After getting out word throughout the afternoon Thursday (9/30) that James Taylor [ tickets ]'s sold out Oct. 1-2 concerts with the striking Toronto Symphony Orchestra would go on as planned, symphony management made a nighttime announcement that the concerts were again a no-go.

''The cancellations were made necessary when striking TSO musicians reneged on a written agreement to perform the shows, notwithstanding their current strike,'' said a statement issued Thursday night by orchestra management ''This agreement was made at the initiation of James Taylor himself, and with the concurrence of the Chairman of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra Musicians' Committee. In breaking the agreement, the TSO musicians were refusing to honor a promise made by the Toronto Musicians' Association. Despite the entreaties of James Taylor's management, the decision stood and James Taylor flew back to Boston Thursday evening.''

Symphony management regularly updates the status of contract negotiations at its website and via a telephone hotline at (416) 763-9102.

Toronto Symphony musicians, who do not have a contract, have been on strike since Sept. 25. Salaries have been an issue with the symphony's 98 musicians since they agreed to take a 16% pay cut in 1992, when the symphony was on the verge of bankruptcy. The pay cut was achieved by reducing the symphony's season from 50 weeks to 42.

According to The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra has lost money each of the past three years, and was forecasting another two years of deficits before the strike.

Non-symphony shows at the symphony's home, Roy Thomson Hall, are unaffected by the strike.