Everybody Knew
On the documentary ‘Dear Lara’ and sexual abuse in fame-adjacent industries
(Trigger warning: this piece discusses sexual abuse of minors. Please read with care.)
Last week, former reality TV child Collin Gosselin, now 22, announced he’s written an upcoming memoir with Hachette, detailing his suffering behind the scenes of Jon & Kate Plus 8. Collin was watched by tens of millions of people for close to ten years, he and his siblings have huge name recognition. And though the publisher’s description stops short of naming names, some verbal and emotional abuse was filmed and aired on international television. As close as it comes to a slam dunk where ‘allegations’ are concerned, right?
It took years, and tragic situations, for anyone to listen to him. Even though everybody knew.
I’ve confessed many times that I was a specific type of dork as a teen. Like many future writers, I was full-italics dramatic and passionate and romantic about the usual subjects: writers, actors, artists, and at one point, classical musicians.
Though a deeply average piano student myself (more on this later), I loved the subculture: young people work tirelessly to make their mark at special schools, in special competitions – this was my catnip. It was also the 90s, so I was primed to imprint on ‘cool girls’: phenoms like Vanessa-Mae or Lara St. John, massively talented singular performers with eye-catching album covers marketed as take-no-prisoners badasses I hoped to emulate in attitude, if not in music.
Fast forward a few decades – the marketing did not lie. Late last year, lurking on violin message boards as is my dorky wont, I learned about Dear Lara, a documentary written and directed by Lara St. John about long-held secrets of sexual abuse in classical music. St. John is Canadian, from London, ON, but after studying around the world and touring internationally as a soloist from ages 10-13 (!), she and her brother were both accepted to the highly selective Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, with its “3% acceptance rate; about the same as Harvard”, she points out.
At 14, she was raped and repeatedly abused by lauded professor Jascha Brodsky, who threatened to kick out both Lara and her brother if she complained. She was terrified of ending both their careers, but still went to the dean of this august institution, who guffawed: “Who do you think [the police] are going to believe? Some kid, or a teacher who’s been with the school for decades?” …
