In a press release picked up by Kathy Berdan of the Pioneer Press, the musicians of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra said the issues Mayor Chris Coleman thought he had settled with the orchestra's management, in fact, remain unresolved.
On Friday, Coleman wrote a letter to the locked-out musicians, saying that he had taken their remaining contract concerns to SPCO management, and their response was positive.
"Therefore, I believe that all remaining local issues between the SPCO management and the musicians that were prohibiting the resumption of the season are resolved," the mayor wrote before the weekend.
Come Monday, however, Carole Mason Smith, chair of the musicians' negotiating committee, was playing a different tune.
"Management did not fully explain many of the important details of the proposal to the mayor, and in some cases, they omitted significant specifics all together," she says. "We are grateful for the mayor's efforts so far, but the bottom line is that management failed to present him with all of the facts."
Coleman responded to Smith's statement thusly: "I have reviewed the [SPCO's] proposal and your feedback on that proposal, and it appears to me that all of these issues have been resolved. Any remaining differences are either minor or negligible. None of your remaining concerns, in my opinion, rise to the level of importance that would be worth jeopardizing the long-term viability of this orchestra."
SPCO interim president Dobson West said management was "discouraged by the tone and content" of the musicians' response.
West said late Monday there was "a lot of conversation, but the musicians' position is the same as it was at the beginning of the day. They will not honor the agreement with the mayor."
The SPCO board will meet in executive session at 4 p.m. Tuesday to discuss the future of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
In other bad news from the North Star State: Musicians from the Minnesota Orchestra have been locked out in their own salary dispute that recently passed the six-month mark, becoming the longest of any U.S. symphony in decades.
Their concerts have been canceled through April 27.
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