By
Ava Berger
,
Scott Neuman
Years before they were convicted sex offenders, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell used his wealth to gain access to a prestigious boarding school for young artists in Michigan, using a rental lodge Epstein donated to the school as a base from which to recruit some of their earliest victims, according to Department of Justice records and former campus administrators.
The idyllic, nearly century-old Interlochen Center for the Arts, tucked between two lakes south of Traverse City,featuresgrade-school- and high-school-level programs in music, theater, dance and visual arts, among others. It's famous as an incubator for young artistic talent and boasts alumni such as Josh Groban, Norah Jones, Chappell Roan, Felicity Huffman and Da'Vine Joy Randolph.
NPR reviewed hundreds of pages of Department of Justice (DOJ) documents on Epstein, interviewed current and former Interlochen officials and spoke with a woman who says that as a teenager at the school, she was targeted by Epstein and Maxwell. What emerges is a portrait of Interlochen as an institution that celebrated openness but that, in accepting Epstein's financial support, became unwittingly associated with his crimes.
Epstein's association with Interlochen dates back to 1967, when as a 14-year-old bassoon player, he attended the school's summer camp. When he renewed his ties to the school in the 1990s, Interlochen viewed him as a loyal alumnus and major benefactor, administrators said. He lavished the school with donations and used his power and influence to gain access to spaces where the administrators felt young kids and artists were safe.
"In hindsight, mistakes may have been made, but it was just out of naivete," Russ McMahon, a former administrator, said of the ability Epstein had to access the campus. From 1994 to 2003, McMahon was the director of annual giving and later the director of major gifts at Interlochen.
A woman who testified at Maxwell's 2021 criminal trial said in alawsuitthat she was 13 years old when she met Epstein and Maxwell at the school's annual summerInterlochen Arts Campin 1994. She says they began a relationship that started with grooming and led to sexual abuse. NPR does not name victims of sexual abuse.
A few summers later, Epstein and Maxwell met a 14-year-old student who said her first contact with them at the school was the start of a manipulative and controlling relationship that lasted years.
Former administrators at Interlochen told NPR that at the time of these encounters, the campus — which includes the summer camp and a year-round boarding school — was very open, with students, faculty, visiting artists and concertgoers all mingling in the common areas.
Interlochen saysit has long maintained a policy that prohibits unsupervised contact between donors and students, but because of that open atmosphere, former administrators said that enforcing that rule was difficult or impossible.
However, since Epstein's crimes have become public, Trey Devey, the current president of Interlochen,said no student is allowed to be unsupervised with any outside adult and the campus has significantly increased security.
Epstein visited the school for brief stays over several summers between 1994 and 2000, according to testimony from Epstein's personal pilot found in DOJ documents.
