MN Orchestra invites musicians back to the negotiating table

Posted at 10:52 AM on December 21, 2012 by Marianne Combs (4 Comments)
Filed under: Arts management, Funding, Music

The Minnesota Orchestral Association has invited the Musicians' Union to negotiate a new contract once again.

The MOA has put out two possible dates - Saturday January 5 or Wednesday January 9. The invitation to negotiate has been made "without any preconditions."

The Minnesota Orchestra has also cancelled or rescheduled all concert performances through Sunday, February 10. Ticket holders will be contacted directly by the Orchestra to outline their options, including exchanging their tickets, or receiving a refund.

Earlier this month the Minnesota Orchestra disclosed that it has a $6 million deficit for its fiscal year ending Aug. 31. The Minnesota Orchestra musicians have been locked out since the beginning of October.

Nicholas David takes third place on The Voice

Posted at 11:30 PM on December 18, 2012 by Marianne Combs (3 Comments)
Filed under: Music, People, Television

Eagan native Nicholas Mrozinski will be coming home after placing third on NBC's vocal competition show "The Voice."

Mrozinski, known to audiences of "The Voice" as Nicholas David, impressed viewers with his soulful crooning reminiscent of both Marvin Gaye and Joe Cocker. His song choices consistently reflected a message of love and optimism, from "Lean on Me" to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." In tonight's finale, he sang a duet with Smokey Robinson.

But the love and harmony wasn't enough to earn him the most audience votes; the popular winner was contestant Cassadee Pope.

89.3 The Current's Andrea Swensson writes:

Pope's victory is unsurprising, from a reality TV angle. One of the driving forces behind The Voice is iTunes sales, and Pope's inoffensive mall-pop vocal stylings and ever-so-slightly-edgy appearance make her an easily accessible candidate, especially for the download-hungry tween and teen market. Mrozinski, on the other hand, appealed to older generations of music fans with his soulful take on classics by Bill Withers and Marvin Gaye.

It's unclear at this point what Mrozinski's future holds; while he won't be getting the first prize recording contract, his newfound popularity makes it unlikely he'll continue in such intimate local venues as The Happy Gnome.

Mrozinski has said he's looking forward to spending some quality time with family. He's the father of two boys; he and his partner are expecting a third baby in February.

Nicholas David fires it up for the final round of 'The Voice'

Posted at 9:57 PM on December 17, 2012 by Marianne Combs (4 Comments)
Filed under: Music, People, Television

Nicholas David - a.k.a. Nick Mrozinski - sang his heart and soul out tonight on NBC's vocal competition show "The Voice."

The Eagan native took his on-stage energy to new heights with his rendition of Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" which morphed into Jimi Hendrix's "Fire." Mrozinski performed on a flaming piano before taking to the floor with some dance moves and high kicks.

Later on in the program Mrozinski took a more relaxed tone as he sang Bill Withers' "Lean on Me" with a casually dressed choir sitting behind him. The song echoed a sentiment expressed at the opening of the show with the cast's performance of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" in memory of the 26 people - mostly children - killed Friday at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.

Finally Mrozinski sang a duet with his coach CeeLo Green, whose title could have been a directive from CeeLo himself: "Play that Funky Music" by Wild Cherry. Aerialists with big hair and a "mini CeeLo" showing off his dance moves rounded out the performance.

Now it's up to the audience to decide who wins 'The Voice.' Fans can vote for their favorite contestants either by phone, text message, online, or by purchasing the song they performed on iTunes.

Voting is open in the Central time zone through 9:00am Tuesday. The winner, who gets to sign a record deal, will be announced on "The Voice" tomorrow night.

New citizens group announced at locked out concerts

Posted at 8:11 PM on December 16, 2012 by Euan Kerr (1 Comments)
Filed under: Arts management, Music

Audiences at this weekends sold out concerts by locked out musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra heard about a new citizens group formed to try to break the impasse between the musicians and management.

"Orchestrate Excellence"calls itself a "coalition to support our Minnesota Orchestra."

Organizers of say its only a week old and still getting set up, but the group used the concerts at the Ted Mann Concert Hall as an opportunity of gather names of supporters.

A flyer in the program stated:"The Minnesota Orchestra enriches and inspires our community with a heritage of artistic excellence spanning more than a century. It has made Minnesota synonymous with musical greatness worldwide. We believe that the orchestra plays an important role in Minnesota's rich cultural life and it is possible to fund its musical brilliance going forward. We are concerned citizens who have come together to find ways to assure the high quality of the music that we love."

Audience members were encouraged to add their name and Email address, and visit the organizations website.

The Sunday concert was an emotional experience as former Minnesota Orchestra music director Edo de Waart tppk the podium to lead the musicians through a program of Bach's Concerto in D Minor for two violins, featuring Concertmaster Erin Keefe and former Concertmaster Jorja Fleezanis standing side by side on stage.

The second part of the concerts opened with a spirited speech from viola player Sam Bergman who told the crowd the musicians were prepared to struggle and sacrifice to preserve the orchestra in the face of the major cuts proposed by management.

The musician were then joined by a chorus of at least 80 voices as well as four soloists to perform Beethoven's 9th.

The performance was met with rapturous approval from the audience which gave the musicians repeated standing ovations.