A music professor dies after allegation of sexual misconduct
NewsOur attention has been drawn to this incident in Texas, six months ago. It has been mentioned in a discussion on slippedisc.com concerning the dissemination of unchecked abuse allegations against named musicians. In this instance, the claim by social media activists appears to have cost a man his life. At least two of them continue to flaunt the claim on their sites.
The report below was ppublished on KETR.org, Public Radio for Northeast Texas. The internal link leads to the original allegation:
An alumna of Southwest Miami Senior High School, where Guzman worked from 2008-11, publicly accused him of sexually abusing her while she was a student.
A Texas A&M University-Commerce music professor has died. Friday afternoon (May 31), A&M-Commerce president Dr. Mark Rudin sent an email to the university community announcing the death of Assistant Director of Bands Michael Guzman. No details regarding the time, place, and manner of Guzman’s death were mentioned.
Guzman’s death apparently followed a social media post made Thursday (May 30) morning. A former high school student of Guzman’s posted allegations on Facebook that Guzman sexually abused her while Guzman was her band director in Florida. Guzman was band director at Southwest Miami Senior High School from 2008 to 2011. The student, Jackie Rodriguez, said the sexual abuse began when she was 15 years old and continued until she was 18 or 19. The post also detailed emotional and financial abuse.
The email from Dr. Rudin said “We understand this news and the allegations against Mr. Guzman are upsetting. We are committed to ensuring the safety, well-being, and integrity of everyone in our campus community . . . “
The message went on to say “We understand that recent events may also have caused distress . . . concerning instances of sexual abuse. Our hearts go out to anyone who has been affected by such reprehensible acts.” That from the announcement sent Friday. The email also said the university was investigating the matter.
There has been no further conclusion from the university. Police have not been involved. The alleged perpetrator was neither charged nor convicted. If he committed the alleged offences, he might have faced suspension and a jail term. None of the alleged offences carry capital punishment. Yet a man paid for this allegation with his life.
It is crazy that one can get his life ruined or even ended by false allegations by the radical-leftist-mob.
This is exactly why it should be illegal to spread information about “allegations” without solid proof.
I’m talking to you, MeToo-ers & co.
“…allegations by the radical-leftist-mob.” – please can you be more explicit about this allegation.
The young woman chose to make these allegations as a Facebook post, with a photo of her standing next to the man she accused. It could have been a yearbook photo – there is nothing lurid about the pic at all. She gives a heart-wrenching account of what she claims happened, but it’s not a police report, it’s a Facebook post.
The problem is that Baltimore Symphony oboist Katherine Needleman heads a large online mob of angry followers who scour social media for photos of anything which they find objectionable. They share these with her & then host Facebook auto-da-fes against the person accused based on these photos. No evidence, no research, no inquiry. They generally just go after FB posts – usually photos. Needleman’s minions brought Jackie Rodriguez’s FB accusation to her. It was shared it TWELVE TIMES on her page. Needleman responded, with no evidence, no facts, no research and publicly accused the late Mr. Guzman. He committed suicide the next day.
This is KN’s pattern. The auto-da-fes on her page get very ugly. This time, it ended with a man’s death. Men, often in remote countries who did nothing more than post a photo playing their instrument with a couple of male buddies in non-pro situations are accused. They come to the page bewildered, not able to defend themselves in English asking “What did I do wrong?” KN & her mob never explain. They mock, belittle, accuse. It is simply horrible to watch.
Family members come forward. Men who are actually champions of women have been falsely accused.
Other women will try to come forward to defend male colleagues, who’ve been attacked unfairly. They try to explain, from a female perspective how the accusations are wrong. KN & her mob will have none of it. They shut those women down. KN then blocks them from her page.
Once it becomes clearly out of control on her page, KN will step back, let her mob take over & distance herself from what’s going on. She instigates brutal online attacks & then once they’re underway, tries to place herself above it all by making haughty, condescending comments meant to show that she is not involved in the attacks. I’ve observed this over and over again.
This time she’s gone too far. This is online bullying. It resulted in a man’s death. Social media is not a court of law. Katherine Needleman should not be judge, jury and executioner.
I am a woman and I’m all for speaking out against professional inequity & abuse of women. I’ve survived it myself in the music profession. But to Katherine Needleman & her angry mob: this is NOT the way to do it.
Thanks for sharing.
I hadn’t heard of Katherine Needleman until Norman’s article earlier in the week and the serious allegations against her in the comments.
https://slippedisc.com/2024/11/berlin-phil-oboes-us-class-arouses-disquiet/
How can someone so nasty speak out against hate?
“If memory serves, Peabody allowed Ms. Needleman to retain an existing student (perhaps students) until they graduated, but was not allowed any new students. She was certainly routinely abusive, both as a private instructor, as a coach, and as a colleague. She would frequently reduce students to tears.”
Where is this quote from?
Looking through the comments, someone was there at the masterclass and says that the video was heavily edited before Needleman shared it online alongside her unsubstantiated accusations.
She appears to be very deceitful and manipulative.
Wasn’t Katherine also the one who bullied a critic who made a negative comment about her playing in a record review?
Made racist anti-Asian comments against him, called him sexist and tried to get him fired?
Has she responded to any of these allegations? On her page she just seems to play them down as “comments from old white men”.
Do you have an example of these comments? Reports of racism are better made when they don’t begin “wasn’t she the one who…..?”
Aida, you state: “The young woman chose to make these allegations as a Facebook post, with a photo of her standing next to the man she accused”.
That is an excellent point. What abused woman would ever do that?
Did Lara St John ever posted in her Facebook a photo of herself gallantly standing next to the Curtis teacher who took advantage of her?
This point states the obvious: Jackie wasn’t abused at all. She had a consensual – albeit controversial and off-limits – with the teacher, and now is trying to get notoriety off his death.
Jackie is sick.
No. Absolutely not. That is not at all what meant. Jackie was a minor when that photo was taken. By US law, any sexual relation with an underage partner is rape. Full stop.
I pointed out the photo to show that it was the only evidence Katherine Needleman and her mob had that abuse had occurred. It shows nothing more than a woman standing next to the man she’s accusing.
Plenty of abused women ‘would do that’!!
The allocations were pushed by Katharine Needleman, who has a history of accusations as well as poor behaviour.
https://slippedisc.com/2018/09/baltimore-symphonys-two-metoo-inquiries-came-to-nothing/
From a last article:
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.
This came from Katharine Needleman. See her social media pages.
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.”
There’s a term for people like Needleman:
CRY-BULLIES. Obviously it’s all been seen and done before!
Another side-effect of drive-by Needleman.
She previously accused an orchestral musician of misconduct and then started lashing out at other men when her claims were investigated and concluded as having no merit.
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.
Interesting that a person who has chosen the user name “Critical Thinker” seems to assume that allegations of sexual abuse have a political characteristic, and that the said characteristic must be “radical-leftist,” and that, even if the allegation is made by a single individual, that individual is nevertheless a “mob.”
It is true, however, that “false” allegations are contemptible (though also presumably actionable under laws of slander) and can “ruin a life.” And equally true that the truth or falsity of any allegation is almost never known to people who are complete strangers to the situation but reading accounts in news media.
Needleman’s accusations were investigated twice by the orchestra and both times were rejected as unfounded.
What a ridiculous statement! Sexual abuse has had political overtones for years already, or do you live on a different planet and never read newspapers?
These kinds of situations are nearly always He Said/She Said. What kind of “solid proof” do you have in mind?
Okram, you speak as if “he” and “she” are equal parts in a he-says-she-says argument. They are not.
More likely than not, the female party is seen as a victim, with the male party being unable or incapable of providing opposing evidence. There can’t be “solid proof” on what was essentially a private matter. At night it may be consensual but in the morning she can claim it was rape – who are you going to believe?
This opens the doors for man-haters, jealous people and others just after their jobs to raise flair on the “allegations” and have a field day destroying lives.
The accusations here involve a high school teacher and a minor. There is no “at night” or “private matter” in this situation. And why everyone assumes the accuser is lying – where there many instances of such things happening – mystifies me.
Okra why do you keep trying to support Needleman?
What do you think of the revenge porn she spread online of a man she wanted to attack?
What do you think of her anti-Asian comments towards a reviewer?
What do you think of the allegations of suspensions due to abuse and homophobia?
Grow up and stand up for women who are abused by men, as well as men (and women) who are abused by Needleman. If not, you just look hypocritical.
Again, Okram, your biased desire to protect Needleman at all costs informs us that either you are her, or you are vested in somehow clearing her tarnished reputation as an evil doer.
The one-sided allegations you mention fail to mention that there was clearly a mutually-fed relationship between Jackie and Mike. Is that legal? No, it’s not. If that relationship involved sex it would be qualified as rape, but thanks to the impetuous Needleman and her merry cohorts we will never know. You won’t either, and therefore your arguments are a mute point. You can’t claim that the allegations are true if they aren’t contested and if the other side isn’t heard. And now they never will…
You can see here how Needleman’s “activism” denies Jackie the benefit of truth. By pushing Mike over the cliff his would-be victim became the sole bearer of the entire mess. Jackie is now at the center of the issue, and liable to be crucified by the court of public opinion.
