MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Orchestra on Monday canceled upcoming performances at Carnegie Hall due to its contract impasse with musicians — a move that prompted its Finnish conductor, Osmo Vanska to resign this morning.
Vanska had threatened to resign if the orchestra and musicians didn't reach agreement in time to save the early November performances at Carnegie Hall.
"I send my deepest thanks to everyone involved for what we have achieved together and I wish the Minnesota Orchestra all the very best for its future," Vanska ended his letter.
The musicians on Saturday rejected the latest contract offer from the orchestra's management, which locked-out the musicians about a year ago as it pushed them for pay concessions. The sides have made little progress since.
"We have done our very best to try to reach a compromise agreement by September 30," Richard Davis, chairman of the board's negotiating committee, said in a press release.
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The musicians union said it made two counterproposals Monday, but management rejected both. The orchestra's management dismissed the union counteroffers as "eleventh-hour proposals." "If the other side decides they would like to meet, we're prepared to meet," union spokesman Blois Olson said late Monday afternoon.
