Author Archives: maestrobarrykolman

Revisiting the UK Music School Sex Scandal: Predator Caught, Jailed, Stripped of Queen’s Title

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As stated in the London Gazette: “THE QUEEN has directed that the appointment of Michael Curtis BREWER to be an Officer of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, dated 31 December 1994, shall be cancelled and annulled and that his name shall be erased from the Register of the said Order.

Mr. Brewer, the disgraced former music director of one of the UK’s most prestigious music schools, has been stripped of his OBE (Order of the British Empire; a very prestigious award)) following his conviction for sexually abusing a pupil. Brewer, 68, was jailed for six years in March for indecently assaulting Violinist Frances Andrade more than three decades ago, when he taught at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester.

Andrade killed herself after giving evidence at the trial of her former music teacher, who was found guilty of five counts of indecent assault. Brewer was cleared on three further indecent assault charges and was found not guilty of raping Andrade when she was 18. His ex-wife, Hilary Kay Brewer, also 68, was found guilty of indecently assaulting Andrade when she was 18, but found not guilty of aiding and abetting rape.

Andrade, 48, texted a friend three days before her death to say she felt like she had been “raped all over again” after appearing in court last month to face Brewer. Andrade killed herself the day after Brewer started to give evidence. He called her a “fantasist” who was “largely living a fantasy life”.

Brewer denied all of Andrade’s allegations but admitted to an affair with a 17-year-old pupil at Chetham’s in 1994. He resigned when the affair was discovered and the school said he had stepped down for “health reasons”. Brewer went on to become the artistic director of the National Youth Choirs of Great Britain and has also directed the World Youth Choir. He served as an adjudicator in international competitions and in 2008 led BBC workshops for the program Last Choir Standing.

Anne Sophie-Mutter, the world renowned German concert violinist, once said Andrade was responsible for “the most passionate violin playing I have ever heard”. Another famous violinist, Victor Lieberman, said her music was “perfect in sound and expression”. Both tributes were included in the program for Andrade’s funeral. The memorial service was attended by more than 200 mourners. Two of her children gave a tribute at the funeral, along with her husband and two friends.

Andrade was a brave and confident witness, foregoing the option of testifying behind a screen. Brewer’s lawyer was aggressive, saying: “You have told this jury a complete pack of lies about the visit to this house.”

Andrade replied: “This is why cases don’t come to court. This happened.”

“You spent the night lying next to two of your rapists?” asked the attorney, referring to Andrade’s account of sleeping three in a bed with the Brewers after she said they had raped her.

Andrade answered: “But this happened. I felt guilty; I did not know how to get out of it.

“This is a lie,” responded Brewer’s lawyer. “You could have left the house at any time.”

Andrade replied: “You have got no idea clearly about what it is like to be raped. You have clearly no feminine understanding of what someone goes through like that. What shock your body goes through. How you almost feel you deserve it.”

Michael Brewer and his ex-wife Kay Brewer. Photograph: Dave Thompson/PA

Take a long look at the Brewers. They are monsters! They should never be allowed to be around children for the rest of their lives. Six years in prison does not fit the crime of rape. He had a slick lawyer and Ms. Andrade only had the truth, the hurt, and eventually her demise as her defense. It wasn’t enough to put Brewer away for life.

Now take a long look at Ms. Andrade, devoted mother and wife, prominent musician, destroyed by this disgusting predator.

Violinist Frances Andrade

Ms. Andrade told a friend that giving evidence had felt like being ‘raped all over again’. These last words should be part of her painful epitaph.

My Dad And His Bride

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My Dad And His Bride

Remembering my Father on this Memorial Day.
He gave his life so that all of us may be free. My Dad was there at the Battle of the Bulge where he got shot. He carried the bullet inside his hip all his life; a life of family joy but a life of constant physical pain. We love you Dad. You are always in our thoughts.

A Great Drummer and a Real Mensch!

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Shaughnessy-obit-articleLarge
Ed Shaughnessy, left, performing with Buddy Rich in 1978.
By PETER KEEPNEWS
Published: May 26, 2013

ED SHAUGHNESSY, ‘TONIGHT’ DRUMMER, DEAD AT 84

The New York Times reports:

Ed Shaughnessy, whose deft drumming anchored the “Tonight Show” orchestra for 29 years, died on Friday at his home in Calabasas, Calif. He was 84.

The cause was a heart attack, said his son Dan.

Mr. Shaughnessy was a well-traveled and highly regarded jazz drummer when he was offered the “Tonight” job in 1963, shortly after Johnny Carson had taken over as the show’s host. He had performed or recorded with Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Billie Holiday and numerous others. He had also worked for four years as a staff musician at CBS Television, and, remembering the tedium of that studio job, he was not sure he wanted another.