It would have been far better if she didn’t disclose this through a Facebook post spreading like wildfire in Needleman’s blog, and instead make a complaint to the proper authorities, be given a chance for a bona fide investigation by Texas A&M at the end of which we would have a semblance of what really happened, and how involved they were. The US system of justice (?) establishes that there one is innocent until found guilty. Well, Mike was never found guilty, so you are acting outside the law by implying he is.
In fact, Jackie’s choice to first go to a public disclosure through social media makes it very clear what her motives were. She wasn’t about truth or justice. She was after blood. And blood she got. In her hands. For that, I call her a liar.
Norman has confirmed I am not Katherine Needleman, who as I have said several times, has the courage to put her own name on her posts – unlike most of us here.
I am not defending Katherine Needleman; I am challenging the Lebrecht mob that is going after her as she calls out bad behavior by men in the music profession. I am NOT saying every one of her efforts is correct or justified, but in this case I take issue with the notion that she drove a man to suicide.
I keep hearing about the “left-wing mob.” A key feature of the American right wing is “personal responsibility.” This man was an adult who took his own actions, made his own decisions. To suggest that her sharing Facebook posts caused him to take his own life is a pretty strong accusation, when no doubt a lot of other factors were behind that.
I am also taking issue with the people who seek to discredit her by denigrating her playing, or how she got her job, as though that is relevant to the merits of her posts. It’s cheap ad hominem behavior.
Why call them ‘the Lebrecht mob’? I am not their leader. Slippedisc mob, if you like.
Can’t have it both ways, Norman. That’s very Chairman Mao/Trump like. Slippedisc IS you. You can control its content.
Not true, Ms H.
Commenters will be commenters. I am not responsible for their content. I am reviewing whether to continue to permit anonymity. Comparisons with Mao are absurd.
Maybe because there have been accusations that were determined to be false, such as those against the Duke University Lacrosse team, a fraternity at the University of Virginia and, of course, the Tawana Brawley case.
What do you think of the “solid proof” where Katherine Needleman shared naked photographs of a colleague because she had a grievance against him?
https://slippedisc.com/2024/05/exclusive-a-case-of-revenge-porn/
Or is it one rule for you and another rule for all men in the world?
Okram asks about “solid proof”.
What solid proof does Jackie have to substantiate her claims of abuse? Nice, friendly letters don’t indicate abuse, even if they may indicate an improper relationship. But even an improper relationship may not necessarily be abusive.
What solid proof does Jackie offer? A stained dress, or bed sheets? Did he purposely give her a bad grade?
No one will ever deny that a teacher should never have an affair with a minor students. That is well understood, and “if” it happened it would have been wrong. However, given Jackie’s choice of words, choice of venue to expose her grievance and career success it is hard to argue she demonstrate the “abused” type.
There are psychological traits that go with abuse, and Jackie doesn’t show any of them. For starters, people who have been abused will never go on social media and blast about it to the whole world.
The following statement is objectively false: “people who have been abused will never go on social media and blast about it to the whole world.”
Tom, who here has said that? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I do not see any poster who has made that statement except for you. Please identify your source.
I’ve long been concerned about allegations without the police and substantive evidence and, even more seriously, the lack of a sunset clause on the statute of limitations. These things are very damaging to human rights.
”People are dying, losing their livelihood, this is affecting men and women, and children too.
It is time we call it for what it is. Katherine Needleman is a criminal, and her blog is a Hate Group acting on several states, bypassing the US justice system and acting as judges, prosecutors and executioners.
This is not something that can be resolved in a court in Baltimore. This is a Federal issue now, and it is up to the FBI to declare Katherine Needleman’s group a “Hate Group”, and cart her to jail.
This is criminal behavior and Needleman needs to answer this in a criminal court. ”
The suicide was after allegations spread online by Katherine Needleman and Lara St John.
Needleman was the same woman who posted a video last week of a masterclass by Albrecht Mayer and tried to accuse him of misconduct too.
She has also made complaints about a colleague that were shown twice to be unfounded.
She herself has been described as a bully by multiple colleagues and students, and has been previously been suspended from teaching and orchestral roles for bullying and homophobia.
She recently had a grudge against a second colleague and spread ‘revenge porn’ of him over her social media.
See the comments here for much more depth:
https://slippedisc.com/2024/11/berlin-phil-oboes-us-class-arouses-disquiet/
The suicide occurred after the ramifications of this person’s alleged conduct began to reveal themselves. Or as the saying goes, as the chickens started coming home to roost.
To suggest that a FB posting shared by Ms. Needleman drove him to take his life is a pretty scurrilous accusation, and also deprives Mr. Guzman – a grown man – of his own agency.
30 May: Needleman’s post
31 May: Mr Guzman’s death
Yes, complete coincidence!
Jacquie’s post was also on May 30. So you really think everything was right in his world on May 29, only for Jacquie’s post to hit FB on May 30, Katherine Needleman to share it, and the next day he takes his life?
Maybe a last straw, but neither Jacquie nor Katherine were obliged to know Mr. Guzman’s mental state and that he would respond almost immediately this way. No denials? No discussions with the Dean at his university? Nothing? The timeline certainly suggests to me that chickens were heading home to roost before either post hit.
Meanwhile, while people criticize Katherine Needleman for re-posting something without appropriate verification, we now have well over 100 comments, many of them alleging – all without verification because nobody could know – that these two posts prompted his action.
Insensitive Okram, perhaps Guzman knew he made a mistake. He knew the relationship with Jackie was out of bounds and he feared for its repercussion.
Okram/Lara, perhaps you have never made a mistake in life, but mistakes are paid for in the appropriate manner.
Are you suggesting that the fine for an improper relationship is the death penalty?
Are you insinuating that this is me? Or some other Lara? Because you should know I am not a coward like all the other commenters on this page and I absolutely always use my full name. I’m sorry that Okram cannot yet do that, whoever it may be.
So, you say “neither Jacquie nor Katherine were obliged to know Mr. Guzman’s mental state and that he would respond almost immediately this way”… this sounds monstrous to me… it is like saying “I happened to run over a pedestrian who was crossing the road in the wrong place, I was not obliged to know he was unable to run”
That’s a preposterous analogy. People get accused of things all. he time – sometimes falsely, sometimes truthfully. They don’t usually kill themselves in response, and if they do, the accuser is not at fault.
Do you know MY state of mind? Maybe your calling my comment “monstrous” would prompt me to take some kind of extreme action. But rest assured, were I to do so, nobody would hold you responsible.
Did it occur to you, Norman, that there might be some truth to the allegations? Nowhere in your post or in the linked article is there any discussion of its merits.
The accusation did not cause his death; Mr. Guzman’s decision to take his own life rather than face those accusations did.
Precisely. The assumption in the article, and many of these posts, appears to be that Mr Guzman was hounded to his death by unreasonable accusations. Yet only he and his accuser know the truth of what happened, and he has chosen to take his life – these are the only facts we have.
Facebook is not a court of law. Assuming the allegations are true, this young woman should have been encouraged to make her report to authorities or to a legitimate news source that would have researched and verified her claims and been in a position to act on them.
Anyone can post anything on FB. Needleman & her mob don’t verify anything. They just amplify anything they see on FB which supports their position. That’s why this is wrong. It’s why it’s libelous. If Needleman wants to use her social media and professional capital to help victims like Jackie Rodriguez she needs to do so responsibly. This was not a responsible act on her part and it resulted in a man’s death. She should be held accountable for that.
For readers: ‘Okram’ was shown in a previous discussion to be Katherine Needleman, who has been driving these allegations, as well as unfounded allegations against many other men.
https://slippedisc.com/2024/11/berlin-phil-oboes-us-class-arouses-disquiet/
The comments in this post go into detail, also describing Needleman’s behaviour, including when she shared revenge porn of someone she disliked.
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.”
I am NOT Katherine Needleman; Norman can verify that if he wants. She is smart enough to refrain from commenting on this site, or unlike most of us, has the courage to put her own name on her posts.
So stop lying, please.
This person is not KN.
She doesn’t post here under her real name. She has been caught posting here under fake identities in the past
Accusations should be given to the police to be dealt with properly. Not given to Needleman so she can share them as her Facebook status…
I believe NL is referring to the spread of allegations and the accused person having no way to defend himself in the court of public opinion. In America, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty: the charges are considered “alleged” until the accused has received due process in a court of law.
Not arguing the facts or evidence of wrongdoing.
Okram, it is VERY naive to believe that “the accusation did not cause his death”.
Did you know him? His family history? Did he have depression? Autism? Was he having marital issues? Was he insecure?
