“Robert Fitzpatrick, 75, clarinetist and conductor, a fixture at the Curtis Institute of Music and a member of the administrative team that failed to act on sexual abuse claims by a teenage student at the famed music conservatory, has died,” writes Peter Dobrin in Thursday’s (5/13) Philadelphia Inquirer. “Mr. Fitzpatrick died Monday in France after an illness, a Curtis spokesperson said. Mr. Fitzpatrick served as dean at Curtis from 1986 to 2009 and was dean of students and executive assistant to the director from 1980 to 1984. While Curtis’ dean, he was key to the school’s accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in 1993, its reciprocal arrangement with the University of Pennsylvania and the development and expansion of the school’s audio-visual and technological capacity…. Mr. Fitzpatrick was himself Curtis-trained, graduating in 1968…. He was musical director of the Garden State Philharmonic from 1976-82, played with the Philly Pops from 1979-90, and was principal clarinetist of the Orchestra Society of Philadelphia. He performed with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia (previously called Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia) and as a freelance musician from 1963–2003…. A Curtis spokesperson said the school knew of no surviving family.”
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