Conductor James Levine has been fired by New York’s Metropolitan Opera after an investigation found evidence to support claims of sexual abuse and harassment. Levine was suspended in December 2017 when the allegations were first made public. The 74-year-old conductor, who made his Met debut in 1971, denies the claims.

Levine was appointed the company’s music director in 1976, and stepped down two years ago due to ill health, taking the title music director emeritus and heading up the young artists’ programme. Between 1986 and 2004, he was the Met’s artistic director.

The Met said that more than 70 people were interviewed in their investigation.

“The investigation uncovered credible evidence that Mr Levine had engaged in sexually abusive and harassing conduct both before and during the period when he worked at the Met,” the company said in a statement. “The investigation also uncovered credible evidence that Mr Levine engaged in sexually abusive and harassing conduct towards vulnerable artists in the early stages of their careers, over whom Mr Levine had authority. In light of these findings, the Met concludes that it would be inappropriate and impossible for Mr Levine to continue to work at the Met.”

Levine has not been charged with any criminal offence. The Lake County state’s attorney’s office in Illinois said in December it investigated a sexual abuse allegation of misconduct dating to the 1980s but concluded “no criminal charges can be brought”, citing multiple factors, including “the relevant age of consent in Illinois at the time of the alleged incidents.”

The Met said in its statement: “The investigation also found that any claims or rumours that members of the Met’s management or its board of directors engaged in a cover-up of information relating to these issues are completely unsubstantiated.”

A representative of Levine’s did not respond to Associated Press’s request for comment. Levine previously said in a statement : “As anyone who truly knows me will attest, I have not lived my life as an oppressor or an aggressor.”

Following the death of Leonard Bernstein in 1990, Levine was regarded as the leading American conductor and was given a starring role in the film Fantasia 2000 . Many of his performances were televised by PBS , and singers would rearrange their schedules to appear in his performances or to audition for him. In addition to roles at the Met, he was music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Ravinia festival from 1973-93 and the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 2004-11, and chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic from 1999-2004. He frequently conducted at the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Bayreuth festival and Salzburg festival.

The appointment of Yannick Nezet-Seguin as music director was announced two years ago ; last month the Met announced that his tenure had been brought forward and was to begin next season .

“While this termination of the Met’s relationship with Levine obviously brings a certain degree of closure, it is our hope that the Met’s early introduction of Yannick Nezet-Seguin portends a willingness to invest more robustly both in talent and creating a healthy workplace culture,” clarinetist Jessica Phillips, chair of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Committee, said in a statement. “The artists of the Metropolitan Opera, like workers in every industry, deserve a safe place of work.”