Houston Weekly
November 2, 2019
A Symphony Scandal Primer: Why It’s More Than Tabloid Fodder
The recent scandal at the Houston Symphony initially seemed like little more than deliciously juicy tabloid fodder: a pissed-off high-society wife who decided to go nuclear on her wealthy husband when she discovered his decades-long affair with a younger woman. But a story that could have ended as tantalizing water-cooler gossip has burst open multilayered and nuanced discussions about the intersections among race, gender, sex, wealth, and power. If you haven’t been following the story that won’t quite go away—and the reasons why it has resonated—here’s what you need to know.
Who Are Thomas and Jessica Welliver?
Thomas Welliver’s estimated net worth is $890 million, although Fortune speculated only two years ago that the notoriously private Welliver may invest money in ways that deflate public estimates of his worth. He made the bulk of his millions (billions?) as the President and Founder of TMW Engineering, Inc., a company that provides seismic data to the lucrative oil and gas industries. The 66-year-old Thomas has been married since 1984 to Jessica Welliver (née Carrington), a graduate of SMU and former high school history teacher prior to her marriage. She is reported to have a passion and talent for architecture and design and has overseen the construction and resale of several multimillion-dollar estates. Last year, the Houston Chronicle listed the Wellivers as number nine on its annual list of Houston’s most philanthropic families. The Thomas and Jessica Welliver Foundation supports education, cultural arts, health care, and public service. Thomas and Jessica Welliver are also the founders of the Wildwood Camp for Youth Arts in Moultonborough, New Hampshire, which Jessica Welliver has said was created to join her interests in supporting education, children, and the arts. Jessica has specifically identified Wildwood as a way to be involved with children after regretting the couple’s decision not to have their own.
Who Is Lauren Berry?
Lauren Berry is probably best known to Texans as the first African American Music Director of the Houston Symphony. Born in Lafayette, Louisiana, she was considered a piano prodigy, playing at Carnegie Hall when she was fifteen years old. She attended Tulane on a music scholarship and became a member and then first-chair violinist of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, while also playing her own compositions and other works with orchestras and ensembles in North America and Europe. After serving from 2000–2008 as the Music Director for the Wellivers’ Wildwood camp, she lived in California, working as both a session musician and a composer, primarily for film scores. Her score for the animated film What Lions Know was nominated for an Academy Award in 2014.
The Connection Between the Wellivers and Lauren Berry
On April 16, Jessica Welliver sent an email to Roberta “Bunny” Atkins, a member of the symphony’s governing board of directors. Published photographs from various regional social events suggest that Jessica Welliver and Atkins are at least friendly, as does the tone of the full email (“Dear Bunny, Sorry to drag you into this, but I’m desperate to save my marriage with Tommy, even if it means blowing things up for a while”). According to the email, which has not yet been independently verified, Thomas Welliver exercised his clout as a donor and former board member to influence the symphony’s decision to select Berry as its next Music Director.
Also according to Mrs. Welliver, but not independently verified, Ms. Berry first “ensnared” Mr. Welliver when they both attended a music-focused fundraiser in New Orleans for Tulane, their mutual alma mater. That “unwelcome entanglement” led to Ms. Berry’s hiring as the Music Director at Wildwood, a decision that Mrs. Welliver approved, unaware of the “true nature of this woman’s interest in my husband.”
According to Mrs. Welliver, she first became aware of her husband’s supposed affair with Ms. Berry when she received an anonymous letter in July 2008 from someone purporting to be a Wildwood camper who discovered Ms. Berry and Mr. Welliver together in a compromising position. Ms. Berry departed from her position at the end of the summer session of 2008, and, according to Mrs. Welliver, she believed that the affair had ended and her marriage remained intact.
