment,” or “taking ownership,” it panders to the least common denominator and leaves many women feeling diminished.
This is just… bizarre. I’ve seen posts about her here before. She seems hellbent on taking someone down. Anyone. Whatever her anger is, I’m not sure. Obviously, there is a serious and ongoing issue with abuse in this industry and everyone knows that.
At any rate, for singers, touch is an absolute part of learning and teaching. Of course, you ask beforehand. I can recall over years of being in the studio with my singing teachers that I would ask to touch THEM, in order to feel how the breath worked or if there was tension in the jaw and tongue, many reasons. Multiple instances of teachers showing me how to expand lungs, low breathing, etc.
As a singer you’re going to be touched ALL THE TIME, in rehearsals, during costume fittings, performances. Obviously, it’s not sexual in nature, it’s workplace and acting. You will quite literally be enacting rape in some cases.
If you can’t touch or be touched in the performance world, you will find it impossible to get or hold jobs.
I didn’t find the touch to be an issue in this video. He was clearly cognizant of the danger and asked a girl in the audience to help so he wouldn’t touch the performer. I did find his commentary to be cringey and weird. The “tall beautiful daughter,” was a bizarre and useless analogy that could be chalked up to being old and out of touch, for example.
59 is old now? Do hold that thought, Ben!! In the meantime, look back at some past footage of the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics!
“If you can’t touch or be touched in the performance world, you will find it impossible to get or hold jobs.” – what kind of Neanderthal philosophy is this? It’s 2024, man.
Wtf are you even talking about? Are you seriously suggesting that actors and singers aren’t going to be touched in the process of production, rehearsal, and performance? Do you even know what happens in a theater? DELUSIONAL.
Isn’t it fun that a bunch of men are saying it’s ok for an old man to touch or direct the touching of young women? And it’s really ok when it’s someone who is a celebrity or of that status. They can just grab them by the pussy, I guess. You voted for it. And they’re saying this is how it’s always done. So that makes it ok. Maybe some cluefulness, thoughtfulness, and introspection would be helpful here. In a country that elects an abuser as its leader, it’s hardly surprising that this type of behaviour is considered ok. We can and should be better.
You mean to balance your clueless and thoughtless comments?
Yes. The level of pure ignorance, and self righteous hate is astounding. I now have a better idea of how stupid it is out there.
This post and discussion are about Albrecht Mayer and his historic master class at the University of Michigan. And whether visiting artists may take photos with students (gently hugging) to be used in the students’ own social media pages, btw.
Under this light, are you insinuating that Mayer grabbed the student by the pussy? Do you have any evidence of that? Is it seen in the video provided?
Are you a liar? Do you approve of misleading information?
Do you fancy to lie about people in this blog in order to pretend to gain some intellectual advantage?
This is a US thing. US does not mandate cultural norms for the rest of the world, especially in music. Needleman has zero awareness of that.
This post is missing any context.
Read Katherine Needleman’s Facebook posts for yourself, they are witness accounts from people who were there! Speaking as someone who was in that room for this masterclass with Albrecht Mayer, it was extremely tense and filled with discomfort and disbelief. Not only was the pedagogy outdated, but comments about the women and their appearances who performed for the masterclass was disgusting. His racist comments about Asian communities, German communities (he himself is German), and blatant anti-semitism with attempted justification because “he has Jewish friends”. Strange comments about Donald Trump knowing full well he was on a very liberal campus were also not taken well. This class was painful to sit through, and this student above did not even play for it. He was particularly brutal in his methods for correction, and most shockingly made a student sightread a movement of a concerto that was not even listed on the program. When told this, he simply said “I don’t care, you will play.” And to wrap things up, this vile comments about Katherine Needleman are just downright vile. The blatant sexism there is abhorrent, we aren’t talking about Needleman’s past in this, trying to distract people from the current problem while belittling a woman for speaking up against stuff like this is absolutely deplorable.
If you think the comments here about Katherine Needleman are “just downright vile”, how would you describe her comments about other people?
