A Hong Kong newspaper has reported fresh allegations of abusive conduct involving the former music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. The other party was the chair of the musicians’ committee.
Here’s an extract:
According to reports, there are two main characters: Jaap van Zweden and the chairman of the Musicians’ Committee, bass clarinetist Lorenzo Iosco. The latter is of Italian nationality and joined the Hong Kong Philharmonic from the London Symphony Orchestra about ten years ago. As the name suggests, the Musicians’ Committee takes safeguarding the interests of the orchestra as its primary task. In order to protect the rehearsal process from rude words or intimidation, they requested to record the entire process, but this proposal was not accepted by the top management. So they conducted an internal questionnaire, anonymously asking everyone’s opinions on the rehearsal recording, and added another question: Are you willing for Jaap van Zweden to continue conducting the Hong Kong Philharmonic? It is reported that more than half of the responses expressed their unwillingness. During this period, everyone received a notice from Jaap van Zweden: the performance originally scheduled for January next year was cancelled due to scheduling issues.
It was against this background that the conflict between the two parties mentioned above broke out during a rehearsal. Although there was a lot of noise behind the scenes, it was clear that during the conversation between Van Zweden and Elgort, he loudly insulted the other party with foul language, calling him “Fxxking Asshole”, and then said, “I can destroy you!” However, the musician did not respond with foul language, but asked, “Oh, really? How can you do that? Who do you think you are?” Then Van Zweden said something extremely inappropriate, calling the other party “Italian bullshit.” Adding the other party’s nationality to the insulting words can be a big deal or a small deal.
The words were spoken and cannot be taken back. There was no executive or management involvement in the process, which was their job. Unfortunately, German CEO Benedikt Fohr left at the end of June, and no one knows who will take over.
It is reported that Van Zweden later apologized.
An investigation two months ago by the Dutch documentary site Pointer raised claims of persistent bullying against Van Zweden.
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