Preventing and Addressing Sexual Misconduct: Resources for Orchestras and Individuals

The League of American Orchestras cares deeply about the safety and well-being of everyone connected to orchestral music. Our commitments are to help the victims and survivors of sexual misconduct access the help they need, to provide orchestras with essential resources as they continue building inclusive and supportive organizations, and to convene field-wide dialogue to change the cultures that lead to exclusion and harm.

Preventing and addressing sexual misconduct will require sustained collective action across the classical music ecosystem, including administrative and artistic leaders, boards, unions, conservatories, colleges, and festivals. In the near term, the League is using its programmatic work, peer groups, affinity networks, and leadership capacity to advance this change. We are:

1. Promoting the resources of RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization, which operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline and carries out programs to prevent sexual violence. Please see below for more information.
2. Helping orchestras access best practices that will prevent sexual misconduct, build a culture of allyship, and provide effective reporting procedures through our 2024 national conference, learning programs, and regular updates to our new online resources for orchestras and individuals.
3. Accelerating our Inclusive Stages coalition work to reform tenure and audition procedures. We are grateful to our union partners and many orchestras across the country for their participation in this field-wide collaboration, which will build on the important recommendations already made by the National Alliance for Audition Support in 2021 and the Black Orchestral Network in 2024.
4. Expanding our work to support orchestras as they build inclusive workplaces, remove systemic obstacles to safety and belonging, and end the abuses of power that impede the development of healthy cultures.

We will work with our membership, expert partners, and those with lived experience, to identify additional next steps. We reaffirm the principles of equity, diversity and inclusion that guide all our efforts, recognizing that inclusive, safe organizational cultures are essential to the wellbeing of all marginalized groups. We will work tirelessly for a future that respects and honors the dignity, value, and creative capacity of every human being.

If you’d like to learn more today about how to take immediate action to prevent sexual misconduct, please visit RAINN at www.rainn.org. If you or someone you know has been assaulted or experienced other forms of sexual misconduct, support is available. To speak to someone who can help, call RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit www.rainn.org for online chat support.