He agreed to take the “Tonight” gig for two weeks and see how he liked it. “When I got up there,” he recalled in a 2004 interview for the Percussive Arts Society, “and Doc Severinsen was the lead trumpet player, Clark Terry was sitting next to me in the jazz trumpet chair, and there were all these great players, I said, ‘My God, this is not your ordinary studio situation.’ ”

Mr. Shaughnessy took the job and never left. He remained when Mr. Severinsen replaced Skitch Henderson as the bandleader in 1967 and when “The Tonight Show” moved from New York City to Burbank, Calif., in 1972. When Jay Leno became the host in 1992 and brought in his own band, Mr. Severinsen kept his ensemble together for concert appearances, with Mr. Shaughnessy still in the drum chair.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/arts/music/ed-shaughnessy-tonight-drummer-dead-at-84.html

Fresh Abuse Claims Hit Top Music School

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As Orchestras in America are busy hiring their 30-something foreign conductors (obviously experienced older American conductors are not worth the trouble of considering) and musicians and management are having their usual fights about contracts, i.e. money, even forcing orchestras to cancel all or part of their seasons, there is a quiet (at least on this side of the Pond) but serious scandal that just won’t go away in the UK. There have been countless allegations of abuse of students by their professors in some of the most elite music schools.

As report in the UK’s The Independent  on May 12, “a former Yehudi Menuhin School pupil describes serious abusive and inappropriate behavior. Sacha Barlow, who is now assistant principal violist at the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra in the US, studied at the Surrey-based institution until 1989. She says she “endured” her time there and it left emotional scars. Speaking from America, Ms Barlow said: ‘There was a lot of inappropriate behaviour that a number of teachers engaged in. A couple of them should not have been allowed anywhere near children.’ ”

The newspaper goes on and states, “Last week, the cellist Michal Kaznowski revealed that his former cello tutor Maurice Gendron controlled students through sadistic teaching methods over a 10-year period to 1977. A Surrey police investigation began earlier last week following allegations that the now deceased founding music director and Belgian pianist Marcel Gazelle assaulted girls in the school’s bedrooms.”

In a separate investigation, reports of sexual abuse at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester resulted in a second arrest on Friday. Duncan McTier, 58, a professor at the esteem Royal Academy of Music, was arrested on suspicion of indecently assaulting a 21-year-old student at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music in 1994. To date,  39 teachers past and present at the Manchester schools are now under investigation and police have appealed for victims or witnesses to continue to come forward.

Of course there are plenty of denials of the alleged charges. Richard Hillier, headmaster at the Yehudi Menuhin School, said: “I am not aware of any concerns expressed by pupils or staff in the mid-1980s.”

Some come to the defense of these predators and remark what was “accepted” 25 years ago years ago is now considered criminal. Something is just not right with that type of thinking: groping, fondling, denigrating, and sadistic teaching methods were all proper behavior for a teacher at these schools in the 1980s? Sexual and physical abuse was and is illegal and immoral during ANY time period! Instructors using their positions as leverage for committing these crimes should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Let’s hope more victims come forward and that this investigation puts those who took part in this horrific behavior are punished and moreover, are NEVER allowed to go near children for the rest of their loves.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/fresh-abuse-claims-hit-top-music-school-8612402.html

 

Here We Go Again: “tasteless and not legitamate”

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/10046415/Nazi-themed-Wagner-opera-cancelled-in-Germany-after-audience-treated-for-shock.html

Here We Go Again: “tasteless and not legitamate”

Nazi-themed Wagner opera cancelled in Germany after audience treated for shock!

A Nazi-themed production of the Wagner opera Tannhauser, which featured scenes of gas chambers and the execution of a family, has been cancelled after audience members had to receive medical treatment for shock.

The Deutsche Oper am Rhein, a leading German opera house that performs in Düsseldorf, said it could not justify artistic work with such an “extreme impact”.

The opera house said it had asked director Burkhard Kosminski to tone down scenes but he had refused. From Thursday onwards, the opera will be performed solely as a piece of music, without the staging, the opera house said.

At the opening of the Düsseldorf performance, performers could be seen inside glass chambers, falling to the floor as white fog flowed. The performance showed a family having their heads shaved and then being shot.

My question is: when the cast was rehearsing this, didn’t even one think that this was a bit over the top or was everyone just “following orders.”

Kosminski wouldn’t “tone it down” because of artistic reasons; really artistic? Rape, suicide, gas chambers; this is art? Maybe he needs a little history lesson about the 6 million. Maybe he just forgot!

I fault the management of the Deutsche Oper, the music director, the “artistic” director, and the cast for their insensitivity and their incredible stupidity for mounting such an obscene production.

Tannhauser-2_2558294b

How To Pick Your Next Music Director

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82304-050-242D7462 19th Century “eye-candy”

From a recent online review of a candidate’s orchestra concert/audition-

“From his physical presence to his conducting style to the little flourish he makes with his bows, (he) personifies elegance. (My friend) advised me to mention the “eye-candy” factor. Yes, he’s got film-star good looks and stage presence.”

Don’t be surprised to see in the near future: To apply for this vacancy, you must have the following: A photo of your beautiful self that says “eye-candy!”- foreign sounding name helpful.

That’s about it: CV, press reviews, recommendations, references, CDs, years of experience all are optional.

Are we coming to that? A beauty contest for conductors? And you wonder why Orchestras in this country are struggling. Maybe conductors should start tossing little hankies like Liszt did.