In her email to Ms. Atkins, Mrs. Welliver claimed to have “ironclad” evidence that Ms. Berry continued to pursue Mr. Welliver for years, using their prior affair as “leverage” to gain both direct financial support and behind-the-scenes assistance with her career, including the appointment to her current position at the Houston Symphony, where she was now, for the first time ever, in geographic proximity to the Wellivers. Mrs. Welliver pleaded for Ms. Atkins’s assistance reaching a severance agreement with Ms. Berry since her employment was gained under “false pretenses.” In a foreboding conclusion that some have likened to blackmail, Mrs. Welliver warned that she didn’t “want to air these unseemly facts publicly, but will do whatever is necessary to get this predatory woman out of our lives.”
Rather than help Mrs. Welliver behind the scenes, Ms. Atkins shared the email with the rest of the board and the symphony’s legal counsel in what she called her fiduciary obligations as a board member. A copy of the email was leaked anonymously to the Chronicle.
The Ugly Media Aftermath
The revelation of what is purported to have been a longstanding, though perhaps not continuous, affair between a wealthy, powerful white man and a younger, talented, African American woman has given rise to various interpretations. One approach to the story is through a gendered lens, raising questions about the power dynamics between the parties (if the affair did in fact happen). Mrs. Welliver clearly depicted Berry as the sexual aggressor, the woman who wore down her husband’s resistance and then refused to go away when he tried to salvage his marriage. From this point of view, she is Glenn Close’s bunny-boiling home wrecker from Fatal Attraction, and Thomas Welliver is the man paying decades later for succumbing to a moment of weakness.
But we know more about the power dynamics of workplace sexual relationships now, post Harvey Weinstein and #MeToo, than we did—or Thomas Welliver and Lauren Berry likely did—whenever their purported affair commenced. While a relationship between a camp’s director and its owner may have been viewed as consensual at the time, the inherent power differential between the parties makes the notion of “consent” murkier than it once was—especially when the person with more power is married, leaving the relationship shrouded in secrecy and the less powerful party less able to seek counsel from friends or family.
There is also no question that the scandal has been used to invoke racial “dog whistles” and to criticize a so-called “woke mob” looking to increase diversity, equality, and inclusion within elite, historically white-dominated spaces. What began as fodder for local society columns went national when some media outlets seized upon the salacious story to question Berry’s qualifications for her position and to suggest that she was appointed by the symphony only for the sake of having a first African American Music Director. By framing Berry’s appointment as a product of tokenism rather than a reflection of her talent, hard work, and qualifications, these outlets injected the story into a larger culture war.
And finally, the story presents yet another example of the ways that private wealth can influence public and quasi-public institutions. If Mrs. Welliver is to be believed, Ms. Berry might not have been offered her current position, however well qualified she might be for it, without a wealthy-insider benefactor. And the fact that Mrs. Welliver turned to her private access to a member of the symphony’s governing board in an attempt to fire her husband’s alleged lover demonstrates the power that she appears comfortable wielding behind the scenes.
Berry’s success as the first African American Music Director of the Houston Symphony is a milestone worth celebrating, reflecting progress in an artistic sector that has historically lacked diversity. It is unfortunate that tawdry tabloid fodder has cast a shadow over her important accomplishments, but it also presents an opportunity to critically examine the way the story has been framed. Only Mr. Welliver and Ms. Berry truly understand the power dynamics between them and whether they were affected by differences in race, gender, wealth, and power. But as we have learned in recent years, sometimes not even the two parties to the relationship necessarily agree.
Note: As of the writing of this article, each of the Wellivers has declined to reply to inquiries. The Houston Symphony issued a statement supporting Ms. Berry’s appointment, saying they “remain thrilled to have been able to recruit such an accomplished and talented person to lead our institution.” Ms. Berry neither confirmed nor denied Mrs. Welliver’s allegations and issued a statement that she was proud of the symphony’s work and committed to its continued excellence. A search of court records shows no filings for separation or divorce involving the Wellivers. Board member Atkins stated by email, “It was with great pain that I shared the relevant information with the board, and I trust everyone involved to refrain from further distracting from the symphony’s important work.”