Yet she does nothing but bring up people’s past! All we hear is you saying, “BUT, BUT, BUT……!!!!” And you wonder why Trump got elected again. Wake up, buttercup.
Criticising the actions of a woman is not the same as sexism.
I for one, know firsthand many of the women that she has silenced, deleted, blocked, screamed at, and ignored, all because they chose to come forward and give actual first-hand information about one of the topics being featured on her childish page. For someone who is supposed to be supporting and promoting women, when it comes down to it, she actually treats women much worse than men. So all the women that I know that have told their stories, I see you, I support you, and I thank you for actually telling the truth and trying to get the real stories published rather than vitriolic narrative that all of these mentally unstable followers, then sit there and pluck away at their keyboards, crying and screaming from their safe space, thanking “you know who” for her hard work.
Exactly. She blocks women on her page who disagree with her. Or she sics her mob to silence them. She is not pro-women, she is only pro-Needleman. As a woman myself, I find her intolerable.
She had a grudge against another player and shared naked photographs of him over the internet.
Why are you sticking up for her?
There are multiple examples on these pages showing her as a bully. People need to be protected against her, not against Albrecht Mayer.
thank you for this… a voice of reason.
So the voice of reason is Ms St John spewing “fucktard” and Rae Rae Messenger exclaiming “FUCK OFF” when they don’t like what they read? Got it.
Are you done?
The Needle has her own collegiate history of highly inappropriate language, including a more recent stint where apparently she was reprimanded and put on leave for using a homosexual slur against her own BSO colleague. I didn’t see a certain Rae Rae, raging against the world for that, whilst having a foul mouthed meltdown for being a 9th rate trombonist due to men. Interesting though, she likes to call out other orchestras for having their members not speak out publically against their own members; what must the Baltimore Symphony players and their HR have to say about their problem child? We are hearing silence from the BSO…maybe it’s time for them to start talking publically.
It’s been my observation, over many decades, that musicians tend to be exuberantly affectionate with their colleagues. It is the consequence of having a spiritual connection to them when they are performing.
In a world, filled with politicians who govern below the waistband, the public has become cynical about everything, even innocent behavior in the music world. Sometimes, an instructor has to touch the student to make a point. Not every gesture has a sexual motivation, unless we are speaking of a certain well-know abuser(s) in the USA.
I am willing to take the illustrated example as an example of the former, rather than the latter. Music-making creates a special bond, leading to a state of happiness and spiritual fulfillment for everyone, performer and listener!
I don’t think you needed to mention Bill Clinton. That’s yesterday’s news. And if his wife didn’t have a problem with her man being a serial abuser……
You know, quite well, I was referring to the present set of politicians in Washington.
We have seen many if not dozens or hundreds of comments on minority hiring from this person. Ms Baltimore rages against every orchestra for not hiring more minorities, preaching to the rafters at the wonders of a percussionist that has a storied past and with whom she has likely never worked, yet in her very own section, a once fine oboist Shea Scruggs, didn’t get his tenure. Based on her one vitriol, he should have been hired on his skin color alone, yet he went to the same institution of music that’s she did. Could we please get a female and minority commentary from the Baltimore Symphony on how their hiring, and social interaction have played out? Oh, rumor has it she also doesn’t get along with her newly appointed section mate who also happens to be female….cat fight. REAAAWWWR!!!!!!
All the Baltimore oboists have been there at least 10 years, Hooper was appointed in 2014. Unless you consider that “newly” I’m not sure what you are talking about.
The Needle (as I call he)has been harassing me since I posted what I thought was an amusing tale on facebook about my experience with a young Austrian orchestra.I have been called a rapist/ a liar
( she wrote that i never played English horn in the Israel Phil and i had to produce a letter to prove I indeed had with Maestro Zubin Mehta) and her mob have even contaminated my youtubes with negative remarks …i consulted an Ametican attorney about suing her but the laws in Maryland are very difficult and the fees would be costly.She also was irate that the Int Double Reed Association allowed me to perform at their 2023 conference in Thailand and also misleadingly wrote that the Howarth oboe company of London sponsored my concert this past April at the Royal Academy of Music in London* they didnt).
