The investigation of the OSM is triggered after a complaint of a sexual nature against Charles Dutoit is still in progress

News 4 March, 2018

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QMI agency

Saturday, 3 march, 2018 23:50

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Saturday, 3 march, 2018 23:50

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MONTREAL | The investigation was announced last December by the Montreal symphony Orchestra in relation to a complaint of a sexual nature involving its former artistic director Charles Dutoit is still in progress.

Last December 23, the OSM had issued a press release indicating that, “in the wake of revelations that mr. Charles Dutoit, the executive Committee of the OSM has today decided to undertake a process audit in connection with sexual harassment within his / her institution”. “This decision is motivated by the fact that the direction of the OSM has, for the first time, received in the late afternoon yesterday [on December 22] a complaint of this nature”, said the leadership of the orchestra.

The MSO said that the investigation would be entrusted “to an independent third party”.

At that time, Charles Dutoit had already been the subject of allegations of assault of four women, three singers of the opera and a musician called to have been assaulted by the man between 1985 and 2010. Charles Dutoit has subsequently denied that a block of the allegations.

On Friday, the Boston symphony Orchestra, where Mr. Dutoit was guest conductor, has announced that an investigation conducted by an investigator special about complaints of the same kind made by four women, including a former intern, had been completed and that these complaints had been deemed “credible”.

Reached by QMI Agency in the wake of the announcement of the orchestra bostonnais, the Montreal symphony Orchestra said Saturday that “the investigation follows its course”. “We don’t know when it will end, this decision belongs, first and foremost, to the independent expert who was mandated to perform,” wrote in an e-mail Pascale Ouimet, head of public relations and media relations to the OSM.

Charles Dutoit has been artistic director of the OSM from 1977 until his resignation in 2002.