Conductor Julian Wachner Gets Suspended Sentence for Child Abuse Material

A federal court in Indianapolis on Wednesday closed the legal chapter of Julian Wachner's fall from classical music prominence, sentencing the once-celebrated conductor to nearly six years of probation after he pleaded guilty to five counts of possessing child sexual abuse material. The sentence, which forgoes prison in favor of supervised release, does not diminish the gravity of the underlying harm — each image in such a collection documents the exploitation of a real child. What the case ultimately reveals is that cultural authority and artistic reputation offer no shelter from accountabili