I almost expected her and her mob to protest my concert with the Camerata Neukomm 29 Oct in my hometown of nyc but fortunateky she didnt show up.
It Is reassuring to se others come forward in this space to back a great oboist musician and human being– remember his vídeo broadcast diring tge Covid criais? — Albrecht Mayer
Interesting – and rather troubling – how this quickly became a “Hate on Katherine Needleman” thread. Very little discussion of what did/didn’t occur in the Albrecht Mayer master class.
I know Katherine Needleman has a reputation for being difficult, but 1) she’s a great oboist and 2) she speaks for a lot of women who have experienced toxic work cultures in the music world. She would be wise to be scrupulously accurate in what she posts, but she stepped up to play a role that someone should.
So…does anyone else have something to say about the actual master class?
No one talks about the Mayer master class because there is nothing to talk about. Nothing is more normal than visiting teachers and students hugging and taking pictures for social media, and wind teachers talking about muscle use in public under cameras. Only a very dirty mind would believe Mayer intended to physically take sexual advantage of the female students at UMich by instructing them the proper use of their diaphragm.
As for “she’s a great oboist”, you probably never heard her play, nor have any comparison in mind, nor heard any other oboist play. Needleman’s technical control of the oboe is akin to our French middle school oboists. I doubt she is capable of playing even the first-year entrance exam to the Paris Conservatory – at least no recording exists, that I know of, of Needleman playing all Silvestrini Etudes. If you want to say she is a “great oboist” you need to start from “what a great oboist is” – like Mayer, Holliger, Tondre, Schellenberger, Hunt – and see if there is anything whatsoever that can be worthy of comparison between them and Needleman. You won’t find any.
What transpires from all the information, dirty minds, exaggerations and venom coming out of this discussion is that Needleman sees herself as a failed oboist who hates herself for not coming to a higher standard and then uses (“uses”) her blog to attack any oboist – preferably male but also some female ones like Nancy King who hosted Mayer at UMich – whom she thinks are superior to her. This is a psychological issue, not a gender one. We are watching Needleman commit great harm to herself and her career, and if you support her you should guide her to stop being made into the laughing stock of the music world.
I hear most Baltimore programs and I know oboists. For me she’s one of the most interesting players out there. I didn’t say she’s the best, but she’s very good and ad hominem attacks calling her a “failed oboist” or such are out of line.
This is quite disturbing and frightfully eye-opening to see so much information coming forth about a person who’s supposed to be stopping bad behavior and information coming forward. How about we call on the Baltimore Symphony to open up their files to prove to the world there has been no wrongdoing? Are you listening to us Baltimore Symphony? Are you listening to us members of the Baltimore Symphony oboe section? Are you listening to us Baltimore Symphony wind section? Are you listening to us Baltimore Symphony administration? We deserve the right to know! And then all of this information about behavior with students? Are there students that have had abuse thrown upon them by this professor? Curtis Institute of music, are you listening to us? Peabody Conservatory, are you listening to us? Free yourselves of the burden of your silence to victims.
This tells us everything we need to know about that whack job:
She did not take to her airwaves to congratulate either Erin Hannigan or Liz Freimuth for their most recent appointments to the Rice faculty.
She’s jealous, mediocre, and a phony.
Jealous of what?
And why you think she is obliged congratulate EVERY woman who gets a job in the music business?
Well, I looked up Erin Hannigan and I see that she is an oboist, so yeah, she seems like someone who would very much be on KH’s radar, and someone she might congratulate for her professorship at a major music school. And Liz Freimuth plays and professes French Horn, which would seem to click with Needleman’s theme of Women in Winds.
