Metro

Music teacher sentenced to 2 years for molesting student

A once-renowned Manhattan music teacher admitted to molesting a 9-year-old female pupil in a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday in a plea deal that will send him to prison for two years.

Ilya Lehman, 70, the former head of the elite Upper West Side Early Ear music school, was caught molesting the third-grader when her mother walked in during a lesson in her home last April, prosecutors said.

“Did you engage in two or more acts of sexual conduct with a child who was less than 11 years old?” asked Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Jill Konviser.

“Yes,” the gray haired maestro softly replied.

If the case went to trial, Lehman faced up to 7 years in prison for the two felony charges.

He’ll remain out on bail until his Feb. 25 sentencing and will automatically be registered as a convicted sex offender when released.

The depraved virtuoso touched the young girl on numerous occasions and forced her to reciprocate at least five times over the course of several months, prosecutors said.

Lehman tried to silence his victim by contacting her mother and offering to pay back the money for the lessons and close his schools, prosecutors said.

Ilya Lehman leaving the court in December.David McGlynn

Two other victims came forward but the cases were too old to pursue criminally.

Lehman recently sold his school, which has trained hundreds of young prodigies in classical music since opening in 1992.

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 a New York Observer profile.

“Mr. Lehman himself does not understand how it came about that he engaged in this behavior And he is deeply, deeply remorseful,” said Lehman’s defense lawyer Raymond Granger. “His family is standing behind him.”

Lehman has been married for over 30 years and has two sons.