Over two years ago, I interviewed violinist Lara St. John for the Dec 2023/Jan 2024 issue of The WholeNote. We spoke not only about her upcoming performance at the Royal Conservatory’s 21C festival, but also about her experiences of being sexually abused by her violin teacher Jascha Brodsky while a teenage student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia during the mid 1980s.
Her allegations, initially dismissed by the institution in question, became public in a 2019 Philadelphia Inquirer article. In the aftermath, St. John received a flood of letters of support, along with accounts from many other women. She decided to interview some of them. The 94 minute documentary film Dear Lara released earlier this year was the result. I missed its original Canadian screening, but it was recently made available in Canada for a limited time on Kinema, and after watching it, I am grappling with the sheer extent of abuse it reveals, not only within musical educational institutions, but throughout the profession.
As St. John observes in the film, the flood seems endless. Even when people knew what was happening, there were often few consequences for the abusers, while women who spoke out frequently faced devastating repercussions. Former Washington Post classical music critic Anne Midgette remarks, “The amount of vitriol that’s waiting there for women in this field is really striking.” And as violinist Zeneba Bowers notes, the unspoken prevailing expectation was that “the [abuser’s] artistry is so incredible, it merits a lifetime free pass.”
Oboist Katherine Needleman connects the dots: “Women are missing virtually everywhere in classical music. Sexual harassment, sexual assault, and exclusion of women are all related.”
As St. John remarked in our December 2023 conversation, “Exclusion of women correlates directly with violence against women, and that’s something that really nobody can get behind. What I am campaigning for is systemic change throughout the culture.”
ON June 22, 2026, Royal Conservatory of Music President and CEO Alexander Brose announced an independent investigation into allegations of historical sexual abuse on its campus and how those allegations were responded to. Anyone wishing to share their personal experience is invited to contact lawyer Katharine Montpetit at rcm@rubinandco.ca. “Ms. Montpetit’s investigation is fully arms-length from the institution, Brose states: “She has the latitude to follow what she finds, wherever it leads. The people whose lives have been affected deserve an investigation that is independent, complete, and credible.”
This investigation is long overdue. Throughout my own career, I have met numerous women who have experienced sexual harassment within Toronto’s musical community. One can only hope this action on the part of the RCM marks the beginning of meaningful accountability and lasting change.
I, for one, will be watching closely.
Wendalyn Bartley can be reached at sounddreaming@gmail.com
