Editor’s note: This story contains scenes of inappropriate touching and conduct. If you or someone you know has experienced something similar, resources are available here.
Vanessa Fralick was 21 and an aspiring musician attending the Alessi Seminar for trombones in New Mexico in 2007 when Peter Ellefson, a trombone professor at IU's Jacobs School of Music and in his 40s at the time, allegedly touched her leg and attempted to initiate a relationship.
Ellefson said he had no reason to believe anything in Fralick’s Substack post about the incident last week was fabricated and that he had never been in a relationship with a student.
Fralick, now the Toronto Symphony’s associate principal trombone, came forward Feb. 12 in a post on Substack. She said in the post that she couldn’t sit on the information any longer. She wanted it known, to eradicate the behavior that she said has long plagued professional music.
For the next 17 years after the incident, Fralick did not come forward publicly with the information.
“I’ve always felt a nagging guilt,” she said in an interview with the Indiana Daily Student. “For not publicizing the information, just out of fear that he might be doing this to other people.”
In the Substack post, she said during the after-party of the trombone seminar in 2007, Ellefson put his hand on her leg and followed her to the bathroom when she tried to distance herself from him.
Fralick was a student at the time, and Ellefson was a teacher at the seminar. After Fralick left the party, she wrote Ellefson sent her emails and voicemails confessing his feelings for her and attempting to arrange to meet.
“If I am being weird about this, or am misinterpreting what was going on, I absolutely and most sincerely apologize and will let it drop,” read the email from Ellefson at 6:55 a.m. Aug. 7, 2007. “If it is a matter of the student teacher thing, then let’s discuss it. Let’s please discuss it.”
She said in the post that she was worried her rejection of him would ruin her chances of getting into graduate school and complicate a future orchestra career.
In her response email at 6:33 p.m. Aug. 8, she clarified her respect for him but said she could “never compromise (her)self by having a more serious relationship with a teacher.” She said she was surprised and confused by his implications. She said she might have time to grab a coffee.
In Ellefson’s email that followed at 9:02 p.m. Aug. 8, he said he would drive up to meet her unless it was only for a short time or if she was with other people. He wrote about how he was instantly attracted to her during the seminar’s registration and thought he was picking up “great vibes” from her during the week and at the after-party.
“Let’s be honest here... cute trombone players are pretty rare... although there were 2 at the seminar... not that I noticed,” the email from Ellefson read. “For the record, when working with you in class and our lesson, I was completely detached from any attraction to you.”
Ellefson wrote he had learned not to be weighed down by others’ opinions and conventions as he got older, and that their age difference seemed to not be an issue for him.
“I guess the after-party convinced me that something was happening... after all you flicked my nipples, drank from the same vessel (again)... and in some countries, that means we are married,” the email read. “You are a beautiful woman! I really mean it. For me, whew, you are amazing! Great V-neck shirts too!”
He wrote that he had never had a relationship with a student. He emailed that if they were ever to be in a serious relationship, he could never have her as a student during that time or immediately afterward.
The email said he took his relationships with his students very seriously, though he said he did have a “brief personal relationship” with someone who used to be a student but found it simple to cancel any further study. In an email to the IDS, Ellefson clarified he had never had a romantic relationship with one of his students.
Fralick responded at 10:09 p.m. Aug. 8 saying she didn’t think a meet-up would be possible and reaffirming that she did not want to pursue a relationship. In the emails, Ellefson then replied he would “never approach the subject again”.
Ellefson said in an email to the IDS that while he had not read the post, he had “no reason to believe that what Ms. Fralick has written in her post contains any fabrication.”
Fralick was a member of a private Facebook group for female, transgender and non-binary brass players which she considered a safe space for people to be able to share their experiences in the professional music industry. She said she made an anonymous post last year about her interaction with Ellefson but that it didn’t gain much traction.
“I felt like it didn’t really accomplish much, and I still needed to do something more,” Fralick said.
Shortly after the Facebook post, Ellefson reached out to apologize for his behavior at the seminar. He said his behavior was clearly inappropriate and unwelcome and expressed his regrets in an email to Fralick last August.
She reached out to Katherine Needleman, the principal oboist at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Needleman started using her website last year as a platform for people to post about their experiences with sexual harassment or abuse in the music world.
Fralick said in less than 12 hours Needleman had allowed her to post her story as a guest author on her Substack. According to Needleman, the post garnered over 32,000 views by Feb. 19, now her most-viewed post.
“What Vanessa had to do was normal, and something she probably learned as a very young person,” Needleman said in an email to the IDS. “But should not be considered normal.”
When reached out to for comment, the Jacobs School of Music said that they did not comment on personnel matters and the school is “committed to providing a safe and welcoming experience for all members of our community.”
Vanessa Fralick is pictured holding her trombone. Fralick was a student at the time of the incident, and Ellefson was a teacher at the seminar.
Fralick’s hope was that students who read the post would be more aware and cautious of interactions with others and know what behavior was wrong when they encountered it. She said she hoped the post would prompt her male colleagues to be supportive and on guard.
She said she decided to come forward because she could still see situations of sexual harassment in the orchestra world happening and because Ellefson is still on the faculty of a prominent university.
“He was very convincing, when I was young and it happened, that I was special, and he made it seem like it was a one-time thing,” Fralick said. “So I think for a long time I might have believed that, and only after more experience in the industry, realized that it’s actually part of a bigger trend.”
The Jacobs School of Music is no stranger to cases of sexual misconduct and abuse. Last April, the Jacobs dean announced IU euphonium professor Demondrae Thurman was no longer serving in his position as associate dean following sexual misconduct allegations from a student at a different university. Chris Parker, a former Jacobs School of Music student who was accused of sexually assaulting another student in 2015, was suspended and then later readmitted to the school despite violating the terms of his suspension. Six women in the school detailed their experiences of sexism, sexual harassment or assault within the program to the IDS last year.
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