Exclusive: John Eliot Gardiner is sacked by his orchestras

The board of the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras today terminated its relationship with the conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner, who has been suspended since a violent incident 11 months ago. The termination is abrupt and irreversible.

A statement reads: Sir John Eliot Gardiner, founder of the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, will not be returning to the organisation.

Following a reported assault in August 2023, John Eliot Gardiner stepped back from public music-making. He accepted full responsibility for the incident, and he has not worked with the organisation for nearly a year. During this time, the MCO did consider the possibility of a rehabilitation process – operating within the MCO’s Respect & Dignity at Work policy – while its primary concern throughout has been to fully uphold values of inclusion, equality and respect for all its stakeholders. As a leading Arts organisation, the MCO takes seriously its obligations to protect victims of abuse and assault, and preventing any recurrence remains a priority for the organisation.

Gardiner, 81, has been undergoing treatment for anger management while trying to rehabilitate his status with the organisations he founded. As charities, however, those institutions had public obligations and procedures which made a rapid return impossible. Negotiations were under way to arrange a dignified departure and further meetings were still scheduled this week but the atmosphere soured and we understand the board lost patience with the turbulent and entrepreneurial conductor.

In today’s statement, the board added:

John Eliot Gardiner’s extraordinary musical influence over the past sixty years has made a lasting impact. The MCO acknowledges with gratitude his monumental contribution, and holds a deep-seated commitment to honour and preserve these phenomenal accomplishments. The organisation is proud to have enabled and promoted his long and illustrious career, alongside that of many other musicians. They will work passionately to build upon the remarkable foundations laid by the three ensembles he founded, taking forward their trailblazing work with new talent and new benchmark performances for years to come.

So far this year the MCO has continued to bring extraordinary music making to audiences around the world. Projects with conductors Dinis Sousa, Jonathan Sells and Peter Whelan, including the Beethoven symphony cycle in London and Paris, Bach motets in Leipzig, and, most recently, Handel’s Israel in Egypt at the Salzburg Festival, have attracted widespread critical acclaim. At the end of the summer and in coordination with our venue partners, the MCO will announce new conductors that will be joining the MCO to lead a new season of projects, which will feature new creative milestones and firsts for the choir and orchestras.

UPDATE: JEG’s exit statement.

2nd UPDATE: So what next for JEG?

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