An accusation against Deborah Rutter’s husband

Eighteen years after the alleged event, Vanessa Fralick – assistant principal trombone of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra – has accused her former teacher Peter Ellefson of pestering her for sex.

Ellefson has been professor at Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University Bloomington, for the past two decades. He is the second and present husband of Deborah Rutter, former president of the Kennedy Center in Washington.

Rutter was fired yesterday by order of President Trump, which may have triggered long memories.

Fralick, in her account, acknowledges that Ellefson left her alone after she made it clear she did not welcome his attentions. The substance of her account is this:

He sat down beside me on a couch at the final party, put his hand on my leg and then followed me to the bathroom when I tried to move away from him. I immediately left the party and nothing happened but he followed up with voicemails and emails where he tried to arrange to meet up with me alone in Chicago the following week, at a bar or even a hotel.

I was terrified that by rejecting him I risked damaging not only my grad school prospects but also my potential career in the orchestra world and responded politely and respectfully, acting flattered, while at the same time making it clear I was not interested in any sort of relationship.

I shared this story anonymously in a Facebook group last summer and oddly, shortly afterwards received an apology email from him – seventeen years later.

It is really scary to write this post but as he is still teaching and performing at major institutions in the USA, I write it so other young players and their teachers can be aware and on their guard.

Fralick’s case has been taken up by an orchestral #Metoo agitator.

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