Fear is the prevailing emotion at the Music Academy

In the Academy of Music – several letters

The students do not yet have a real idea about the new acting rector – Ilona Meija, because being a good teacher and musician is one thing, while being an administrative manager is a completely “different opera”. May herself has said that she will work more and talk less.

The administrative body of the Academy of Music is also in the dark about what to expect from the place-filler: one can say that many are now “sitting on suitcases”. An employee said that Prānis was the first rector who considered the employees of the administrative corps as people.

In the “Face book” or “Facebook” it can be read that Meija is a supporter of the “Progressive” party. It is no wonder, then, that the Ministry of Culture, headed by Agnese Logina, a member of the “Progressive” party, supports Meija.

Several letters have circulated in the Academy – one signed by Guntars Prānis’ defenders, the other one accusing Mari Kupča, and another one – with words of defense for Kupča. However, the signatories of the letters do not want to make themselves public, fearing the sneers of their opponents. Fear is currently the most characteristic emotion in the Academy of Music.

Who is the leader of the crooked ensemble?

Unable to withstand the pressure, Guntars Prānis resigned from his post. Before that, Prānis was accused of not having done anything to defend the students, even though he knew about the (alleged) ongoing harassment. On April 12, a letter was sent to the employees of the Music Academy with an explanation of how Guntars Prānis reacted and what he did.

The letter states that at the end of January, the first submission was received about the possible harassment of a student. “22.01.2024 the application is registered in the Office of the Rectorate; 23.01. there is a conversation between the rector and the guilty lecturer, he is instructed to provide an explanation within one working day; 23.01. the JVLMA draft of the order on the rules of conduct has been prepared; 05.02. JVLMA Student Self-Government informs the rector that it has conducted an anonymous student survey and shares the survey responses; 08.02. the rector issues an order on the rules of conduct of JVLMA employees; 19.02. a meeting of the JVLMA Ethics Commission takes place, where both parties are heard and a decision is made on 22.01. regarding the application. 21.02. the rector requests explanations from those lecturers mentioned in the survey conducted by the Student Self-Government; 21.02. There is a discussion in the JVLMA Senate about what has been done in this matter. 27.02. the rector meets with the chairman of the Senate I. Meija, vice-rector of academic work V. Bernhoff and lawyer I. Kalniņa, informing them about the decision of the Ethics Commission, the rector’s decision on disciplinary punishment regarding the particular lecturer, as well as the fact that all the other lecturers deny the accusations made against them in the anonymous survey .”

And so on. There are dozens of measures that tried to improve the situation in every possible way. Including the fact that the rector wrote a report to the State Police about what he saw in the LTV program “Culture Shock”. In short, everything happened this spring, except for normal, balanced studies. Everyone is still “on their nerves”, as they say. Because, look, there were whistleblower reports that indicated violations that occurred between 2013 and 2021. And why not between 1955 and 1965?

There are still seven submissions addressed to the rector, two of which are about experiences recounted by “third parties”; one is about experience 20 years ago and in a different institution; one is one in which the nature of the offence, the person guilty and the time of the offence, etc., are unclear. No, seriously? I wonder who is conducting all this, who is the leader of this crooked ensemble?

People were “crossed out”

Rector Prānis has been removed from the position of rector. Most likely, the researcher of ancient music, the head of the Department of Ancient Music Māris Kupčs, will never return to the academy – a student accuses him of unacceptable harassment. Accusing without evidence, of course. But lynchers can rejoice: concerts with the participation of Mārs Kupča are canceled, the Academy of Music has deleted from the Internet laudatory records about the musician. One of them started with the words “Māris Kupčs started his musical career as a choir conductor, together with the choir he founded “Voices”, winning numerous victories in international competitions for 10 years…” – who needs that anymore, right?

I contacted the colleagues and former students of Māras Kupča. I know the names of the two young women, but they chose to speak anonymously for fear of possible reprisals.

One of them, let’s call her Anitra, said: “I haven’t been a student for some time. I know that once Māris Kupčas had a conflict with a student who was regularly late for classes. And then came the accusations of harassment… Then various rumors were purposefully accumulated. For example, for some inappropriate gifts and offers to sleep, “otherwise you won’t get concerts”. What does it take to come up with something like that?! What tutor could afford something like that? A sane individual cannot even play that.”

Now the accusers emphasize the alleged mobbing and bossing of female students by Mārs Kupčas, because sexual harassment no longer “rolls” – it cannot be proven. “Now they are trying to make Kupč an emotional abuser,” continues Anitra, “but I have studied with him for six years, and I probably would not have chosen to study for a master’s degree if Kupč had treated me emotionally abusively.”

Anitra thinks that addressing Kupča is with the intention of freeing the stage for herself, pushing Kupča from it to create her own projects. “But there is no need to be afraid of competition! To make better projects. Those who participated in Kupcha’s projects, but received a fee, are now talking about mobbing and sexual harassment,” Anitra is outraged.

Anitra believes that “cancel culture” works perfectly in Latvia. “What happened at the academy with the rector and lecturers was illegal. People were simply crossed out. But we musicians are not immune to such things. Those who accused the lecturers live in their impunity, they say, we can say anything, we will have nothing to do with it. And did the members of the student government not understand that they were speaking on behalf of the academy and not as individuals? It’s not like hanging out with your girlfriends. They hung people’s lives.”

Anitra adds that she would not go to study at the academy now, knowing everything that happened there. But more than anything, he is fascinated by the attitude of the minister of culture: “It turns out that we live in a lawless country where people can be fired without any evidence. On the part of the Minister of Culture – excellent adherence to the principles of the rule of law,” said Anitra.

Drops the rector, who did everything for the academy

The second woman, let’s call her Gerda, said: “Those accusations against Mari Kupča are complete nonsense. I worked with Mari for more than ten years. These are not the kind of project works that are done only once a year. We often have rehearsals and I see his attitude towards other musicians, not just me. Yes, he is demanding, many may not like that. But for him to cross any boundaries – it never happened. However, he has always advocated that one should not do bad things.”

Gerda believes that it is terrible what is happening with the Music Academy: “The learning process has been stopped, no one understands what to do. After the scandal, I no longer work at the academy, I can’t. It may be different for instrumentalists, but for us, singers, the voice is a part of us, therefore – if something is bad, if there is no good relationship at work, we cannot sing. What has now been inflicted on the Academy is ruining it. I don’t know what is behind it all – probably politics. In my opinion, the goal was to change the management of the university in order to replace them with more tolerant people. We know that Guntars Prānis is a very principled, honest person. And I’m sorry that the rector, who did everything for the academy, was dropped.”

Gerda has observed that nowadays students have various rights but no obligations. “Also in this “sexual harassment” scandal: there is some story of a student without evidence, which everyone believes, but does not even listen to what the teacher says. Maris Kupčas’s life is now over – with some unproven case. He had a lot of concerts planned, now they’re being canceled,” says Gerda, “and it’s very unfair.”

We hope that the two witnesses, who asked not to be identified in this publication, will be ready to give official statements to the investigative authorities.

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