Cleveland Orchestra Suspends a Star After Accusation of Assault

The classical music world’s reckoning with sexual misconduct and abuse continued Friday when the Cleveland Orchestra suspended violinist William Preucil, its concertmaster of more than two decades, while it investigates accusations that he sexually assaulted a violin student in 1998.

The orchestra announced the investigation a day after The Washington Post reported the allegations made by the violinist, Zeneba Bowers, who accused him of aggressively kissing her, unbuttoning her clothes and pushing her onto the bed in his hotel room after he had given her a lesson at the New World Symphony, an elite training academy in Miami. After she ran home, she told The Post, Preucil telephoned her and threatened to blacklist her if she told anyone.

The Cleveland Orchestra, which is routinely ranked at or near the top of American orchestras, promised to conduct an independent investigation of Preucil. As concertmaster, or leader of the first violins, Preucil is second in importance and power only to the orchestra’s conductor. And he is a well-known figure in musical circles. But he has been accused of misconduct before, in a 2007 report in the Cleveland Scene.

André Gremillet, the orchestra’s executive director, said officials there had not been aware of the new allegations detailed in The Post, which also reported that Preucil had lewdly propositioned another unnamed violinist with the New World Symphony in 2000.

“We take this matter very seriously and will promptly conduct an independent investigation,” Gremillet said. “Mr. Preucil has been suspended until further notice.”

Preucil, who The Post said had not responded to multiple requests for interviews, did not immediately return an email seeking comment. In addition to playing with the orchestra, he performs chamber music and teaches — as a distinguished professor of violin at the Cleveland Institute of Music and at Furman University.