Note: a version of this piece originally appeared in the Traverse City Record-Eagle as part of the "Tuning In" series.
Content note: This essay mentions sexual abuse, including abuse of minors.
Last month, Interlochen released the findings of a report that detailed decades of abuse allegations by faculty, staff and trustees. A few people in the report were named by name because they are deceased and because there were multiple corroborating accounts of what they did.
I’m so sad to find out this part of Interlochen’s history. I’m devastated that so many lives were hurt by people who were supposed to be educators and caretakers of these young artists. I’m also proud that Interlochen has been so transparent about the investigation and is working to strengthen its policies and oversight.
At Classical IPR, we regularly broadcast recordings of student performances from Interlochen’s archives, some of which go back as far back as the 1940s.
I’m now left with difficult questions about what should become of Interlochen concert recordings and other archival materials featuring people who are alleged to have committed such abuse.
We have considered difficult questions like these before, although not so close to home.
In 2017, dozens of men alleged that longtime Metropolitan Opera music director James Levine had abused them. Opera singer Plácido Domingo has been accused by more than 20 women of sexual misconduct, accusations that have been substantiated by multiple organizations.
In both of these cases, we at Classical IPR had to consider what to do with the extensive collection of recordings we had that Domingo and Levine had each made over the years. Should we continue to broadcast them, knowing the harm these musicians had caused others?
In a previous essay on this topic, I asked if a great recorded performance is a good enough reason to continue to broadcast music featuring a person who has done harm to others? What is a radio station’s responsibility to its listeners with regard to playing great performances featuring bad actors?
At the time, responses from IPR listeners to those questions ranged from “you should get rid of every recording that includes James Levine and also cancel your weekly Met Opera radio broadcasts because they allowed that abuse to happen” to “the art and the artist are completely separate and you shouldn’t even be thinking about what they did and just focus on the music.”
It feels different now that it’s happening at the institution where I work. Now, I am looking at decades of excellent recordings of Interlochen Arts Academy and Camp student performances that also include adults who are alleged to have caused great harm to students.
At Classical IPR, we want to broadcast great performances from Interlochen’s past and celebrate student accomplishments. IPR is the only place where many of these recorded performances can be heard.
But if these recordings of student performances from Interlochen include adults who caused harm, how can we avoid celebrating predators and therefore undermining the experiences of assault survivors?
I’m still left with more questions than answers at this point. What do you think? Does the artistic merit of a recording ever outweigh the harm it might cause someone? Email me at amanda.sewell@interlochen.org with your thoughts.
