Former prominent conductor Julian Wachner has received a sentence of nearly six years of probation following his guilty plea in July to five counts of possessing child sex abuse material and one count of cocaine possession. Per the sentencing order issued Wednesday afternoon in Indiana’s Marion Superior Court, Wachner is also required to register as a sex offender and will receive credit for five days served in jail. Wachner was arrested in August 2025 while working as a fourth-grade math teacher at an Indianapolis charter school, Invent Learning Hub, after his international music career unraveled. The school fired him immediately following his arrest, stating it had performed thorough background checks and was unaware of the police investigation. Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department charging documents from 2025 indicated that Wachner admitted to using cryptocurrency over multiple years to buy videos depicting children, and confessed to investigators that his preference was for material involving children aged six to 13. Under a July 15 plea agreement with Indiana prosecutors, Wachner pleaded guilty to five child sexual abuse material charges and the cocaine count, simultaneously waiving his appeal rights. Previously, Wachner was a two-time Grammy-nominated conductor and composer who led major ensembles like the Philadelphia Orchestra and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Until 2022, he served as the director of music and the arts at Trinity Church Wall Street, departing that year following a New York Times report detailing allegations that he had groped and kissed a woman without her consent during a 2014 residency program in South Carolina. Wachner denied those allegations, and no criminal charges were brought against him in that matter. He subsequently sued Juilliard for defamation, but the New York Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice in June 2023.
Source: npr.org