NOTHING grants one the power to drag a person through a social media mud pile. Shame on Jackie. If she has a problem she should follow the proper procedures for dealing with it. Shaming Mike in public is NOT the proper procedure.
I didn’t say the accusation didn’t cause his death; I said suggestions that Katherine Needleman’s sharing the accusation probably didn’t. If he did what this accuser says, I can certainly see that the consequences of his behavior catching up to him – of which the orginal post and Ms. Needleman’s amplification are just one part – prompted him to take his own life.
Neither the accuser nor Ms. Needleman is obliged to know his mental state before posting information about him. That’s the responsibility of him and his family, and his healthcare providers to address.
It seems clear that the purpose of taking this information to the social media was primarily defamation. It nearly seems like a desperate move by your dear friend to avoid a proper investigation.
It is really striking that after a young woman posts about being sexually abused from the ages of 15 to 19, your sympathy is all with the alleged perpetrator who killed himself after his behavior was exposed, and none for the young woman whose life was ruined by him. Your argument seems to be that even if he did it (and as I remember, the allegations were backed up with screenshots and photos) he should have just paid with jail time, and somehow it’s the fault of the victim that her speaking up would lead to his taking his own life. How was she supposed to know that would happen? And by your argument, child victims of sexual abuse should just keep quiet to avoid any harm to the men who took advantage. Given the general level of comments on this site, I’m sure the misogynists will have a field day with this post; but I think it’s shameful, Norman, that you’d take this tone to begin with.
Anne, I am taking this tone as a counterbalance to those who disseminate and give credence to every claim, regardless of whether or not it has been tested by the appropriate authorities. I have, as you kn ow, a long record of exposing and pursuing sexual violence in the classical music world. That said, I have always found it necessary to keep a sense of perspective. Not every alleged perpetrator is necessarily guilty. And not every cleared suspect is necessarily innocent. But nobody benefits from the Salem hysteria that is built up around some of these cases. And if a mano loses his life because of an allegation, proven or otherwise, it would be judicious of experienced people like you and me to step back and reflect.
I’m with Anne, I’m shocked at the tone of Norman’s words here. But maybe I shouldn’t be.
Norman, the victim in this case is not responsible for the “Salem hysteria” that may or may not have built around it. I would also argue that your site is responsible for fully as much “Salem hysteria” as any other site — notably the comments section from which you drew the information for this post, which is as much of a pitchfork-rattling witch hunt as anything I’ve seen on the internet. If you truly wanted to quell “Salem hysteria,” you would stress to your commenters that you will not stand for blatant misogyny and ad hominem attacks; instead, you fan the flames by using their comments to inform another post, and then stand back and disclaim responsibility for what might follow.
As for your implication that I am not stepping back and reflecting, while your posting this kind of thing somehow demonstrates your journalistic detachment, I have to chuckle. On this site, I do not find you generally modeling the kind of judicious restraint you are advising — not even in this very post. My impression is that you often shoot from the hip. An example is your coverage of the Cleveland Institute of Music, where for weeks you were branding the students a “woke mob” and said “the inmates are running the asylum” before you finally realized just how bad the administration actually is, and switched sides, so that now you are attacking (very rightly!) the idiocy of the leadership, but without ever having been held accountable for, or even admitted to, your change of heart.
I heartily agree that judicious reflection is a very important quality in a journalist, especially in #metoo cases. I have only told publicly a fraction of the #metoo stories that I have heard, because those are the ones I was able to verify through proper journalistic process, and I have kept my mouth shut about more stories than you may be able to imagine, precisely because I haven’t vetted them, despite knowing full well that they are true. (In any case I am no longer an active journalist.) On the day that you start vetting everything you publish on this site with that kind of journalistic rigor, then I will take more seriously your quasi-lecturing tone about how you and I, as journalists, need to be judicious. At the moment, it just makes me chuckle.
Anne, Enjoy your chuckle. I don’t think you and I are on the same page any more. Your use of the word ‘shameful’, to give one example, is indicative of the decline in your professional standards.
I was hardly speaking as a journalist when using the word “shameful,” Norman. I was using it as a human being, addressing a colleague who is using his platform to fan the flames of hatred and the very “Salem hysteria” he purports to abhor, rather than doing everything he can to quell it.
If my use of that single word is enough for you to dismiss my journalistic standards, you must not have held them in very high regard in the first place. My suspicion is that it’s easier for you to get on your high horse and dismiss me than actually to respond to any of the solid points I made. I believe you know at bottom that I’m not someone who goes off half-cocked. I also believe that there is a great irony in you choosing to call me out on a supposed weakness of journalistic standards, rather than taking a long hard look at your own.
Great reply Mr Lebrecht. Ms Midgette took it upon herself to damage or destroy careers sometimes based on spurious allegations. She was a key instigator against Daniel Gatti at the Concertgebowe. He should never have been forced to resign. Midgette was a terrible music critic for the Post often revealing a deficient knowledge of what she was reviewing. Her predecessor Tim Page and her successor Michael Bradoeur are so much better in both writing and in knowledge of classical music
Yes, Midgette really is quite hopeless as a music critic.
Bravo, Norman. Thank you.
The problem is: Katherine Needleman drives these allegations online, where nothing needs to be proved.
Her own allegations about a colleague were dismissed.
Some allegations she shares might be true, many are not true. She should leave it to the experts to investigate, not push things herself until people kill themselves.
Are we going to discuss how she shared naked photographs of a man she had a disagreement with? Are you going to condone that?
Suicide is awful, and is also complex, there is very rarely a single factor that causes a person to toe their own life. You have not reported the findings from any inquest into Guzman’s death yet you report your own conclusion of a single cause, laying blame on a women who spoke about abuse and those who shared her story.
Also you don’t seem to have made any effort to report on the evidence to support what that woman has said.
Are you suggesting that women should not speak publicly about the abuse and sexual harm they suffer, for fear of the impact that will have on the men who did those things to them? Or is there a way in which you think it might be acceptable for some women, sometimes, to talk about such abuse? If so, can you share this so it is clear how slippedisc thinks we ought to behave?
For all the words you say, Kate, you can’t justify Needleman’s actions here or elsewhere.
What do you think of the nude photos she recently shared of a fellow musician?
Bullying is not a solution to bullying.
Kate, it’s not Slipped Disc. It’s we, the readers!
We are other women here, who are successful professionals in the music business. We condemn Katherine Needleman’s assumption that she has the right to speak for all of us. We deplore her childish, irresponsible and very public interferences in serious abuse cases of other women, like Ms. Rodriguez. She is causing harm.
Needleman claims speak on behalf of “all women”. She speaks only for herself & her angry mob. They are bullies and cretins. Those of us who truly care about this issue have had enough of Kathleen Needleman.
Speaking about and being the law are two different things. I don’t expect you to understand.
KN didn’t just “speak”. She flat out accused. She demanded jail time for the guy. No, she is not the law & that’s not her call.
She incited a mob of followers into hysteria against this man. They had no evidence but a FB post. That’s not “speaking”, that’s outright vigilantism. Please understand the difference.
Anne, how was her life “ruined”?
We read about a loan co-sign, that she got a job in the same field of her studies with him.
Are you pushing the victimhood theory on her, who came up above ground? The victim here is Mr. Guzman, who was surrounded by unproven “allegations” and had no way out. And by far the greatest loser in all of this is his widow, left without his income and having to raise two young daughters. These are the real victims, while Jackie sails the oceans free.
If (“if”) her “allegations” have any merit – and we will now never know – they don’t appear to have jolted her out of her life’s dreams in the way they have affected other men and women, most notably Lara St. John with her experience at Curtis at a similar age, or men victims of sexual abuse from Catholic priests.
The answer to all this? Legal due process. Proof of evidence. A trustworthy and unbiased legal system. It seems you Americans don’t trust your laws, jump to conclusions based on each one’s particular bias and preferences, or because it happens to be the “issue of the day” on social media. In such a system, no one is safe, and no truth can be found.
Do you expect rape victims to show you the psychological damage they’ve experienced before you’ll believe them?
This has nothing to do with believing or not believing the victim. It’s about using social media irresponsibly in this situation. Online vigilantism is not a solution. It resulted in a man’s death.
Anne – vigilantism is dangerous for precisely this reason. There is a criminal system and process for this.
Katherine (who spread these allegations) has widely been accused of intimidating behaviour against her colleagues and her students, and apparently has been suspended by her employers at least twice because of her actions.
Anne, can you fathom the damage you do to women’s careers and the danger you bring to their lives by making such arguments? Are you able to see 5 feet in front of you?
By your words you support VIGILANTES. That is what Katherine Needleman’s group is. A Hate Mob of vigilantes acting on impulse and not on sound judgment or due process.
Now, if you will, shift that around, and read Newton’s 3rd law, basically, “what goes around, comes around”. By claiming that vigilantes armed by unchecked allegations can push a man to suicide, have you put any thought into your words being used as justification for men to destroy a woman’s life and push her to end her life based on unchecked allegations.
