Katherine Needleman. Photo source: Curtis Institute of Music.
In Sunday’s (10/19) Washington Post, Geoff Edgers writes, “A Baltimore Symphony Orchestra oboist, Katherine Needleman, 47, has gained 22,000 followers and millions of views for her scathing commentary about gender disparity in the orchestra world—and her practice of calling out specific men in the field for alleged sexual misconduct. She’s also been surprisingly effective at prompting managers to remove these men from their posts. It’s a controversial evolution of the #MeToo movement, which began with claims assessed in deeply reported investigative news stories or slowly litigated through the judicial system. Needleman and some fellow activists, though, simply take allegations straight to the court of public opinion, via social media. In Texas, a longtime Rice University horn professor abruptly retired after Needleman reposted an explicit photo he had sent to another woman. In Calgary, Alberta, two tenured symphony players—one of them a Grammy-winning oboist—were fired after Needleman published vulgar and sexist online exchanges that had been leaked to her…. Her tactics have drawn sharp public criticism from [some] fellow musicians … In the orchestra world, secrecy has always seemed paramount, from auditions to tenure deliberations. It’s part of a system developed to ensure that pure talent, not favoritism, will inform management’s decisions…. But what if Needleman had a point—that this careful process had become a kind of shield for the worst offenders, leaving the victims with no recourse?”
