Report Raises Allegations of Sexual Misconduct Against François-Xavier Roth

A story published today by legendary French investigative magazine Le Canard enchaîné raises allegations of sexual harassment against conductor François-Xavier Roth. 

Roth, 52, is a renowned musician and performer, and received France’s highest honor, the Chevalier degree of the Order of the Légion d’honneur, in 2017. In 2003, he founded the period instrument orchestra Les Siècles. Alongside his role as Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Roth has been Music Director of Cologne’s Gürzenich Orchestra and Opera since 2015, and is currently general music director of the city of Cologne. In 2025, Roth will take over from Teodor Currentzis as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the SWR Symphonieorchester.

Le Canard enchaîné journalists Emmanuel Savoye and Fanny Ruz-Guindos spoke with seven musicians who allegedly received “undesirable messages” from Roth in the course of working with him. The reporters obtained text messages and photos corroborating their accounts. Additionally, they cite a letter—seen by VAN—from an orchestra musician to the head of the Gürzenich Orchestra, Stefan Englert, complaining of a sexualized atmosphere at the workplace. (In a May 8 statement, Englert told VAN that no formal complaint of discrimination under the General Equal Treatment Law—which includes sexual harassment—had been filed during his time as director of the orchestra. VAN was informed of Le Canard enchaîné’s upcoming article in advance.)

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The Le Canard enchaîné investigation appears in the context of France’s belated yet potent #MeToo reckoning, centered on the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which is currently underway. “The scale and intensity of the current wave of allegations is unlike [any] the country has experienced before,” Variety reported. And though these allegations were initially centered on major figures in the French film industry, broader views of the phenomenon of sexual harassment in professional contexts are becoming increasingly common.  

Le Canard enchaîné led its May 15 edition with a headline about #MeToo at Cannes: “The message of the victims to the accused: ‘Have you no shame?’” The magazine, whose name translates as The Chained Duck, has broken scandals at the highest levels of government and politics since it began in 1915. It has significant financial reserves which allow it to accept no advertising, and has earned a reputation for fierce investigative journalism combined with a humorous, ironic tone. Recently, Le Canard enchaîné turned its attention to classical music, a field with no shortage of its own stories of sexual harassment. 

As described by the magazine, Roth’s alleged harassment of both male and female musicians generally followed a predictable path. Roth would allegedly start with a flattering text sent late at night. After receiving a response, more texts would follow, with kissing and heart emojis increasingly prevalent. 

From there, the messages allegedly became overtly sexual, culminating in Roth sending photos of his penis to musicians. 

The musicians allege that sometimes, this chain of events went faster. “A pretty compliment, and bam, the dick pic right away,” as Le Canard enchaîné described it. Between 2005 and 2010, the magazine reported, some young players in Les Siècles were warned not to answer Roth’s messages. Others preferred to laugh it off, seeing the texts as a rite of passage. 

The violinist Marie-Annick Nicolas, the concertmaster of the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France in the ‘80s, claimed to Le Canard enchaîné that Roth invited her for a “virtual shower” one evening when he was in his hotel room. When the Orchestre de Paris was searching for a new music director in 2019, Paris officials informed Laurent Bayle, the former artistic director of the Philharmonie de Paris, of Roth’s alleged behavior, Bayle told Le Canard enchaîné. (Roth was one candidate among several; in the end, Klaus Mäkelä won out.)

In a statement to the magazine, Roth said that he engaged in “intimate telephone exchanges.” “If I went too far, I present my apologies to those I may have offended,” he added. ¶