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UPDATE: WNC flute camp stands behind accused renowned instructor as others drop him

The Citizen-Times

While two high-profile institutions have dropped a renowned flute instructor facing allegations of sexual misconduct spanning two decades, a Western North Carolina flute camp is standing behind him — and apparently continuing to employ him.

New York University said Wednesday that Bradley Garner is no longer an adjunct professor there, and Yamaha Corp. dropped Garner as a promotional artist, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, which broke the story.

The University of Cincinnati, where Garner worked for years as a professor, conducted an investigation into Garner after allegations surfaced of inappropriate sexual conduct.

The Wildacres Flute Retreat in Little Switzerland on Thursday afternoon still had Garner listed as a teacher for its camp that will run from June 23-30. Garner will teach an orchestral excerpt masterclass, according to the retreat website.

The Citizen Times left two messages with the retreat's course director Thursday afternoon but has not received a reply.

Garner was the subject of a University of Cincinnati investigation in 2016 that found evidence of "unwanted sexual advances and verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature," as well as a "hostile environment." The university's preliminary report contained interviews with nine students who said Garner kissed them, touched them inappropriately or said inappropriate things to them.

Several students who spoke to the Enquirer about Garner and inappropriate behavior said they met him at the Wildacres Flute Retreat, a prestigious weeklong flute camp held every year in the Little Switzerland area of northern McDowell County.

Wildacres Flute Retreat Course Director Anna Thibeault on Wednesday said Garner has taught at the camp, which draws students from all over the United States and the world, for 15 years.

"I've been the director since 2003, and I have never had anyone ever come up to me and complain about any of his behavior," Thibeault said. "He’s a great teacher, he’s a wonderful player, and he’s a really nice person to work with. I was disgusted with what I read in the Cincinnati (paper)."

The Juilliard School on Thursday issued its first public response to the allegations against Garner, who taught in its prep program for 8- to 18-year-old students for almost three decades.

"At this time, we are not aware of any reports of sexual misconduct involving Bradley Garner at Juilliard," spokeswoman Alexandra Day day said in a statement. "Juilliard is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all members of the school community and has a zero-tolerance policy for sexual misconduct and harassment."

Garner taught at Juilliard Pre-College until December 2016, Day said, when the school learned informally of the University of Cincinnati's Title IX investigation.

"Garner was placed on leave at Juilliard in December 2016 and did not teach at Juilliard in the Spring 2017 semester," Day said. "His annual contract expired in June 2017 and was not renewed."

One former teacher at Wildacres Flute Retreat, Chapel Hill resident Helen Spielman, said she raised concerns about Garner with Thibeault in early January and about a year ago, as rumors about the university's investigation were making the rounds in the flute world. Spielman taught a course on performance anxiety at Wildacres Flute Retreat for 13 years, leaving in 2016.

World-renowned flutist and professor Bradley Garner built the University of Cincinnati's flute program into one of the most elite in the country over the course of two decades. In 2016, Garner was accused by nine women of making unwanted sexual advances towards them.

Spielman said she was surprised by Thibeault's dismissive attitude when she asked the director to consider writing a code of ethics for the flute retreat and its staffers. The retreat hosts 50-60 students a year, ranging in age from 12 to adulthood.

Spielman said the director also told her the allegations surrounding Garner were "not my problem." Spielman said she argued that to prevent an incident, "Wouldn't it make sense to try to pre-empt the situation from happening in the first place by having a code of ethics in place that you expect your faculty to adhere to?"

"Her response to that was, ‘Some 15-year old girls are little nymphos, and not every underage girl is an innocent girl to be set upon by men,'" Spielman said. "She said some women are just as anxious to fool around as men, and as far as she knows (Garner was) not a danger to anyone."

Thibeault said that is a misinterpretation of that conversation, referring to Spielman with an epithet.

"I was trying to explain to Helen, who is a horrible old biddy ... I was trying to explain to her that the situation is far more complicated than just this whole ‘me too’ thing, where all men are evil and all women are victims," Thibeault told the Citizen Times in a telephone interview Wednesday. "So I told her about this one girl we had up there, who, she was a nympho. I had to tell her, 'You have be in your bed by 11 o'clock every night, or I’m going to call your mother.' My point was, we get all kinds."

Thibeault said she had nicknamed the 15-year-old girl in question "Lolita" because of her flirtatious behavior.

Thibeault was adamant that inappropriate behavior is not condoned at the camp, and that her remarks to Spielman were simply an effort to explain that girls under 18 who attend the camp can present liability concerns. She insists Spielman is twisting her words.

"So that was completely misinterpreted to mean what? That it’s OK for the male teachers to go and screw around with them? Because that’s not what I said," Thibeault said.

Garner has never displayed inappropriate behavior at the camp, Thibeault said, and she considers the allegations against him a "witch hunt" largely driven by one former student.

The Enquirer noted that the University of Cincinnati's preliminary report contained interviews with nine students who said Garner kissed them, touched them inappropriately or said inappropriate things to them. A former UC professor also told investigators he witnessed Garner’s sexual misconduct with students, including videos of Garner having sexual relations with two students, the paper reported.

Also, three of the nine students and the former professor made similar charges regarding Garner in interviews with the Enquirer. Two other women who studied with Garner, 61, detailed their own allegations of harassment to The Enquirer.

Several Citizen Times readers took Thibeault to task for her comments supporting Garner and questioning Spielman's actions.

Betty Douglas said in a Facebook comment that she had attended Wildacres as a 14-year-old in the early 1980s.

"I am shocked and disgusted by Mrs. Thibeault's comments," Douglas said. "She is blaming victims and ruining the reputation of this retreat. I could not imagine going there now, nor sending my child there."

NYU spokesman Jordan Bennett told the Enquirer that the university was "unaware of allegations" surrounding Garner until an inquiry from an Enquirer reporter. On Wednesday, Bennett said in a statement that Garner "is no longer an adjunct faculty member at NYU."

"Providing our students with a safe space to learn is our priority, and sexual misconduct of any kind is not tolerated," Bennett said.

Yamaha Corp., which employed Garner as a promotional artist, has "officially terminated its relationship, completely and fully with Bradley Garner," Tom Sumner, Yamaha senior vice president, said in a statement Thursday.

Spielman, 66, said she never saw "anything directly" at the camp that she would consider inappropriate faculty behavior, except some instructors drinking alcohol in front of students. She had little interaction with Garner.

"He was always cordial to me, although I felt he never sought me out or initiated conversation," Spielman said.

Garner is a star in the flute world. He has performed as a soloist in Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and he frequently played with the New York Philharmonic and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Garner will remain on the faculty at Wildacres, Thibeault said. But Spielman will "never, ever set foot on Wildacres again," Thibeault said.

"I know the easiest way would be to say, ‘Brad, I think maybe you had better not come back,' but I’ve got more of a moral backbone than that," Thibeault said. "I think it’s very, very unfair, and I’m so disgusted."