After Assault Allegations, Classical Institutions Rush To Distance From James Levine

New allegations of sexual assault have been made against James Levine, the music director emeritus of the Metropolitan Opera in New York and its conductor for over forty years. Levine was suspended from his position over the weekend, and now, with more allegations made public, repercussions for the lauded musician are continuing to pile up.

The first public allegation was made when a police report filed in 2016 was provided anonymously to the and . That accuser was later revealed to be the violinist and pianist Ashok Pai. Three others have emerged publicly: bassist and professor Chris Brown, who now lives in Minnesota; James Lestock, a cellist in North Carolina; and violinist Albin Ifsich, a longtime he was a 20-year-old student at Michigan's Meadow Brook School of Music when Levine, then a teacher at the summer program, allegedly began abusing him. Pai, Lestock and Brown were all teenagers when the alleged abuse was said to have occurred.