Monteverdi Choir’s Founder and Artistic Director Steps Down 

The ensemble’s founder and conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner has left his roles over his allegedly striking a singer in the face in 2023

The British conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner has announced his departure from the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestras (MCO) he has led for 60 years. He is also stepping down from his other founding groups, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, reported The New York Times. 

This news comes almost a year after he allegedly hit a singer backstage following a concert where the latter reportedly exited the stage in the wrong direction.

“After a long period of deep consideration and reflection, I have decided to step down as leader and artistic director of the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestras,” Gardiner said in a statement. “The Monteverdi Choir, which I founded in 1964, has been the proudest and most inspiring project of my life and I have arrived at this decision with a heavy heart after six decades of remarkable collaborative achievement.

“I have done a great deal of soul searching since the deeply regrettable incident at the Festival Berlioz at La Côte-Saint-André last August and have apologized repeatedly and unreservedly for losing control in such an inappropriate fashion,” he continued. “I have undergone extensive therapy and other counseling over the past 11 months and have learned a great deal about myself and my past behavior, but I have reached the conclusion that the best way forward for both myself and for the MCO is to accept that a clear change in our relationship is necessary now for the good of both parties.”

While no successor to Gardiner was named, MCO spokesperson Guy Bellamy said that “an announcement on future plans and appointments will follow in the coming weeks,” The NY Times added.

After a hiatus, Gardiner recently returned to the stage conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France at a festival in Montpellier. 

“For the avoidance of doubt, I am not in any sense ready to retire,” he explained. “I will be focusing on a rich variety of other activities, including guest conducting, recording, writing, creative and education projects (to which I am deeply committed) as part of a lighter, lower pressure schedule.”

“Following a reported assault in August 2023, John Eliot Gardiner stepped back from public music-making,” the MCO wrote in its own statement. “He accepted full responsibility for the incident, and he has not worked with the organization for nearly a year. During this time, the MCO did consider the possibility of a rehabilitation process — operating within the MCO’s Respect & Dignity at Work policy — while its primary concern throughout has been to fully uphold values of inclusion, equality and respect for all its stakeholders. As a leading Arts organization, the MCO takes seriously its obligations to protect victims of abuse and assault, and preventing any recurrence remains a priority for the organization.

“John Eliot Gardiner’s extraordinary musical influence over the past sixty years has made a lasting impact. The MCO acknowledges with gratitude his monumental contribution, and holds a deep-seated commitment to honor and preserve these phenomenal accomplishments,” they added. “The organization is proud to have enabled and promoted his long and illustrious career, alongside that of many other musicians. They will work passionately to build upon the remarkable foundations laid by the three ensembles he founded, taking forward their trailblazing work with new talent and new benchmark performances for years to come.”