“A months-long investigation by the law firm Cozen O’Connor into ‘horrifying accounts of rape and repeated sexual abuse’ from violinist Lara St. John while she was a student at the Curtis Institute of Music has found her claims to be credible,” writes Peter Dobrin in Tuesday’s (9/22) Philadelphia Inquirer. “A report by the firm detailing her experience, as well as separate claims of abuse by about two dozen other students over a period of decades, was unanimously accepted Tuesday by the Curtis board…. The report was commissioned by Curtis after a July 2019 Inquirer investigation detailed St. John’s claim of rape and sexual abuse by violin professor Jascha Brodsky and repeated instances in which school leaders ignored her accounts, including in 1986, 2013, and 2019…. Cozen’s report [noted that] since students remain at the school at the discretion of their main instrumental teacher, they do not report abuse because of the ‘real threat that one could be dismissed for any reason at any time.’ … Brodsky died in 1997…. Curtis has published the 54-page report … on its website…. The school details changes it has made and will make in reporting and dealing with sexual misconduct.”
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