Let’s face it. Orchestras have become testing grounds, not for musicality often, but for who has graduated at the top of his class, oh I forgot, or her class in playing otherwise no one that’s technique. As a country, we are faced by what I cannot mention in a negative way because that might hurt someone’s feelings it’s about Dictatorship, etc. , As a planet, we are rapidly dying, no one seems to even be aware of it let alone do anything about it, except it on the nightly news we got one or two mentions of this might be related to climate change, and as a social society, the perennial Puritan, fear of life, and the advocates of life, such as the American Indian who’s bringing the corn to the Thanksgiving table we shall be celebrating this weekend, always seems to be worried about is whether or not someone might be touched on the breast accidentally or might be embraced warmly, or might be kissed in a passing manner. This is all disgustingly anti-life, and to the extent that it is heterosexual. Why don’t we turn the whole country into a continent and keep the virgin qualifiers behind the gates and cages of the conservatory of the PA talk, where we simply come , and admire female comeliness. Grabbing, holding, kissing on embracing, these are the things that Support is made of. I dictated this So please excuse any mistakes. The wokeness is on my own.
Katherine Needleman is exposing a lot of pigs in the classical music business. I suspect that makes some people *a tad* uncomfortable.
Oh… KN has personal flaws, you say? Nooooo! Impossible!!
Some wise guy once said “he who is without sin cast the first stone”
I have the feeling she would be a lot happier making beautiful music in a world where women don’t need to be afraid of being raped or fondled by powerful guys in the business. She has taken this crusade upon her, exposing her to continuous hate from, mostly, anonymous hacks like the frequent commentators on this site – for whom no musician living dead or yet unborn – is good enough to match their transcendent sophrosyne.
Grow up, the lot of you!
And go! Katherine!!!
Actually, you are wrong. It is wrong for Needleman (or you) to assume that anyone with an XY chromosome is automatically a woman hater, rapist or worse. She errs in such generalization, and so do you. The reality is that most men in the industry are supportive of women colleagues and proud of their accomplishments at an even, equal level.
The problem with Needleman’s stance can best be disclosed through science and Newton’s 3rd law: “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. When Needleman demonstrates “hate” for men she immediately puts men on the defensive – and that defense can be felt throughout this discussion above. When anyone is “defensive” they will automatically – and sometimes unknowingly – raise suspicions against the people who hate them. This is human, not limited to male or female. The presence of hate is the first indicative that this is NOT about female activism, but something else, as in her own self-promotion and blog subscriptions.
This is why Needleman’s stance is prejudicial to women. The victimization and hate mongering makes it look like hiring women is prejudicial to an organization, which, of course, would be a pity and counterintuitive. She makes the hiring of women become a liability because, God forbid, some time in the future the female employee will use Needleman’s tactics, demand higher salary and benefits or else she will drag the institution through social media humiliation under (false) accusations of mistreatments.
2) There is no need to lie, exaggerate or raise silly issues like hugs in photos after a master class. What Needleman fails to grasp is that there are plenty of true stories out there with women being discriminated against, or worse. You will notice that she rarely talks about this. What she wants – besides the money she makes with blog subscriptions – is to cause shock so she becomes an item of discussion, even if promoting hate.
Needleman is the National Enquirer of the music industry. She thrives on misinformation, and her followers are gullible enough to keep fueling her. This won’t end well.
The people who make up false allegations on her page are pigs. Ugly, disgusting, pathetic, pigs.
One need not even look at the profile photos to find this to be true.
Hey Ricardo! She was cra cra in high school too! Blessings!
Indeed. She was in her 20s. The 40-something married concertmaster knocks on her hotel door in the middle of the night to proposition her for sex. OK, she was a tenured principal by then so maybe not a major power imbalance, but hugely inappropriate nonetheless. His response when she said “No” should have been “Sorry, didn’t read the room. Please let’s pretend this didn’t happen.” And then act on his part as if it didn’t. Any retaliation on his part that followed that incident certainly should have been cause for dismissal. And she is totally right to resent it if management failed to deal with any retaliation on his part.
I don’t know what her motivation is, though that incident certainly could inspire her to think that this is an ugly business, with a lot of cretins. And as one of the comparatively few women holding a tenured principal position in a top-flight orchestra, she is in a better position than most to call attention to it. So while her own behavior might not be 100% above reproach, and maybe sometimes she calls out someone inappropriately, good for her to use her power and privilege to help others not in the same position.