While crimes – against women AND against men – do occur and must be investigated, tried and punished for, it is wrong of you to assume that any accusation coming down the pike from a woman will have validity, because in doing so you empower the worst MEN out there to do the same.
Vigilantism is not the answer. You are wrong. Needleman is wrong. This line of thinking is criminal, short sighted and leads only to societal chaos.
Anne, I am one of your greatest admirers, but as a well respected journalist I know that you research and verify accusations that you make publicly. Katherine Needleman does not.
Yes, you and she are on the same side, but don’t confuse being on the same side with responsible reporting. Citing an online mob to provoke a man to suicide with only a FB post as evidence is not a responsible act.
We are all concerned about Ms. Rodriguez, make no mistake there. Her claims may likely be true. But Katherine Needleman, as a high profile figure in the music world and also an educator of young musicians (Curtis faculty) has no business interceding in this situation in the manner that she did.
If Needleman truly cared about this young woman, or wanted to help, she would have counseled her privately how to make a viable report to authorities who could help her.
But it’s a lot more self-satisfying for Needleman to take a bright shiny FB post with a nice photo of the accused and splat it all over social media with accusations without ever having spoken to the woman or researched the evidence. That’s libel.
From her actions, is it not clear to you, Anne, that Katherine Needleman has no concern for the women she claims to be defending? She doesn’t care a fig about Ms. Rodriguez. If she did, she would have handled this much differently. She is only in this for herself, to call attention to herself. She does this over and over again.
Our sympathies are very much with Ms. Rodriguez. She was twice a victim. Most likely once by Mr. Guzman and very clearly again by Katherine Needleman who has exploited her story for her own personal gain, and provoked a man’s death in the process.
Anne, you’re one of the worthy heroines defending women responsibly. You have integrity, and you behave prudently with the power you hold. Needleman is the exactly the opposite. She is toxic.
Good points!
Needleman doesn’t care about women – see the comments from students who studied under her at Peabody or Curtis.
What wild choices of language in this article – first decrying “unchecked abuse allegations” appears to betray the author’s greater empathy toward the (mostly) men who do in fact victimize so many in our industry rather than to the people who are harmed by sexual abuse. Then, claiming Guzman has “paid for this allegation with his life.” Guzman was not executed by some vigilante mob. He made the choice to take his own life.
I want to give an illustration of how very challenging it can be for victims, particularly minor victims, to hold their abusers to account. A college classmate of mine went on to teach at a middle school level (students roughly ages 11 to 14). About five years into his teaching, he raped a 14 year old student on three occasions. He was arrested, charged, and convicted. I read through a lot of the court filings, including the judge’s remarks at his sentencing. While noting that the man was the adult in the situation and responsible for his crimes, the judge still saw fit to allude to supposed actions on the child’s part that might have served as temptation to the adult. This victim testified at sentencing about how her life was still impacted, three years after surviving this abuse, and yet had to hear some absurd claim that she might have provided some inciting behavior to draw this abuse toward her.
It’s not about the accusations are true or false, it’s the police and prosecutors job. It’s about Needleman and her hate group acting as judges, prosecutors and executioners by manipulating the public opinions. They think they are above the justice system that’s the problem here.
Does anyone think the allegations against Guzman weren’t true? Before the hate mob here gets all uppity, I hope they do a little research and realize that the accusations against Guzman were almost certainly true and a several more women came forward and cited similar stories after Ms. Rodriguez came forward. It’s certainly tragic that he killed himself, but there is little doubt that he was a terrible/criminal abuser of minors/students/women.
It could be the case that both Guzman and Needleman are truly horrible people.
Right. But Facebook is not the place to decide that.
People don’t research. They read what’s Infront and take it as the truth and run with it.
You are 100% correct. He is all of the above
Doesn’t America have due process? Is it still the “Wild West” where anything passes for justice? How can “allegations” be taken as true just because it is a woman who raised them, and how can a family be bombarded by attacks by a vicious hate mob before such allegations are verified?
Jackie’s story raises many questions about credibility and their relationship. While it is clear that any close relationship with any minor is not acceptable and intimacy qualifies as statutory rape, the fact that they co-signed a loan may indicate a partnership, consensus and a plan. That is not abuse, nor is it worth destroying his life.
Ultimately, Jackie’s life was not “ruined”. She got a job in the same field as her…assailant? or… the same field of the person who helped her get there, even if with odd channels worthy of questioning and even condemnation?
What we see is a young woman claiming both sides of the pie: she raises allegations of misconduct through clear exaggerations aimed at causing victimhood. This belittles women in music and presents a legislative problem for America which eventually will have to be solved by laws protecting men against false accusations, further reducing the scope of women’s well being in the industry.
“Ultimately, Jackie’s life was not “ruined”. She got a job in the same field as her…assailant? or… the same field of the person who helped her get there, even if with odd channels worthy of questioning and even condemnation?”:
So the fact that she continued in the field of music in spite of having accused a high school music teacher of sexually abusing her is somehow evidence that she isn’t telling the truth? Really? There is nobody working in any field where one of their teachers abused them? Wow. Who knew?
You think women who say they’ve been raped are liars unless they show you they’re suffering in the ways you expect them to suffer to an extent you find satisfactory?
No. We want Katherine Needleman and her mob to stop attacking people on Facebook. They don’t verify anything, they often attack innocent people, they’ve destroyed careers, families and now they’ve caused a man’s death.
https://www.facebook.com/KatherineNeedlemanOboist
This is the woman driving these allegations. I think it’s clear she is a bully with a serious mental health problem.
Her page is just full of attacks against “old white men” without any seeming reason.
On another post I saw her complain about a recital of Tchaikovsky, Chopin and Barber for being old, white and men.
Or maybe she wants to work in the music field without getting raped or harassed?
And you think that vigilantism on Facebook is the best way to achieve this?
Katherine Needleman is a stain on our orchestra who is more focused on attacking men than making music.
We and many others sincerely hope she can be let go.
She didn’t get past the first round of her Baltimore audition and shouldn’t have been hired in the first place. It is ironic that two white men (her teachers) intervened and gave her the job.
I know you like to post this. It may be true, but it’s not unusual. It’s also not relevant to whether or not the items she shares on boorish behavior by men in the music world are true. If you knew her to have won a completely blind audition (which she claims she did), would you find her activism to be any more credible?
It’s so juvenile of people to try to undermine the credibility of her reporting by saying she didn’t win an audition the right way, when I’m sure they wouldn’t be awarding her any more credence if she had.
It is very relevant. She would have no career if not for her male teacher (Woodhams) going the extra light year for her, which is something he never did for his male students, many of whom played much better than her. She constantly insinuates men got their jobs through connections, not through merits, so it is important for all to see how she actually got her job.
She went to Curtis. Students from Curtis (and Woodhams) generally get jobs, and if she hadn’t gotten Baltimore she would have gotten something else eventually.
That’s your opinion. I’m also a (modest) Baltimore donor. I don’t know her personality or what her colleagues think of her, but I enjoy listening to her immensely.
I believe the only men she hates are the ones in her profession who behave badly. Notably the one who in his mid-40s (and married with children) – and by his own admission – propositioned her in the middle of the night early in her career. It would leave me pretty embittered if that had happened to me and my employer didn’t do anything about it.
If you enjoy listening to Ms. Needleman immensely, I am sure you would have enjoyed the rightful winner’s playing even more, whoever that might have been. Lots of people at the audition played better and ranked higher than her.
It seems as though the Law & Order Lady, doesn’t like it when another website has people commenting and they have no control over others! Astonishing, really!
Ok, this is crazy but, maybe she cares both about making music AND not getting raped or harassed while doing so?
1. Katherine Needleman has never been raped. 2. the only harassment she’s suffered was being propositioned once by the concertmaster of her orch. She said no, he went away. She has tried for years to parlay that one incident into a platform of abuse and workplace harassment.
Enough. She’s made her point. It’s no reason for her to use FB irresponsibly to lead mob attacks on people she’s never met, about situations she hasn’t verified, claiming to defend victims she’s never spoken with. She is exploiting these situations and the victims for her own personal aggrandizement.
Rest in peace.
Whatever the truth, Michael Guzman deserved to have this investigated properly and correctly, not have unverified allegations shared by Katherine Needleman because she wanted to humiliate him.
It should be added that Needleman’s own allegations were investigated multiple times and determined in each case to be unfounded. Blood is on her hands.
They were not determined to be unfounded; there was just not enough found to justify legal/disciplinary action. Jonathan Carney ultimately admitted his middle-of-the-night proposition. Whether he retaliated is of course going to be more a matter of interpretation.
You are re-inforcing the original point.
Needleman’s allegations of retaliation were unproved and unfounded.
https://slippedisc.com/2018/09/baltimore-symphonys-two-metoo-inquiries-came-to-nothing/
Do you seriously want every man who ever asked a woman a date to get fired or kill himself? He asked, Needleman said no, life goes on.
