Like many others, I’ve been quite distressed by the evidence emerging of sexual abuse in the past at Chetham’s music school in Manchester, with allegations extending also to the RNCM. This follows the conviction a decade ago of the director of a leading children’s choir in the city for similar offences, at a time when child protection was already being taken seriously. I was involved in the choral scene in Manchester at quite a high level at the end of the period in question, and inevitably came into contact with these two institutions and people who taught at them or attended them.
I cannot believe that anyone I sang for can have been implicated in this; they were all people for whom I had great personal as well as musical respect (and, incidentally, were fair and honest in their dealings with singers). I imagine some of them must feel pretty heartbroken now. Nor do I have any reason to suspect the same of anyone else I encountered there. I knew of teacher/pupil relationships at the RNCM (which were thought unremarkable at the time), though nothing not involving consenting adults.
But sadly this news does not hugely surprise me. I cannot put my finger on what felt wrong about this side of the musical life of the city, but something did. Did the axis formed by Chet’s and the RNCM just seem a little too cosy? Furthermore, I sometimes encountered a culture of devious and unscrupulous behaviour, even skilful deception, in Manchester’s musical circles. It is in such a culture that abusers can move undetected.