Depressing news today that two more teachers from Chetham's and the RNCM are being accused of abusing their pupils in the 1970s-80s. See The Guardian. One has not been named (yet). The other is the late Ryzsard Bakst (who died in 1999) - a pianist and professor who used to be revered as a living legend, if a difficult and eccentric one, and who taught some of the finest pianists in the country. No doubt there is more of this to be revealed.
An interesting comment reached me from a musician on social media after I vented my thoughts on the whole principle of boarding schools. It wasn't the schools that were to blame, he said, it was the people in them. Ah... a bit like guns, then?
Note, all these events took place several decades ago. One hopes profoundly that the different climate, culture and awareness that has sprung up since makes such matters a thing of the past. All the places involved have new administrations these days, as well as many, many devoted, honourable and top-notch professors. As we said the other day: keep calm and ask the right questions.
More reports here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/feb/12/chris-ling-chethams-teacher-hollywood?intcmp=239
and here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/feb/10/musical-lings-strings?intcmp=239
and here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/feb/11/malcolm-layfield-chetham-sexual-abuse?intcmp=239
2 comments:
It is pretty certain other teachers know what is going on, just as they are fully aware in ordinary schools of which pupils are being bullied. They don't do anything about the problem either because they don't want to get involved or, when it is a boys' school, the male staff think it will "toughen up" the victims.
I was taught by Layfield between 1993 and 1996 at the University of Huddersfield. He was a visiting member of staff with a reputation. I found him fantastic as a string quartet coach but we were all aware that you went to the pub with him at your own risk. We knew he would be trying to get into our knickers. The unspoken feeling was it was worth fighting him off for the teaching. He wasn't the only predatory male teacher who taught or visited the uni music department. In fact, the trustworthy ones were rarer than those you couldn't. It was similar when I went to TCM to do a post-grad course. It was expected to some extent that as a young female student you might come up against a male teacher who expected more than just hard work on your instrument. We had no idea we should or could stop it. It was more a case if avoiding if possible. Every college and music department had this unspoken expectation. I got around it by having female teachers as much as possible but there were at least three times when, as a student I had to deal with unwanted and confusing attention from teachers and professors and it was normal. You should be looking into every single school, college and uni department. You'll find this is only the tip of a very ugly iceberg.
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