“unfounded” = “not enough found to justify legal/disciplinary action”
And what could ever be the problem, Okram, with one adult propositioning another? She said “no”, and that was the end of the discussion. Points for Carney.
What happened then? Did he insist? No. Did he forcibly enter her room anyway and forced himself on her? No. Did he change his demeanor towards her? She says yes, he says no, and an entire orchestra could not back her up as witnesses. Again, points for Carney.
If you don’t trust the justice system and the investigation that was made, Okram, you should leave our country immediately. Carney won, Needleman lost. Case closed.
Nothing is more normal in adult life than adults talking about, and having consensual intimacy. This is not a crime, neither is talking about it or asking if one is interested in doing it. Transforming this natural human – and animal – activity into a crime is the stuff of lunatics and people with an agenda, like Needleman.
Carney asked, Needleman said no, end of the story.
(And, frankly, lucky him).
It is not the end of the story if, after that incident, he created a hostile work environment. And am I the only one who finds it pretty darn sleazy that a married man 20 years her senior would show up at her hotel room at 3:00 am? That’s not remotely the same as asking someone to go for coffee after morning rehearsal.
It is frequently the case that someone suffers a wrong and does not get adequate resolution from the system. That doesn’t mean something didn’t happen or that she is fabricating a story.
Needleman’s accusations were probed in two lengthy invesigations and nothing was found.
https://slippedisc.com/2018/09/baltimore-symphonys-two-metoo-inquiries-came-to-nothing/
Okram, why are you spending hours on this website trying to support Needleman? You sound incredibly biased.
Do you have any responses to the suspension for homophobia?
Do you have any responses to the nude photographs she shared of a colleague?
Do you have any responses to the racist comments she made towards a critic?
It is quite clear to everyone reading these comments that you are trying all you can to criticise other people, but you refuse to do even the slighted to hold Needleman to account.
I don’t like a mob mentality, which I see here. Also the assertion that a post she shared (but did not write) drove a man to suicide is appalling.
Here’s some criticisms of Needleman’s work:
– Not a fan of homophobia, but don’t recall the post.
– Nude photographs? Not cool – She should limit her flagging of bad behavior to what happens in the work space; a musician who outside of the work environment behaves badly is the purview of law enforcement, but shouldn’t really be fair game for MeToo in the music work environment. But bad treatment of colleagues or students is.
– Yeah, that thing with the review of her recording was also not cool.
I take it case by case. Supporting a woman who claims to have been sexually abused by her high school music teacher – and with a pretty plausible-sounding narrative – doesn’t seem to merit such vilification.
“Not cool”. Favorite Lara St John quote on facebook.
Just saying..
LOL. You “don’t like mob mentality”. That’s rich, considering who you’re defending.
Read the comments here. Members of the orch were called forward to corraborate KN’s accusations that Carney created an alleged “hostile work environment”. No one in the orch found that to be true.
Okram, perhaps you are old, or old fashioned, or has never been on an orchestra tour.
Concerts end at…10pm, then we put instruments away and change away from concert attire, then the buses back to hotel, then people stay in the hotel bar until it closes. And yes, most drink a bit more than they should. And then, YES, by all means it is 2 or 3am and people are wondering around trying to find out who will get lucky that night. And by all means, YES, we hear bedroom doors opening and closing all over the hotel. This is normal, common place, even healthy. What is the problem with people having some intimacy IF they reach consensus?
As for him being married, that is HIS business. It is between himself and his wife, and no one else’s business (that includes you, Okram).
Why must everyone live by your rules, Okram?
Vigilantism is not legal. You have no authority to act as a police officer, judge or jury. That’s what it is.
Examples: you are walking down the sidewalk when a guy bursts out of the bank carrying a bag with money flying out of it. The guard comes out of the door and yells “Stop thief!” You believe this guy has robbed the bank. You tackle him, pin him, and yell for the guard to call 911. You keep him pinned until the cops arrive. You are a hero.
Same situation, except after tackling him, you drag him into a nearby alley, and beat the living daylights out of him while giving him a lecture on the evils of stealing and making him promise he wont do it again. That’s vigilantism, and you could be arrested for battery (criminal charge) and sued civilly for battery and possibly false imprisonment.
The action coming out of Needleman’s controversial group represent vigilantism, and are illegal.
If you’re actually an attorney I would expect you to be aware of the logical flaws of your argument.
Here is another post on Katherine Needleman ‘s page accusing the percussionist of LA Philharmonic David Riccobono of Sexual Assault … you will get the idea of how ridiculous and dangerous her page is…
Facebook should be responsible too for not shutting down her account.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18FZHcFXaT/?mibextid=WC7FNe
Perhaps my Facebook search skills need work, but the link here takes you to the page of the young woman who is making the claim about this person. Katherine Needleman is one of about 15 commenters – she tags the LA Phil, which I imagine amplified it – but she does not share this post on her own page or put a bunch of gold stars on it.
If you take a look at KN’s page you can see she posted it too on her page without any fact checking and also tagged and shamed LA Philharmonic.
OK, I stand corrected; I found it. True, she probably did not conduct a criminal investigation. Rather, she probably assumed – not unreasonably – that a woman who put her name on an accusation like this, instead of hiding behind a pseudonym, was being truthful.
And all she said about the LA Phil was that maybe they should have some women in principal positions (admittedly, she could have acknowledged that until recently many in their top management were women).
The one issue I would take with this post is that the accuser does not appear to be a musician. That doesn’t excuse the LA Phil member’s alleged conduct, but it’s not a case of a musician experiencing a hostile profession.
Interesting thing about her FB page: most of the comments are positive. When you actually have to put your own name on something, you’re less likely to be nasty (I do hide behind a pseudonym, but I don’t level anonymous accusations).
Right. Because she blocks all comments from people, esp. women, who disagree with her.
False accusations of sexual violence against named individuals are extremely rare, according to research: https://research.open.ac.uk/news/false-accusations-sexual-violence.
Worth considering as this thread turns into a witch-hunt against KN rather than a protest against sexual violence.
The reason this turns into a (well deserved) hunt on Katherine Needleman is because she has become the McCarthy of the North American music industry.
Everyone can see it. Few dare to confront it. Most are afraid. Many comment here under aliases. Even her supporters use aliases, except Anne Midgette who throws her reputation in the mud – of she ever had one.
The Katherine Needleman phenomenon is the worst evil to land on the North American orchestra scene in a very long time, but her reign of terror will end just as dramatically as it started. And so will her impositions of women being poor pitiful souls incapable of competing fairly and winning.
As bad as Katherine Needleman is for orchestras, she is FAR WORSE to us women. We are not victims. We are not weak. We are not pitiful. We are strong, we like good company and intimacy and we are in control of our lives. Anyone who tinkers with that freedom is anti-women, and the most anti-women person in this entire story is Katherine Needleman.
I’m glad you don’t feel the need to be defended by Ms. Needleman, but she seems to speak for a lot of women, who find her a helpful source of support. At least that’s what I see on her FB page; her critics aren’t so tough when they have to use their real names.
She’s using her privilege as a tenured female principal in a top-flight orchestra to highlight a problem in the business. I don’t see her claiming that women are weak or pitiful, just that calling out bad behavior and solidarity are important.
In the name of common sense and human decency, we all know this situation is deeply wrong. Why is no one talking about the other victims—the two girls who lost their father and the grieving wife? Does no one care about their suffering or the unfair exposure they’re facing?
Anne, please stop supporting KN and her hate-driven actions. Consider the impact this will have on KN’s own daughters when they come to understand the harm their mother has caused in the name of her narcissism. They, too, are victims of her ignorance and arrogance.
And yet, amidst all this, lawyers are profiting from the chaos. Bravo, KN—what a “remarkable” contribution to society. What a legacy to leave behind. Shame on it all.
Balancing the Narrative?
What does that even mean? As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one thing that matters: the truth.
Let’s actually “balance the narrative,” shall we? Katherine’s post represents only a fraction of the full story—about one-quarter of it. There is ample evidence, straight from the source, that clearly shows everything this man did to her. It’s evident that you either haven’t reviewed this evidence or have chosen to ignore it. Unless, of course, you have seen it and are deliberately twisting the narrative to support pedophilia and to attack Katherine.
You wrote, “Yet a man paid for this allegation with his life.” What exactly are you implying? This man committed suicide. Innocent people don’t typically take their own lives—they fight allegations in court.
Bringing up a painful, six-month-old incident that caused harm and trauma to both parties, just to fuel your mission to “take Katherine Needleman down,” is nothing short of cruel and inhumane.
So, Eun, by your logic – and repulsive psychiatric skills – if Robin Williams committed suicide he must have been guilty of something.
Tell us, Eun, what was Robin Williams guilty of?
You are wrong Eun. Innocent people sometimes consider suicide as an option because they lack the financial means to fight against injustice. I am a woman, and I have personally faced this struggle because of Katherine Needleman. In my darkest moments, I thought: Maybe if I end it, she will stop.