This is false. It has been taken to court and ruled AGAINST NEEDLEMAN.
Plus, she can always say “no”. Men and women have been having sex for as long as the species exists, with men usually (but not always) being the ones propositioning. This is normal, healthy and common, including among orchestra colleagues who reach consensus about it.
How many female student does this activist have at Curtis? Zero! If that was the case with any other teacher, Needleman and her gang would have lynched the teacher to no end.
There is one female student in the Curtis oboe studio this school year (2024-25).
Don’t worry. She will eat it like a rabid animal in due time.
Recently, a teacher who was publicly shamed by this woman and her mob on her Facebook page committed suicide, leaving behind a wife and two young daughters. I hope the family is suing her so that she and her disgusting mob can finally face legal consequences for ruining people’s careers and lives by making false allegations without any evidence. She has been exploiting the #MeToo movement for her personal gain—attracting more followers to pay for subscriptions to her page and raising money—while also attacking other musicians with greater achievements than her own. Anyone who disagrees with her is immediately blocked. Evil and pathetic.
Certainly, she must be happy about this as the globe is a man down, whilst she was just a messenger. How sad. How pathetic. She gets free terms to post what she likes about anyone, and now she and her lynch mob are mobilizing as they don’t like that she is being attacked? Tit for tat. Oh, that’s not a bad word here, lest they come for me for petty slang. Sadly, I can’t attach a photo of myself on this message of my dead black soulless eyes holding a glass or can of some drink to ensure maximum exposure, but you do you….
Oh my God! Who?
OMG. This is shocking. Please give us more information about the suicide Needleman provoked. She has gone too far.
Who was this? How can we support his remaining family considering this vile troll killed this man? How in the F can she get away with this, firstly from people not even knowing what she did, and secondly, to see what horrible wretch she is with her moral high ground. There has never been a bigger lemming than Ms St John trying to piggy back on this trash activism, while trying to promote a camcorder grade docuramma that even Lifetime would pass on, rather than putting that money and support to an organization that could actually help prevent victims, rather than keep these two creating more victims.
Whatever happened to US culture?
It used to be about freedom (including “of expression”), of bridging differences, of coming together, of respect for opinions, a nation formed by a tapestry of immigrant cultures.
Nowadays we see people gaining traction in arguments for divisiveness, including at the mercy of lies and innuendos. Whatever happened to decency, forgiveness, understanding and boundaries?
Katherine Needleman is not an isolated case. There are others, each with their own turf to defend that above reason. Politics has never been worse, and it is no wonder some refer to the USA as a dying empire. Of course, if the in-fighting gets to this level.
There is no evidence whatsoever that Albrecht Mayer meant any harm to students by hugging them for social media photos (no doubt requested by the students themselves) or by teaching a bona fide lesson – in public – raising reasonable issues common to all oboists: breathing. Sure, he didn’t do it with the expectations of current US culture and its no-touchy neurosis, but whoever said a foreign visiting professor needs to necessarily reflect current US culture in order to teach? Mayer taught the way the Germans teach, and THAT was the whole reason for the class. What would you expect him to do? Speak English without an accent? Why the dirty thoughts, where do they lead, and what does it say about the host country?
I am afraid Katherine Needleman is for music what we see happening elsewhere in America. A dissolution of reason, a breakup of basic cultural markings. An acceptance that the old USA has been degraded to a fizzling net of me-better-than-you gangsters.
whadda expect from wasps and us vassals?
How come this woman still survive in this world?
Needleman’s violent hatred of white men apparently isn’t enough to keep her from paying her bills by playing their music.
What kind of teacher would do this to a student, exposing her to international ridicule because she simply took an innocent picture with a stellar teacher? Does she realize how this picture is now a symbol of hatred, and despise, and of everything that is wrong?
And this person teaches at….the Curtis Institute of Music?
Doesn’t the Curtis Institute have guidelines for its faculty, to prevent them from shaming students in public?
And then there are those who say Katherine Needleman defends women. Unbelievable…