Osmo Vänskä. Photo by Greg Helgeson

There’s been news of two significant losses to the Twin Cities music community in the last week. You’ve likely heard the first: famed Minnesota Orchestra conductor Osmo Vänskä formally announced his resignation; Aaron Jay Kernis, founder of the orchestra’s Composer Institute, is quitting his post as well. (Read the press statements from both about the decision to leave on Minnesota Public Radio’s website.) Vänskä led the locked-out musicians in a handful of sold-out concerts at the University of Minnesota’s Ted Man Hall, broadcast live on public radio, last weekend; Pamela Espeland’s moving account of the bittersweet farewell performance for MinnPost is well worth reading.

The orchestra’s musicians have been locked out just over a year now, and both sides of the dispute remain intransigent. Indeed, contract talks between the artists and board members are by all accounts more fractious than ever. When the Minnesota Orchestra Association indicated they’d be cancelling a series of much-anticipated Carnegie Hall concerts due to the stalled talks, Vänskä announced his resignation soon after, as he promised he would should such circumstances arise. The departures — of Vänskä and an ever-increasing tally of orchestra musicians — are at this point not surprising, but surely cause for mourning. And that’s not only here in Minnesota, but for music lovers the world over who’ve come to treasure the uniquely crisp, dynamic sound of this talented ensemble under Vänskä’s direction.

Twin Cities jazz fans also received bad, and unexpected, news this week: the Artists’ Quarter, a longtime proving ground for emerging musicians and home-base for a number of the scene’s established stalwarts, will close at the end of this year. Owner Kenny Horst told the Star-Tribune that his rent on the St. Paul nightclub space near Rice Park had “literally doubled” in the years since his former landlord died and new owners took over. He goes on, “I cut my salary to where there’s nothing left, and I still can’t make the numbers work. I still have great nights here, but one great night a week doesn’t cut it.” Musicians and fans are beginning to mobilize to save the storied venue; but stated plans, at this point, are that the Artists’ Quarter will close by the end of December.

It’s been a tough week in local music, but here’s a bright spot of news to end on: Minnesota Opera (a Knight Arts grantee) announced yesterday that the organization has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to offer live, outdoor simulcasts in downtown St. Paul’s Landmark Plaza of the next two years’ season-opening performances (i.e. the 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons). They’ve gotten quite good at this sort of mass outreach for their performances. According to the press release, “Support in 2011 to Minnesota Opera’s New Works Initiative from Knight Foundation was integral to the company’s development of a new competency in the HD capture of its productions, a direct result of which is the upcoming national broadcast of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Silent Night on December 13, 2013, on PBS.”

The Pulitzer-winning team behind Minnesota Opera’s commission “Silent Night” makes Richard Condon’s famous novel into an operatic political thriller, with a world premiere slated for March 2015.

Just last month, Minnesota Opera also announced the commission of an opera based on Stephen King’s iconic novel, “The Shining,” that will debut in 2016. On a related note, in March 2015, Minnesota Opera will present the world premiere of a second collaborative commission by the Pulitzer-winning team behind “Silent Night.” Composer Kevin Puts and librettist Michael Campbell are creating a new opera adapted from Richard Condon’s famous 1959 political thriller, “The Manchurian Candidate.” This season’s New Works Initiative production, “The Dream of Valentino,” will take the Ordway stage in early March 2014. The “tango-tinged” new opera by Dominick Argento centers on the life of film legend Rudolph Valentino.