Violinist undeterred by Vancouver orchestra’s legal threat over sexual assault claim

VANCOUVER — A Vancouver violinist who was threatened with legal action by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra after breaking a non-disclosure agreement and speaking out about an alleged sexual assault by one of its former senior musicians says she won’t be “intimidated” into silence.

Esther Hwang said the legal demand by her ex-employer instead is encouraging her to continue sharing her story.

“I felt the NDA is a tool for silencing victims, and to intimidate them, and when they sent the cease-and-desist, it was just another form of that,” said Hwang on Monday.

Hwang said she was sexually harassed and then raped by the former fellow member of the orchestra in 2017 and 2018, and in 2019 she received a payment of $7,100 in a settlement with the orchestra that also included the NDA and the removal of the alleged attacker.

She said she was then subject to retaliation by the orchestra by having her playing time as a violin extra cut and then ended, which the orchestra denies by citing an investigation conducted by a law firm this year.

Hwang gave an interview to the Globe and Mail for an article that was published on Dec. 18, and the next day, she received the cease-and-desist letter from lawyer B. Jake Cabott, saying the orchestra reserved the right to sue her if she continued to breach the NDA.

Hwang said in an interview with The Canadian Press that the use of the NDA that she felt compelled to sign was “incredibly unfair,” while the orchestra said in a statement that it could not unilaterally undo an agreement that also involved the man Hwang accused and the Vancouver Musicians’ Association.

For years, Hwang said she suffered in shame and silence.

She said the man — her married former violin teacher, whom she had known since she was 15 when he was more than 30 — was someone she used to “look up to” and a “trusted adult and mentor” she had thought of as an uncle.

She said in a written account that the alleged rape took place at an after-show party with other orchestra members at the man’s home, while Hwang was “blackout drunk.”

About a year and a half ago, she started hearing rumours that the alleged assault by the man was a consensual affair which had resulted in both of them being fired.

“And it was just so infuriating how they were responding to me, dismissing me, and I just knew that if I stayed silent, even after their final response, it’s telling them they can do that again to somebody else,” said Hwang.

“I was infuriated. I was heartbroken and devastated, and that was a turning point when I thought, ‘OK, am I going to break my NDA?’ And so I did.”

Hwang said the VSO made her sign the NDA in August 2019 as a condition for receiving the $7,100 payment for missed work and counselling fees, and the agreement that her alleged attacker would be removed from the orchestra.

She said she was under extreme financial pressure when she signed the agreement so she could continue working for the orchestra. But instead, the Juilliard School alumnus said, the orchestra reduced her playing time, and she has not played for it since March 2020.

She said the NDA sought to silence her for life. But she managed to “gather courage” and report the alleged rape to Vancouver police in November 2024, then giving a formal statement seven months ago.

Sergeant Steve Addison with the Vancouver Police Department said the investigation is ongoing and has not resulted in an arrest or criminal charges.

Cameron MacRae, vice-president of marketing and sales with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, said in a statement on Tuesday that the orchestra recognized that the cease-and-desist letter had “prompted questions and concerns.”

“Our concern is that this breach publicly identifies specific individuals currently employed by the VSO in connection with unproven allegations. The letter was sent to protect the rights of those individuals,” the statement continued.

MacRae said the VSO had treated Hwang’s allegations “with the utmost seriousness,” including two separate external investigations, and that it “cannot unilaterally unwind or waive a binding agreement” involving four parties.

Hwang said the use of NDAs was unethical and harmful to victims, and breaking hers has been “so empowering” and healing.

“Like before, I felt like my voice to the VSO was like a tiny pebble. I kept throwing these tiny pebbles, and nothing happened. But now, with everyone’s support, I feel like my voice has become a giant boulder and actually can make an impact,” said Hwang.

Angela Marie MacDougall, an executive director of Battered Women’s Support Services, said NDAs are supposed to be used as legal contracts to protect trade secrets and business plans, but when applied to sexual misconduct, their purpose shifts from “protecting privacy to controlling speech.”

She said NDAs can silence victims through a power imbalance and make victims feel isolated.

“NDAs are prohibiting victims from sharing their experiences publicly,” said MacDougall, “so that isolation of victim survivors can really impact their sense of feeling alone or disbelieved and then it prevents patterns of abuse from being recognized.”

In the cease-and-desist letter, which Hwang provided, Cabott said that as a result of Hwang’s “knowing and intentional breaches, the VSO has suffered and will continue to suffer significant harm,” and confidentiality was a “fundamental” element of the 2019 settlement of her case which she lodged with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.

The letter demands Hwang “immediately cease further disclosures of information governed by the confidentiality agreement, including any further communications on this matter with VSO musicians, staff, media, or members of the public.”

It said the orchestra took Hwang’s complaints of retaliation seriously but an investigator it hired “was unambiguous in finding no evidence to substantiate these allegations.”

A copy of a May 2025 investigation report by law firm Southern Butler Price, which Hwang provided, concludes she “did not experience a reduction and cessation in offers of work from the VSO because of the 2019 complaint and settlement and NDA,” finding “no breach of (VSO) policy or the law.”

In a July 2019 letter to Hwang’s lawyer, a lawyer for the orchestra said of the settlement that it was willing to remove her alleged attacker only if Hwang withdrew her human rights complaint and signed a full and final release of all claims. It said this action and others were “not an admission of liability, but a recognition, hope, and desire that your client can heal and move forward.”

Hwang said she had received overwhelming support from the public since going public, while a petition calling on the orchestra to cease using NDAs and not take action against Hwang has received more than 11,000 signatures.

She said she considered herself “very lucky” to have the support of her friends, family, and husband.

A statement on the official Facebook page for the musicians of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra says they are proud of Hwang for speaking out against the “unethical and immoral use of NDAs against sexual assault survivors.”

“It’s important that the musicians of the VSO recognize our role in this matter, including the spreading of pernicious victim-blaming rumours,” the statement says.

It says the orchestral music world is a “male-dominated culture,” while Hwang said there were power imbalances in which young musicians worked alongside their former teachers.

“It just kind of creates this opportunity for abuse to happen,” said Hwang.

Hwang is still performing with the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, while teaching at the Vancouver Academy of Music.

She shared a letter from a past student, who wrote that Hwang was someone she “idolized.”

“You deserved so much better,” read Hwang from the letter, wiping away a tear. “Thinking back on my memories, I imagined that the incidents would have occurred slightly before or during the time that you taught us, and it is incredible to me how you were able to keep giving back to others during that time.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 30, 2025.

Nono Shen, The Canadian Press