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Unless you don’t follow much social media, you have already heard that a certain hornist recently has seen major “negative change” in their career. His local PBS/NPR affiliate headline lays it out thusly: “Music professor retires from Rice following allegations of inappropriate conduct with female students.” Pulling a few points from their article,
- The allegations involve claims from several former students who accuse William VerMeulen of engaging in inappropriate behavior during his tenure as a professor of horn at Rice’s Shepherd School of Music.
- There are also allegations of sexually explicit photos being sent to students.
- … according to a classical music professor who requested anonymity, VerMeulen’s reputation has apparently been intertwined with long-running stories of alleged inappropriate behavior with female students.
- “People were saying that he would use extremely sexual language with women students and would aggressively use sexual metaphors and things like that,” the professor said.
- Amid the allegations, VerMeulen was reportedly suspended from his post at the Houston Symphony. A spokesperson for the Symphony told Houston Public Media that they were reviewing the allegations and will “take any actions” to ensure they’re “providing a safe environment.”
A cautionary tale
A primary goal of Horn Matters is educational. My overall hope in the article that follows is that students especially can reflect on this story as a cautionary tale. Just because someone is a great player or has been a highly effective teacher, that doesn’t mean they have their life and moral foundations together, with the right life priorities in place. Be very careful in your choices of teachers and inspirations, it can make a huge difference in the trajectory of your life.
(The text of the meme is two direct quotations from the bio in his personal website).
He called himself the horn guru
The “Rice Horn Guru” has been mentioned in Horn Matters a number of times, although mostly not by name directly. And Bruce and I have both had interactions with him at various times. I’ll just speak to my own – I suspect he was basically on his best behavior when I was around him. I never studied with him (he is less than 2 years older than me!), and the self-promotion and rumors I would hear about his interactions with students gave me pause.
Then also there was the whole guru and cult following thing. It is probably a coincidence, but a TV series ran not long ago on Hulu for three seasons on a fictional religious cult with a similar name to one I grew up near – their group was called The Path. Those familiar with his teaching method already know that he called his signature system of horn playing The Path. That choice of name turned me personally off to his pedagogy even more in recent years than the whole captain and crew thing he also used to connect with his students.
There were warning signs 40 years ago
An interview with him ran in the April, 1984 issue of The Horn Call. If you want to do a deeper dive, another interview may be found in the May 1994 issue, and there is an article on his pedagogy in the February 1996 issue, but I’ll focus here on the initial interview with Catherine Watson. It is fascinating in retrospect.
The interview occurred on June 10, 1983, near the end of the IHS symposium in Charleston Illinois. That was the first workshop I (at age 20!) ever attended, and the 22-year-old guru was a featured artist. He performed a Mendelssohn work for clarinet, basset horn, and piano and I mean, I was there in the hall, it was very impressive. Lots of notes! The audience went wild.
At the time he described his current positions as solo horn of the Honolulu Symphony and artist-in-residence, instructor of horn at Interlochen in the summers. From what he described as a “semi-musical family,” he grew up in Lake Forest, IL, and studied with several highly competent horn teachers in the Chicago area, including in particular for three years with Eugene Chausow (1931-2022). I highlight Chausow because, besides playing and teaching in the Chicago area, he spent a big chunk of his life, including retirement, out here in Arizona where I am presently. A Wagner tuba that belonged to him is now part of our set at ASU. While I don’t believe that I ever met him, he was well regarded here, and at one point was a predecessor of mine as horn professor at Arizona State, in the timeframe that he performed in the Phoenix Symphony. Reading his obituary, it is clear that he was a man with hobbies, very devoted to his wife and children, and a man of faith.
But the future guru idolized someone else.
Dale’s been my inspiration – I had idolized him since I was in fifth grade. Everyone else was walking around with Bobby Sherman on their school notebooks, but I had Dale Clevenger – literally, I had a Dale Clevenger notebook. … Finally[,] I was able to take lessons from him in the summer during my last couple high school years, [and] then as his first freshman student at Northwestern. During my freshman year I won a professional job. That was the first audition I’d ever taken ….
The first job was Second Horn in Kansas City, which did not suit him, and not long after that he landed in Honolulu as Principal Horn at an age when most hornists are undergraduates.
Later in the interview he states that he found Clevenger to be “super-inspirational,” and, in the same answer relating to what he attributed his success, he mentions that he is a “risky guy.” He clearly had a personal game plan or system for success that he had embraced at a young age. Taking some risks because you are optimistic of success is important — but embracing risky behaviors as a general life strategy would not be a good plan.
“What are your hobbies?”
If I were to pick one final item to highlight from this interview it would be the question on hobbies. I’ve mentioned his answer to my own students so many times; if your hobby is self-improvement, you need to find a real hobby ASAP. I have multiple hobbies, and even Verne Reynolds had a hobby, he had a large organic garden. The answer to “What are your hobbies?” is a bit unexpected.
Well, I’m really interested in advancing myself as a human being, because I believe that I’m a person first and a musician second. If I didn’t have the horn I’d still have to be a human being, so my hobby, which I know sounds like a weird hobby, is just trying to better myself as a human being, be it through studying different stress things, as I have done, or reading, or just becoming a little more of a nice guy, trying to deal with life and handle life a little better. Whereas musically I may be a little bit ahead of the game, personally I’m still a 22-year-old guy, going through all life’s ups and downs. Luckily, I’ve gone through mostly ups in my life, but you have to be prepared for the downs, and just try to live life in a beautiful way.
To a point he probably was just a young man trying to give the “right” answer for an interview that he knew would be in The Horn Call. But the answer points out at best a developing personal/spiritual foundation, another piece of the puzzle of the path that leads to where he is today.
BRIEF UPDATE: I’ll add this on hobbies. There is a line of thought that says if you want real success on the horn that you should eat, breathe and sleep the horn 24/7. It is a type of thinking that can sound good to a student, part of being hard core into the horn, but it is not a healthy mindset. Hobbies, real hobbies, help you work out stress in your life and so much more. I’ll have more on this thought soon in an upcoming article, but self-improvement is just not a hobby. UPDATE II: That article is here.
Some very positive recent changes in our horn world
I have been so saddened and angered by the recent multiple stories of very bad actors out there in our horn world, beyond what I ever imagined.
Which is also to say that I am happy to see that among others all the big horn entities – the IHS, the IHCA, and the KBHC – have adopted very serious policies in relation to sexual harassment of all types, with background checks for all officers, etc. LONG overdue. The horn guru was for example at one point on the board of the IHCA, and now we read in their Instagram this summary of their policy:
The International Horn Competition of America is committed to providing a fully professional and safe environment for all those associated with the organization in any capacity, particularly those participating in competition events. All IHCA activities will be free from harassment or judgement based on race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, or classified disability.
Full policies can be found on the various organization websites. This is very positive change, and leaves me hopeful that the future in our horn world will be better. There is simply no room for old school, sexist behaviors, not to mention sexual harassment or abuse, in our horn world.
