A Toronto orchestra has shut down after "fat-shaming" volunteer singers who wore body-hugging dresses.
The Sheraton Cadwell Orchestras asked women who were not "fit & slim" to use loose dresses that hide their "dietary indulgences".
Many singers who had performed with the symphony expressed disgust at the email.
The management has since apologised and resigned, telling singers the orchestra would no longer be funded.
The controversy began on Monday when singer Victoria Leone, 23, received an email from Sheraton Cadwell Orchestras that left her astonished.
Although almost all of our vocalists are fit and slim - the way our boutique orchestra would like our front line performing artists to be… two of our featured singers were not," the email read.
"We hope that they would, as such, refrain from using tight-fitting dresses and use loose (less physically-revealing, less physically-accentuating) dresses instead."
The email went on at length to detail that they were only concerned with vocalists, not instrumentalists, because instrumentalists were "background".
Ms Leone had performed with the orchestra once two weeks beforehand as a volunteer at a local street festival.
She told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that as someone who was bullied as a child for being a bit "curvy", she felt personally attacked.
The email, which was signed by "the management", also said that in the future, only "fit and slim" women would be hired.
Toronto orchestra closed after fat-shaming singers - BBC News
The Sheraton Cadwell Orchestras asked women who were not "fit & slim" to use loose dresses that hide their "dietary indulgences".
Many singers who had performed with the symphony expressed disgust at the email.
The management has since apologised and resigned, telling singers the orchestra would no longer be funded.
The controversy began on Monday when singer Victoria Leone, 23, received an email from Sheraton Cadwell Orchestras that left her astonished.
Although almost all of our vocalists are fit and slim - the way our boutique orchestra would like our front line performing artists to be… two of our featured singers were not," the email read.
"We hope that they would, as such, refrain from using tight-fitting dresses and use loose (less physically-revealing, less physically-accentuating) dresses instead."
The email went on at length to detail that they were only concerned with vocalists, not instrumentalists, because instrumentalists were "background".
Ms Leone had performed with the orchestra once two weeks beforehand as a volunteer at a local street festival.
She told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that as someone who was bullied as a child for being a bit "curvy", she felt personally attacked.
The email, which was signed by "the management", also said that in the future, only "fit and slim" women would be hired.
Toronto orchestra closed after fat-shaming singers - BBC News
