After being drugged and raped by a colleague while another looked on in Colorado in 2010, Cara Kizer filed a police report and did a rape kit. The New York Philharmonic did nothing but deny her tenure, and they also denied tenure to Amanda Stewart who stood up for her. They were the first two female brass New York Philharmonic members in history. 

The Phil did an investigation eight years later and fired the two men. The Union's Local 802 forced an arbitration with a 77-year old white man part-time magician in 2020, who decided that although there had certainly been misconduct, the predators could have their jobs back, complete with over a million dollars of back pay. Cara had no choice but to accept an NDA, a small settlement, and try to rebuild her life.

Until a recent article in New York Magazine, (https://www.vulture.com/article/new-york-philharmonic-sexual-assault-scandal.html this story had been an open secret in the music world. Everyone knew, no one did anything. Now is the time to tell the NY Phil to end with this archaic method of shutting women up, release Cara and other women from forced silence, and apologize for their treatment of women. The severe inequality and gender imbalance in music is only heightened by institutional complicity and rewarding men in power for their misconduct. 

Let's start putting women's lives above men's tenure.