Margaret Fosmoe and Andrew S. Hughes, South Bend Tribune
SOUTH BEND — Alexander Toradze, an internationally renowned pianist and a professor at Indiana University South Bend since 1991, has been on unpaid administrative leave from the university for the last year and has no specific return date.
The administrative leave started last August, IU South Bend spokesman Ken Baierl said in response to an inquiry from the South Bend Tribune. The university is not commenting on what triggered the leave, saying only that Toradze is not on campus and is not being paid during the leave.
“It’s a personnel issue and I can’t comment on it,” Baierl said.
Music faculty in the Raclin School of the Arts are handling instruction and performances by students and guest artists in Toradze’s absence.
Toradze remains listed as a faculty member on the IU South Bend website and his work biography remains posted on the music department Web page. Toradze did not respond Tuesday to Tribune requests for an interview.
Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Toradze graduated from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow in 1978, became a professor there and while on tour with the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra of Moscow in 1983, he requested asylum at the American Embassy in Madrid.