But then I look at my husband, who is suffering, and I find the strength to reconsider. I see my children fighting to stay strong, and I reconsider.
Let there be no doubt—l am a woman who has been pushed to the brink three times because of Katherine Needleman.
I am glad that you continue to persevere and stay among the living. I do not know you, but I hear you, and Your. Life. Matters.
I cannot begin to imagine what the circumstances were that compelled you to consider ending your own life for relief, but I wish that we could begin to have an honest conversation about the following question:
How do we address bullying in the workplace when the bully is a woman?
The Baltimore Symphony is not unique in this regard, and there is no shortage of women in the industry who fit this description.
Many times this behavior goes unaddressed because of an inherent bias that women are victims and(depending on the level of viciousness of the bully) people are afraid for their jobs and/or reputations(through no fault or doing of their own). A well-orchestrated “whispering campaign” is all that it takes to turn the stage into a minefield and make the workplace a nightmare for the bully’s target.
If women want equality and to receive all of the privileges and protections historically afforded to men, then they need to accept full accountability for their conduct in the workplace as well.
Hi Guest,
Thank you for your reply.
Regarding your question, education is the only solution I know. The bully needs to understand that their behavior is wrong. Additionally, the people around the bully also need training to prevent further issues. Education, training, and more education—along with continuous training—are essential. Psychologists, as well as compassionate and disciplined people in Human Resources, play a crucial role in this process.
It takes time. But in this particular case. I really don’t know.
I was a fan of hers at the beginning when this all started, but I no longer am, as her approach has shown to be vicious, self-serving, and just plain wrong. She is a lawsuit waiting to happen.
Suicide is unbelievably complex, a perfect storm of all kinds of factors far beyond the knowledge of even those closest to the person who kills him or herself. I speak from personal experience as someone bereaved by suicide–and the clinical literature on this is extensive. But the fact that remains: in almost every case of suicide (apart from psychotic break / severe mental illness / drug-induced psychosis in which a person is entirely unable to think rationally), suicide is a choice–perhaps the only choice that a person sees as viable, but it’s still a choice. The thinking might be disordered, but it’s still a choice. Life might feel hopeless, but it’s still a choice. This man is dead not because someone accused him of abuse but because he decided to kill himself. Nobody else made that decision for him. To blame ANYONE else is beyond irresponsible–it’s morally heinous.
He didn’t have a choice to properly rectify his actions in this situation before the weight of it came crashing down. He was swiftly and inappropriately publically ridiculed and “canceled” before he even had a chance to respond, basically. That’s enough to drive an already struggling person to abject despair.
Many people in abject despair do not kill themselves. There are three separate issues here: the abuse, the way it was addressed (rightly or wrongly), and the decision for suicide. My comment is not about whether or not the abuse happened or whether or not the way it was made public could’ve been handled differently. It’s about the suicide aspect. Suicide is the responsibility of the person who chooses it.
I am extremely concerned and extremely disturbed by commenters on this thread who are absolving this man entirely of responsibility (for both the alleged abuse and the suicide) and instead blaming the female student for his death. It’s abhorrent. We have to do better.
Reading comprehension, LP. No one here is absolving the man. Our sympathies are with the victim, period.
We are calling out Katherine Needleman and her angry mob for their vigilantism. We are calling out her history of violent online attacks against this man and many others. That doesn’t make the man innocent. It makes Katherine Needleman guilty. Please recognize the difference.
The statement “No one here is absolving the man.” is objectively false.
How are you even getting that from what’s been said here? Again, NO ONE IS ABSOLVING THE MAN. That’s not what this thread is about. You keep trying to transform criticisms of Katherine Needleman into a declaration of innocence for a rapist. That is absolutely not the point of our comments.
We support the victim. We believe her. Katherine Needleman should have tried to help her, instead she exploited her mercilessly. Please stop twisting our words to suit your own agenda.
He would have had all the time in the world to do all this had he not made the decision to take his own life.
Seriously, the failure of people here to assign a grown man responsibility for his decisions and actions – regardless of the truth of the underlying accusations – is astounding.
Your lack of understanding, empathy and comprehension of mental illness is appalling, Okram.
No wonder people say you are Needleman. You too are evil.
Actually, I’m a sweet and delightful person, who for starters doesn’t call other people evil.
I am not an expert on mental health but I am very sympathetic to mental illness. And also very experienced with neurodiversity.
What I take issue with is the suggestion that a Facebook post – shared by our person in question – would push someone to suicide. Or that the person who made the post would bear responsibility.
Katherine Needleman is no more responsible for his suicide than you would be if I had a bad reaction to your calling me evil.
Okram. Thank you for clarifying and exemplifying my point.
Let’s only hope that you will never find yourself at the end of the line like Mike, and if by any chance you do, let’s hope there will not be an Okram defecating on your grave.
I’m not defecating on anybody’s grave. That’s kind of gross and a serious mischaracterization of my arguments.
I’m confused about the backlash against KN on this thread. I might not agree with her tactics, and am anxious that with every passing day, she brings herself closer to a legal demolition, but… the allegations of pedophilia against this guy preexisted her posting on Facebook, right? She didn’t invent them, it seems, as she doesn’t seem to have invented the others she has published?
If this sexual predator were a Hollywood actor, or an A-list classical conductor or a celebrated tenor, say, the disclosures of their alleged crimes would be in every publication, no KN needed for bringing them into public daylight.
Just because this man was a tiny figure in a very niche field doesn’t make his actions any more forgivable or worthy of sympathy.
Here we are talking about a guy who sexually assaulted a child over a period of years, no? What does one’s agreement or disagreement with the way KN uses social media (or plays, or raises her daughter) have to do with this?
Just to reiterate: legally or psychologically questionable though Katherine’s social media strategy might be, she didn’t do the crime. He did. Her Facebook postings didn’t cause him to lose his life. The public’s learning about his criminal actions did.
Let’s please introspect into our grossly misdirected fury at the messenger.
Facebook is not the place to determine someone’s innocence or guilt. A woman like Needleman is not in a position to make speculative public accusations against someone she doesn’t know, a victim she’s never met and about a situation which she has not researched or investigated.
Stop confusing the guilt or innocence of Mr. Guzman and the truth in Ms. Rodriguez’ accusations with Katherine Needleman’s shocking, over-the-top social media tactics. It’s your fury which is grossly misdirected.
Aida, that is exactly the message in my posting. Stop confusing the man’s guilt or innocence and the accusation against him with your fury at the messenger (or, in this case, more than one messenger, it seems).
That’s the point. Who appointed Katherine Needleman to be messenger? Why does she believe herself to be an arbiter of all sexual abuse against women?
What qualifications does Katherine Needleman have to be deciding anyone’s guilt and publicizing it on social media?
She’s not a journalist, a social worker, a law enforcement officer or an attorney. She’s an oboist. She has no training in any field related to sexual abuse or the law. She doesn’t even research the cases she posts about. She doesn’t bother to verify anything. She just vomits out anything she or her minions find on FB which supports their position. She does it for her own self-aggrandizement, not to help the victims.
Katherines page is a double edged sword. On the one hand, she does a lot of expose well known scum in the business, and to that I say, good riddance. She also does a lot to add music to the spotlight that would otherwise remain out of it.
That being said, I do have an issue with a lot of her rhetoric.
“Oh hey if you and your musician friends are white and want to post a picture together on social media, you really shouldn’t, that sends the wrong message”
Knowing Jon Carney – there is NO way he just showed up at her door…there must have been some chatting/flirting going on from her end before they convened that night. What does this all have to do with this article? We women need to stop putting all our eggs in her basket for our #metoo issues. She is not trustworthy!
I’ve heard firsthand from someone in her orchestra that the way this is being put out to the public is not the way that it actually went down. Vile.
Katherine invited him into her room at 03:00 in the morning. What was she expecting: a careful look at trio sonatas with oboe and violin?
Both sides agreed nothing happened physically or sexually, and life went on until Needleman filed complaints more than a decade later.
https://slippedisc.com/2018/09/baltimore-symphonys-two-metoo-inquiries-came-to-nothing/
After two investigations, dozens of witnesses, Needleman’s allegations were shown to be unfounded.
She is a modern woman! Waiting as long as possible to hold onto your victim status is the only proper way to entitled BS reparations and maximizing exposure. The truth is that nobody cares about her or her dramatics, most of us left those behaviors back in grade school. Somewhere a psychiatrist is lamenting a lifetime of guaranteed income seeing this one and her dowdy key-click-clan carry on the way they do.
Yes, because people we know NEVER do inappropriate things. Also, maybe I’m just a prude here, but he was married with children at the time. At 3:00 am he should have been fast asleep in his own bed, not knocking on peoples’ doors.
And what is your point? These allegations were investigated at length twice and concluded to be unfounded. But Needleman couldn’t drop it.
