VSO threatens former violinist with legal action after speaking out about abuse allegations

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra has sent a cease-and-desist letter to a violinist who recently went public with allegations that the organization retaliated against her after she filed a sexual-assault complaint against a senior member of the orchestra.

Esther Hwang, 30, received the legal demand on Dec. 18, one day after the Globe and Mail reported on her 2024 complaint with the VSO.

The law firm Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, representing the VSO, said Hwang’s public disclosures violated a confidentiality agreement she signed as part of a settlement of her March 2019 complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.

In the letter, B. Jake Cabott pointed to Hwang’s public statements to the media and her Dec. 17 email to VSO musicians, in which she admitted she “decided to break (her) NDA.”

Cabott wrote that the VSO has “suffered, and will continue to suffer, significant harm, including disruption within the orchestra and broader musical community,” and warned that the orchestra could seek damages, including for reputational and consequential losses.

The letter also demands Hwang “immediately cease further disclosures of information … including any further communications on this matter with VSO musicians, staff, media, or members of the public.”

Hwang, a former student at The Juilliard School, joined the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in early 2017 as an extra violinist. She alleges that a senior member of the orchestra made multiple unwanted sexual advances and sexually assaulted her at a post-performance party in 2017.

Hwang said the recent cease-and-desist letter has only reinforced her belief that non-disclosure agreements are being used to silence musicians who raise allegations of sexual misconduct.

“If I stayed silent, it was telling the VSO you can do this to someone else — you can silence them, re-victimize them and even threaten to sue them,” she said Saturday.

“I don’t want this to be able to happen to anyone else.”

Since going public, a committee representing the orchestra’s full-time musicians issued a public statement backing Hwang, praising her for speaking out against what it described as the “unethical and immoral” use of confidentiality agreements in cases of alleged sexual violence.

An online petition was also created to demand the VSO drop legal action against Hwang, issue her a public apology for the cease-and-desist letter, and end its use of binding confidentiality agreements with employees in cases involving harassment, discrimination, sexual misconduct, or abuse. As of Saturday, the petition had more than 6,000 signatures.

In response to Hwang’s B.C. Human Rights Tribunal complaint, the VSO and Borden Ladner Gervais LLP wrote in a July 2, 2019, email obtained by Postmedia that it was willing to “remove” the musician named in her complaint and reimburse her counselling costs — but only if Hwang withdrew her human rights complaint and signed a full release of all claims.

The letter stated that any such steps would not constitute an admission of liability, but were intended to help Hwang move forward.

sgrochowski@postmedia.com

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