Conductor Jan Latham-Koenig Charged with Child Sexual Abuse

The British conductor is alleged to have arranged or facilitated a child sexual offence and sexual communication with a child

According to multiple news sources, including the BBC, British conductor Jan Latham-Koenig has been charged with child sexual abuse offences.

Latham-Koenig was arrested at London's Victoria Station on January 10, 2024, where he was charged with arranging/facilitating a child sexual offence — as well as sexual communication with a child the following day. The alleged offence took place either by phone or online.

Latham-Koenig has now been released on conditional bail, and will reappear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on February 9 — at which point the exact charges laid against him will be made clear.

Argentina's Teatro Colón, where Latham-Koenig has been Music Director since mid-2022, sacked him in the wake of the charges.

"In view of the news of an extremely serious accusation against Jan Latham Koening in the United Kingdom, the Teatro Colón has decided to dismiss him from all current and future activities he performed in the institution," the opera house wrote in a statement.

Born in England and of French, Danish, and Polish ancestry, Latham-Koenig studied at the Royal College of Music. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the Britten-Shostakovich Festival Orchestra. From 2011, he served as the principal director of Moscow’s Novaya Opera and became its artistic director in 2013 — a position he left in March 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

He was awarded the OBE in 2020 for services to music and UK-Russian cultural relations.