The owner of an elite Upper West Side music school for young children is expected to be arraigned today on charges of sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl while he was giving her lessons.
Ilya Lehman, who heads the Early Ear music school, was caught molesting the third-grader when the girl’s mother walked in on them during a lesson in her home, prosectors said.
Lehman, 70, allegedly touched the young girl on numerous occasions and forced her to touch him at least five times over the course of several months to a year.
The abhorrent activity allegedly began when the child was in the second grade and occurred about once or twice a week.
The Russian-born Lehman, who has a Ph.D. in music from the Moscow Conservatory, modeled his Manhattan schools after the more rigorous programs he ran in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, according to an article about him in The New York Observer.
“The most important point, that kids love you,” he told the paper. “No one criticizes the child; we compliment him. He is already a soloist, a person, an individual.”
His schools have trained hundreds of young prodigies in classical music since it opened in 1992.
Lehman was arrested at Kennedy Airport on July 15 as he was returning from Russia. His attorney could not be reached for comment last night.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said yesterday that parents whose kids were taught by Lehman can contact the office’s child-abuse hot line at (212) 335-4308.
“If parents plan on speaking with their own children about this matter, they should feel free to consult the DA’s office or an appropriate Web site for guidance on such conversations,” said spokeswoman Joan Vollero.