Instead of focusing again on a door knock (that both sides agree led to nothing!), why don’t you address some of the allegations against Needleman?
Shall we start with the revenge porn she shared of a colleague? Or the racist comments? Homophobia? Multiple accusations of bullying? Was it twice she was suspended from her job for her treatment of others or three times?
Okram: If you are criticising someone for knocking someone else’s door 19 years ago, I wonder how much you will criticize Katherine Needleman’s sharing vindictive, intimate photographs of a colleague:
https://slippedisc.com/2024/05/exclusive-a-case-of-revenge-porn/
Or are you only considering one side here?
That is not the point here. If you don’t offer a flower to sniff, no nose will follow, and then scream blimey.
Okram, you agree, then, that your criticism of Jon Carney is not based on anything he did or didn’t do, said or didn’t say to Needleman, but to your disapproval of his life style (or his wife’s for that matter).
Your dislike of his choices in life is what gives a preconceived notion that he must be bad, and therefore anything Needleman says about him must be true.
It isn’t, and the Court saw through that.
You can’t make decisions like that based on your (outdated?) principles or cultural judgments. When you do this you only promote Jon as a conscientious, reasonable, constrained man who asked and took “no” for an answer, indicating he enjoys intimacy but is respectful of women who prefer not to do it.
When you show yourself to be unreasonable and judgmental you actually work against women because you represent us as being inflexible and prone to trouble. It works against us in the industry and makes us look ridiculous in this forum.
You obviously are either KN or her doppelgänger. Either way it’s clear that you are not interested in this persons truth, just a blanket all men are rhetoric. Enough. Needleman is a two poser that was elevated above her status because she was a woman. She did not get out of the first round of her audition. Yet she sits in her position, tries to get her colleagues fired for fake reasons and then pretends to have the way to hold fair auditions for everyone. The audacity to hold a position you never earned and pretend to tell everyone what to do..from competitions to top 5 orchestras. Why do people give lip service to her and her hack mob of failed musicians who are angry their failed teacher told them they where going to be successful just to get another paycheck but knowing they were never good enough. Those are the hustlers. Okram stop pretending!
Responding to a bunch of comments directed at me:
First – and for the last time, I am NOT Katherine Needleman. Norman has confirmed that. And she can speak for herself, much better than I can. And I don’t know her. Mostly, I am here responding to “process fouls.” Taking issue with how people react to her supposed “mob” by becoming a similar mob. And with the idea that a post she shared (and perhaps encouraged a person to make) caused a man’s suicide. Clearly there was a lot more going on in the man’s life.
So a couple themes in this last few comments seem to run throughout the item:
– Katherine Needleman has no credibility because she didn’t win her job the “right way.” Which is disputable but irrelevant, because even if she had won “the right way” I’m pretty sure people wouldn’t be giving her posts any more credibility. And she is hardly the only person with a major job who didn’t get it “the right way.”
– Related to #1: She is “jealous” of others. Why? She is principal oboe in an outstanding orchestra. Life seems to be pretty good.
– She has made other outrageous/unfair posts, so this one is also lacking credibility. Well, I take these on a case-by-case basis. I actually do not defend the “revenge porn” posting, if only because the horn player at issue was engaged in private behavior outside of his job. I might say the same about the recent one involving the LA Phil percussionist. See, I can differentiate.
– Her charges against her own colleagues were adjudicated and found to be “unfounded.” (and therefore, again, she has no credibility here). 1) Irrelevant – case by case. Just because she might be wrong about one doesn’t make her wrong on everything; she has some terrific posts about how the NY Phil handled Matthew Muckey and Liang Wang. 2) “Unfounded” means it didn’t happen. With regard to the Carney encounter, he acknowledged it did. What’s in dispute is whether he contributed to a hostile work environment afterward. She didn’t get a satisfactory result, and is hardly the first person to experience that and feel bitter about it.
– “Choices in life?” I couldn’t care less about his choices in life. But I try to put myself into the shoes of a 26 YO recently hired principal oboe player who finds a 20-years-older concertmaster (married and with kids) knocking on her door for sex at 3:00 am. As if it’s some kind of “droit du seigneur.” I wouldn’t like it. Especially if saying “no” caused change in the subsequent relationship.
– “Don’t offer a flower to sniff?” Why didn’t you say “she was wearing too revealing an outfit.” Or spare the metaphor entirely and say “she brought it on herself.” Wow.
Are you done?
Lara, I mean Okram….there is no way any stomp and tantrums and screams from you will hide the fact that Katherine Needleman is a vile person.
If you think this is a mob you don’t know what a mob is and should study Needleman’s group, actively seeking to destroy lives and then unassumingly saying that “there must have been something else going on in that man’s life”.
A person has died AS A DIRECT RESULT OF KATHERINE NEEDLEMAN’s actions. Think about it, Lara. A person has died.
Katherine Needleman will never outlive this. Twenty years from now it will come up again and she will still be remembered as a murderer as far as the Court of Public Opinion is concerned.
As for “supporting women” (cof, cof…) has Needleman even reached out to the widow and her two daughters to beg for forgiveness?
That’s what I thought….
I am also not Lara St. John.
I’m just getting around to all this now because I don’t go to this site. Someone told me folks were accusing me of something new, and now, it’s being Okram, whoever that may be. Anyway, Laura and all you nameless trolls, I do not use pseudonyms. I only use my full name in any comments because I am not a coward. Although I’m kind of flattered that you thought Okram was me, they are not.
What the indefatigable Okram doesn’t yet seem to understand, is that every time anyone here defends or attempts to defend the actions of Katherine Needleman they must “explain” it. Reminds me of “mansplaining”, in fact. Irony of ironies….
When things are done with justice, respect and cooperation they fall like a glove. It becomes a natural outcome of goodwill and there is no need to explain anything because good souls “get it”.
Thus, every time Okram and others attempt to protect Needleman we are drawn back again to “why are we here”, and even “why are we using aliases”. It is because evil of this size has rarely been seen in our industry. Evil that uses women to justify social media scandals, manslaughter and self promotion, and which no amount of bickering from Okram will ever erase (it actually just gets dug deeper…).
Katherine Needleman represents evil, and her hate mob are fine examples of US divisiveness, in the futile attempt to throw one group of people against another in an evil plot to somehow achieve superiority, no matter what the cost. Frankly, it reminds me of Iraq. And Afghanistan. And Lybia. And dozens of other examples where US wars destroy societies, like Needleman and her cohorts destroy the fabric of the orchestral industry, spreading suspicion and hate. The comparison is obvious, and US women are not better off being used like this by Needleman. The world is watching, and the world is disgusted by what Katherine Needleman, Okram, Lara St. John and others say and do.
What we fail to understand is why US women don’t rise up against this mischaracterization of their participation in the industry, before it becomes widely accepted that hiring women will only bring false accusations, manslaughter and bad media.
Employers are taking notes.
The way so many people rushed to admonish a young woman for claiming she was sexually assaulted as a child is abhorrent and shameful. Who are you to tell abuse victims how they should act in order to protect their abusers?
Oh just stop. There you go again. Absolutely no one is a admonishing any victims here. We are admonishing Katherine Needleman and her vigilante mob. Please recognize the difference.
They can’t. Rabid vigilantes. Her followers are people she’d never want to be around in real life. Yet they give her the power she loves. Little girl syndrome. *claps with doll hands
The statement “Absolutely no one is a admonishing any victims here.” is objectively false. I read lots of admonishments of victims here, telling them how they needed to behave in order to protect their abusers and claiming that they were liars and attention-seekers. Can we agree that that’s abhorrent and wrong?
Nope. Tom, again, no one is doing that here. Where do you see that? Which poster has said that? Give us quotes of where here you see anyone accusing victims of sexual abuse?
We are discussing Katherine Needleman. We are criticizing Katherine Needleman. We are describing how Katherine Needleman and her mob have behaved reprehensibly.
YOU are the one accusing victims of being “liars and attention-seekers”. Those are your words, Tom. No other person on these threads has said that except for you.
Michael Guzman ended his life, by choice. It is horrifying to read the remarks in this thread about such a decision. The ignorance is veiled by judgment arising from people with an agenda.
Suicide cannot be understood by a healthy mind, save for that of people who specialize in this issue (psychiatrists).
Having been at that threshold before due to a severe illness and its effect on my family, I realized how the way a sick mind thinks cannot be fathomed by a healthy one.
In the realm of the sick mind, the option to end one’s life is not necessarily a dramatic event full of screams of despair. It is actually a quiet moment full of reasoning and good will – as interpreted by a sick mind. Again, the healthy one will never get this.
Michael Guzman faced a predicament with no easy solution, if there was a solution at all. He was married, he had two young daughters, his heart was divided for Jackie on what could have easily have started as a support for her and then digressed into infatuation and beyond. And…he was aware that he was now the cause for humiliation and distress for ALL the people he loved and who counted on HIM to make things well. But he can’t. He couldn’t.
