Folks, this is extremely wild and lowkey a future plot line on Riverdale or something (if it hasn’t happened already, I don’t watch the show, many apologies) because a Canadian clarinetist by the name of Eric Abramovitz has won C$375,000 after taking his ex-girlfriend Jennifer Lee to court for essentially trying to sabotage his very bright career.
Ontario superior court judge David L. Corbett found Lee guilty and called her actions a “despicable interference” before delivering the $$$ punishment.
So, here’s what happened:
Back in late 2013, the rising clarinetist star applied for a two-year prestigious scholarship to polish off his bachelor’s degree at the Colburn Conservatory of Music. At the time Abramovitz was a student at the McGill Schulich School of Music in Montreal. Colburn is located in Los Angeles. The scholarship’s a huge deal covering the costs of tuition, boarding, and food. It’s the povo-uni-student’s dream worth a nice C$50,000.
Only two scholarships are handed out every year and if successful, you get to study under Yehuda Gilad, who’s reportedly one of the best clarinet teachers out there.
To make things even more exciting, Gilad has always been Abramovitz’s favourite clarinetist since he was seven-years-old.
In 2014 at the McGill Schulich School, Abramovitz met Lee. The two hit it off and soon moved in together. Being a couple and trusting each other, Lee reportedly knew Abramovitz’s email password and the couple often shared his laptop.
Now, this is when it begins:
Lee had reportedly been monitoring Abramovitz emails during the time he was supposed to hear a response from the school. So when the Colburn Conservatory of Music emailed Abramovitz to congratulate him on his successful application, Lee declined the offer in Abramovitz’s name because she was afraid he would leave her. Then, she forged a rejection letter from Gilad and used a FAKE EMAIL, giladyehuda09@gmail.com, to trick Abramovitz into thinking he had been unsuccessful.
To add more salt to the wound, Lee wrote that Abramovitz could still apply for a smaller scholarship of C$5,000 knowing it would not be enough to help him pay for living expenses over in LA.
The couple then split in September 2014.
Despite everything, Abramovitz went on and completed his studies at McGill, followed by a two-year certificate at the University of Southern California where he still got to study part-time under Gilad.
During this time Gilad asked Abramovitz, “Why did you reject me?” because well, the scholarship’s top stuff.
Abramovitz answered, “Why did you reject me?” and thus began a truly cooked investigation which included Abramovitz forwarding the fake rejection email to Gilad who had “never seen that in my life”.
Abramovitz and a friend then tried to gain access into the fake email, and bearing in mind that the former couple used to share a laptop, he used one of Lee’s old passwords and logged right into it.
Lee’s email and phone number were listed as the recovery contact details.
After learning about this seriously disturbing news, Abramovitz sued for C$300,000 in damages including loss of reputation, loss of educational property, and loss of two years of potential income, as reported by the Montreal Gazette.
Corbett added another C$50,000 because of how immoral Lee’s actions were. Now add another C$25,000 for legal fees.
Shockingly or not, Abramovitz said this wasn’t the first time Lee had dabbled in the art of fake emails because she did a similar thing involving a successful application to the Julliard School in New York which ended in Abramovitz declining the offer.
Wild, absolutely wild.
