Story Archive

Not Quite Harmonious

Clarinetist Eric Abramovitz was auditioning before Prof. Yehuda Gilad for at least the second time when the renowned clarinet teacher asked him, “Why did you reject me?” Some time later, Abramovitz forwarded Gilad the email he’d received: it was Gilad, he’d thought, who’d rejected him. But Gilad said he’d never seen that email. Rather, Abramovitz had been accepted for the program he’d previously auditioned for, but, a court has now found, his then-girlfriend, flautist Jennifer Jooyeon Lee, with whom he lived in Montreal, Que., Canada, and whom he trusted with his passwords, stole his chance: she deleted the acceptance email, sent Gilad’s school an email declining the offer, and, using a fake email address with Gilad’s name on it, sent Abramovitz a rejection. “She apparently did these things so that Mr. Abramovitz would ... stay in Montreal and remain in his relationship with her,” the judge ruled, awarding him C$375,000 (US$282,000) in damages. But before the clarinetist, now with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, can collect, someone will have to find Lee. The flautist never showed up to defend the case. (AC/National Post) ...Perhaps because her actions were indefensible.