If you are able to see this from a sick mind you would understand that the decision Guzman took was not cowardly, was not a statement of guilt, nor was it a tacit approval of the reprehensible carnival Jackie made on Facebook. Guzman realized that the last and best thing he could do for his family and everyone around him was to no longer exist. From HIS point of view, from a sick mind, it was a tragic conclusion that if he was to remove one item from this world – himself – everyone would be better off.
That is what goes on when people see what “they think” is the end of the line in front of them. The healthy mind will be quick to point out that there were other options available for him, but then, the healthy mind isn’t sick.
It is irresponsible for Katherine Needleman and her cohorts, including those here who attempt to support her, to treat human beings like cattle on their way to the slaughterhouse. The fact is, we are all different, we all have “issues”, and the same solutions don’t apply to all.
Michael Guzman gave the ultimate sacrifice because the situation “as he saw it” was hopeless. And hopeless why? Because of what he was facing, and that was NOT an accusation of sexual misconduct from Jackie. What he faced was public humiliation at a level he was unable to cope, within his mental and emotional capabilities.
To all those who support Needleman and her murderous attitude, think again. Have some heart. Be human.
This is not even delving into the fact that she is an irresponsible mother. All of this time spent on writing rediculous posts, find endless avenues to admonish people with her jury of mentally disturbed followers, and photos that are ghastly, all the while her children sit around while mommy does “work.”
That’s really out of bounds. You have no idea what kind of parent she is. And if you’re going to make such a charge, at least have the courage and integrity to put your name on it. Shame on you.
Out of bounds? And how do you know what I may and may not know? Your disappointment must be a tick that I have achieved the level of doucherie of your Queen. Happy Christmas!
It’s pretty wild to tell a feminist activist to shut up and spend more time doing domestic work instead.
It’s pretty wild for any man, notably yourself here, to tell any woman what to say or do.
Activist! You’re funny! Domestic work? Raising children is far more important that domestic work. Feminist? No. She treats women just as poorly as men.
We have her smelling dog farts in an attempt to prove she is ignoring this page, and Lara SJ acting as a gate keeper for her bestie, that would be thrown under the bus if it came to it. Nothing to see here – just adults flailing about that have not dealt with their own trauma, but relish inflicting it on others.
Earl Grey?
Oh, are you talking about me? In what way am I acting as a “gatekeeper” for my “bestie” may I ask? And, I would “throw her under the bus? I have never made a comment without using my own entire name, I just happened upon all of you cowardly anonymous trolls here a bit late – what exactly are you accusing me of? Because I think it’ll give me a laugh.
Let’s be transparent here, you all have set up an environment, where nobody is free to speak in a reasonable way, and not get attacked. People with legitimate comments and concerns, counteract even the smallest aspect of one of your narratives, and the pattern of history is to shame them and block them. Male, female, it doesn’t matter. No one is safe. So the environment that you created where people can speak anonymously will remain. Certainly many people have comments that are outlandish, and some are very truthful, but this is the environment that you created. You claim to be a voice and support for women, well I am here to tell you speaking for many women that they do not trust you, they do not support you, and believe that you and your freedom fighters are self-serving and you speak for nobody but yourself. I wish this were not the case. There was a time not long ago when discussion could be had, and disagreements could happen respectfully, and as much as you all love to publicly die on the cross for name-calling, you Lara are the absolute worst offender, reducing your own commentary to f*cktard, which is an offensive term to many of us, considering your word derives from retard. You don’t act like more of an adult than any young pupil.
If this man had nothing to hide, why would he kill himself over one flimsy social media allegation?
This has nothing to do with Needleman.
This is a far more complicated story and sadly it’s not uncommon.
Anonymous, you are privileged to have never been falsely accused of anything. You never felt the desperation of seeing a system going against you without due process or justice in sight.
You tenacious twats stop at nothing until you ruin people you deem guilty. You bypass the actual law and publish, try, and convict, on your social media platforms. Nobody is defending his innocence, but rather his right to the legal system doing what it does.
You mean the same twitty that is now bragging and having her whack mafia treat her as though she is now a disciplined lawyer for how she illegally recorded herself in a courtroom? How does this complete lack of respect monster keep getting away with breaking the law, time after time? It doesn’t take but 2 seconds to search and find it to be illegal to record a court proceeding in the state of Maryland.
I come here to read, and there’s one commenter who always gives me hope: Aida.
Thank you.
Very bold of you to assume he DIDN’T commit this abuse.
“Very bold of you to assume he DIDN’T commit this abuse”, you say.
That is very bold of you to assume a complaint is true just because a woman made it.
There is a system of JUSTICE to verify these things, but thanks to the actions of Katherine Needleman and her hate group that process never took place.
With the death of the accused, the process ended. For Mike as it was for Jeffrey Epstein. You can’t condemn a dead person, and your assumption that he must be guilty just because an accusation was raised is simply wrong.
Again thanks to KN and her hate group, doubt will remain, meaning that for all intents and purposes nothing happened, no abuse, no relationship between a teacher a minor student, and Jackie is a lying psychopath who wants attention and came up with all of this out of the blue.
Now tell me that KN’s hate group defends women. They made a murdering lunatic out of Jackie.
Taken from the other thread (about Albrecht Mayer – gasp – acquiescing to take pictures with students, OMG). While I disagree with the “NEEDSAMAN” at the end, the passionate discourse of this person adds to the current discussion above by bringing together the general sentiment that Katherine Needleman is an evil to our industry, her advocacy is selfish and skewed, and it would be best if she is purged out of sight and sound.
Quote:
“Katherine Needleman and her acolytes represent everything that is wrong with American society’s capitulation to the Woke Virus of the Mind, but luckily their time is up!
Needleman is a petty, talentless, and vindictive idiot. In typical woke misandrist fashion, she wrongly assumes that any disparate outcome between men and women, and any criticism leveled at her skewed, stupid worldview must be based on misogyny.
I wrote as much about her when she made a long post about the “lack of representation” of women in opera, and her idiotic attempts to strong hand cultural institutions into enacting the type of Marxist social engineering that the woke social justice warriors crave. I wrote that it baffles me that (woke) Americans assume that “identity”somehow amounts to a qualification. She then tried to “make me famous” on her childish webpage and retaliate against me by trying to cancel me but unfortunately for that woke woman I work for myself and I’m not a penniless musician working at a woke institution afraid of losing my job, so I’m uncancellable.
Let’s see, however, how long Katherine NEEDSAMAN remains employed….”
Needleman is certainly not without talent, nor is she an idiot. She is, however, an extremely vindictive woman who hates men and is determined to do as much destruction to them as humanly possible, even if it causes a tremendous amount of turmoil in the international music community. She told me that I have very poor writing skills. Truth does not matter to this sorry excuse for a human being, only getting revenge on the general population of men.
You were very quick to start calling her nasty names, in any case.
Anyone that has witnessed one of her posts go down, knows that she, Lara, and Rae Rae, are amongst the first to throw out name-calling and have a meltdown. Little tart. Just like a little school wench when nobody will play with her, she needs to go tattletale on her page.
Sounds to me like Ms Needleman is guilty of reckless endangerment, resulting in death. Have there been any legal proceedings against her?
Check her Facebook page – she has just put up a post directly aimed towards you. What a nasty woman!
Oh, boy. You’re right. Needleman & her mob are doing a full-on swarming on our poster here, David C. It’s public. Go have a look & watch them in action. This is what they do. Unbelievable.
I can’t say it on her page or I’d be tarred and feathered, so I’ll say it here:
Simply existing as a white man in the music business is not, on its face, problematic.
Hi everyone! I’m a bit late to the circus!
I’d like to say that I never have, nor will I ever, comment here or anywhere else online with anything other than my full name. I am not a coward, I don’t have to hide behind a pseudonym like apparently everyone else here needs to, and people assuming that various folks are me are simply wrong. If anyone doubts me, they can ask Mr. Lebrecht. Thank you!
Lara St. John
Thank you so much! We all need to have this important clarification. Now clean sh!t out of your knackers before you post photos everywhere.
Thank you for helping your troll destroy music for all, as you sit behind your privileged wine fueled rhetoric. Now, do us all a favor and clarify why your Kween got reprimanded from her orchestra for homosexual slurs at work. We all deserve answers.
Trouble is, Lara St. John is a liar. She shoots from the hip and goes for scandal instead of truth.
Lara’s goal, as with Needleman’s, is to attain recognition by throwing people against each others senselessly while admitting openly that their music careers have hit a wall.
Their choice to transform every piece of news in the industry into some kind of false sexual harassment narrative is demeaning to women, particularly those who at this very moment are enduring harassment and could use some attention and support.
However, it is their musical failures that speak highest of their motives. In their eyes they did not succeed in music, so no one can, be they women or men.
They will both me remembered, alright, as complete idiots who committed career suicide.
You in fact, are the circus. I’ll refrain from specifying which act.