Julian Wachner, a formerly acclaimed conductor and composer, was sentenced to nearly six years of probation following his guilty plea to five counts of possession of child sexual abuse material and one count of cocaine possession. The sentencing occurred in Marion Superior Court in Indiana on Wednesday afternoon. Wachner must register as a sex offender and received credit for five days spent in custody.
Wachner was arrested in August 2025 while employed as a fourth-grade mathematics teacher at Invent Learning Hub, a charter school in Indianapolis. The school stated it had conducted comprehensive background checks and was unaware of any police investigation into Wachner at the time of his employment. He was terminated following his arrest.
According to charging documents, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police indicated that Wachner had admitted to using cryptocurrency repeatedly over several years to purchase videos depicting children ranging from approximately one to sixteen years old. Police documents noted that Wachner specified his preference involved children between ages six and thirteen. Wachner initially faced ten counts of possessing child sexual abuse material involving children under twelve, along with one cocaine possession charge. In July, as part of a plea agreement with Indiana authorities, he pleaded guilty to five of the child sexual abuse material counts and the cocaine charge, while waiving his right to appeal.
Wachner had previously established a distinguished career as a conductor and composer, recording numerous albums and receiving two Grammy nominations. He conducted major orchestras worldwide, including the Philadelphia Orchestra and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Until 2022, he served as director of music and arts at Trinity Church Wall Street in New York. He was dismissed from that position after the New York Times published an account in which a woman alleged he had groped and kissed her without consent at a Juilliard School residency in South Carolina in 2014. Wachner denied these allegations, and no criminal charges resulted. He subsequently filed a civil defamation suit against Juilliard, which was dismissed with prejudice in June 2023.
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