The intractable labor dispute at the Minnesota Orchestra, where the musicians have been locked out since October, had already caused the cancellation of the respected orchestra’s entire 2012-13 season and has now wiped out its planned summer season as well.
The orchestra’s management announced on Wednesday that it was canceling a series of summer concerts that was to have run from July 20 to Aug. 3, and which would have included some of the works that were to have been performed during the regular season. The summer concerts were announced when the main part of the season was canceled in May.
“We have delayed canceling these concerts as long as we possibly could with the hope we would have an agreement in place,†Jon Campbell, the chairman of the orchestra’s board, said in a statement. An unsigned notice on the orchestra’s Web page went further:
“Our board and management have a responsibility to protect the Minnesota Orchestra for the long term,†the notice read, “and that means negotiating a contract that allows the organization to live within its financial means. We need an Orchestra that is both artistically and financially strong to benefit our audiences, supporters, community and musicians for years to come, and we will keep working with our musicians to arrive at an agreement that achieves this goal.â€
But management and the musicians have pointedly not been working together. There were several meetings and exchanges of letters during the spring, but they were meetings about whether to have further meetings. Management has proposed what it calls its best and final offer, and the musicians say that they have made several proposals, including an offer to continue performing under the terms of the expired contract while negotiating a new one. But the players insist that they will not negotiate while they are locked out.
Critics around the country have wondered why the sides have been unable to find common ground, and have noted that this unusually contentious labor dispute has threatened to ruin the promising relationship between an ensemble that had long been regarded as one of the country’s best and Osmo Vanska, the high-regarded Finnish conductor who has been its music director since 2003, and with whom it is in the middle of several recording projects that have been put on hold. Mr. Vanska has gone so far as to suggest, in a letter to the board on April 30, that if the lockout caused a cancellation of the orchestraâ€s Carnegie Hall appearance, scheduled for November, he would have to resign.
Blois Olsen, a spokesman for the musicians, said that the players did not have a comment on the latest cancellation.
The orchestra also announced that it has returned a $960,000 grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, which was to have been used for general operating expenses. In December the orchestra had promised the state legislature that it would not use the money until it had reached an agreement with its musicians. Since no agreement was reached before the end of the arts board’s fiscal year, on June 30, the money was returned. It could be granted again in 2014.
