{"id":53528,"date":"2018-04-24T15:03:02","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T19:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=53528"},"modified":"2018-04-26T09:40:07","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T13:40:07","slug":"the-scoop-noel-edison-resigns-as-artistic-director-of-toronto-mendelssohn-choir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2018\/04\/24\/the-scoop-noel-edison-resigns-as-artistic-director-of-toronto-mendelssohn-choir\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SCOOP | Noel Edison Resigns As Director Of Toronto Mendelssohn Choir Over Harassment Allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Facing the results of an internal third-party investigation into sexual misconduct, conductor Noel Edison has formally resigned as Artistic Director Of Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, effective immediately.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

UPDATE: This story has been updated to include a statement by\u00a0Noel Edison<\/strong>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Following the announcement last Friday\u00a0<\/a>that conductor Noel Edison had been fired from his role at the Elora Festival and Elora Singers, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (TMC) have announced the conductor has formally resigned from his role as Artistic Director.<\/p>\n

In a press release statement, the TMC thanked him for his \u201c21 years of artistic excellence with the TMC.\u201d<\/p>\n

The news follows the previous\u00a0announcement<\/a>\u00a0by the TMC back on\u00a0February 28, that Edison would be taking a\u00a0personal leave\u00a0of absence\u00a0from his role as conductor\u00a0of The Toronto Mendelsohn Choir and the Elora Singers.<\/p>\n

The TMC hired an investigator early in the year to look into claims that Edison may have acted inappropriately in his professional capacity as a conductor. The Board has since met to discuss\u00a0the investigator’s findings, and have accepted Edison’s resignation,\u00a0effective immediately.<\/p>\n

“I am saddened to be leaving my post under the present circumstances,” said Edison in a statement. “The acts of which I am accused were, at the time, considered inconsequential by all involved. And none of them were of a criminal nature. It has been one of the great privileges of my life to have been the conductor of this outstanding ensemble for the last twenty-one years.”<\/p>\n

Ludwig Van has received details from a source who contributed to the investigation by the TMC. The source, who does not\u00a0want to be named but was a member of the choir, stated that he had “…experienced first-hand a culture of regular and permitted harassment (verbal and physical) from the Artistic Director, Noel Edison. While these aggrievements\u00a0have taken place semi-regularly, it is most often that harassment occurs\u00a0around blurred lines, power-play, etc.”<\/p>\n

The source\u00a0outlined instances\u00a0of inappropriate sexual advances towards him by Edison, and included unwanted groping, kissing, and sexually explicit\u00a0discussions. All of these events are alleged to have\u00a0taken place during various post-concert parties held at Edison’s former home in Toronto and\/or his residence\u00a0in Elora.<\/p>\n

In response\u00a0to the investigator’s report, which\u00a0has not been released\u00a0to the public, the TMC\u00a0is currently reviewing their anti-harassment policies and of the chorister guidelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe TMC\u2019s Creating a Safe Creative Space initiative will include updating policies; providing more education and training to TMC staff and singers on the policies and on the organization\u2019s expectations about mutual respect; and ensuring that TMC\u2019s process for addressing complaints is clearly understood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Vincent<\/strong>\u00a0can be reached at 289-242-4435 or\u00a0michael@ludwig-van.com<\/a>\u00a0or follow\u00a0@Michael_Vincent<\/a><\/p>\n

Read more about:\u00a0Noel\u00a0Edison<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facing the results of an internal third-party investigation into sexual misconduct, conductor Noel Edison has formally resigned as Artistic Director Of Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, effective immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":53103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14761,39,17333,63],"tags":[6592,2418,3349],"yst_prominent_words":[9008,11623,10136,6807,18846,18845,10135,18844,10622,10621,18843,6929,10134,10120,18824,18835,17178,6741,6930,6914],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/04\/Noel-Edison-Stately.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-dVm","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53528"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53528"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53572,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53528\/revisions\/53572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53528"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=53528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}