Created: 12/5/2007 4:52:09 PM 
By Ryan Duffy First Coast News
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- The First Coast Nutcracker show will go on, but it will not be the same show people in Jacksonville are used to.
"As far as the audience is concerned they should be upset, because they're not getting part of the deal; a live symphony accompanied by the dancers," says symphony member Peter Wright.
With Wright and other members of the Jacksonville symphony still at a stalemate with symphony management, this years Nutcracker music will be performed by a CD at the Times-Union Center. The musicians have been unable to agree on a new contract, they say because the symphony is making too many cuts.
"We feel we cannot lower the artistic standards of the orchestra and the concessions they're asking for, we feel like that would happen," says Wright.
"Absolutely the quality is the same. I know the performance they have planned for us is as magnificent as it was before," says First Coast Nutcracker Coordinator Deleah Martin.
Martin says that the audience will still get its money's worth this year. She says in most cities the Nutcracker performances use recorded music. The symphony musicians will still show up for the Nutcracker performances, they plan to be picketing out in front of the Times-Union Center.
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