Now is the right time to become an American Federation of Musicians member. From ragtime to rap, from the early phonograph to today's digital recordings, the AFM has been there for its members. And now there are more benefits available to AFM members than ever before, including a multi-million dollar pension fund, excellent contract protection, instrument and travelers insurance, work referral programs and access to licensed booking agents to keep you working.
As an AFM member, you are part of a membership of more than 80,000 musicians. Experience has proven that collective activity on behalf of individuals with similar interests is the most effective way to achieve a goal. The AFM can negotiate agreements and administer contracts, procure valuable benefits and achieve legislative goals. A single musician has no such power.
The AFM has a proud history of managing change rather than being victimized by it. We find strength in adversity, and when the going gets tough, we get creative - all on your behalf.
Like the industry, the AFM is also changing and evolving, and its policies and programs will move in new directions dictated by its members. As a member, you will determine these directions through your interest and involvement. Your membership card will be your key to participation in governing your union, keeping it responsive to your needs and enabling it to serve you better. To become a member now, visit www.afm.org/join.
February 1, 2021
Failing to pay its own musicians since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Metropolitan Opera has hired non-Metropolitan Opera musician ensembles for Met produced events and fundraisers. Most recently, the Met hired European string musicians for a New Year’s Eve gala streamed from Germany. “All of these fundraising events can—and should—be done safely right […]
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In this collection of essays on music and life, famed classical pianist and composer Stephen Hough writes informally and engagingly about music and the life of a musician, from the broader aspects of what it is to walk out onto a stage or to make a recording, to specialist tips from deep inside the practice […]
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At the end of November, Los Angeles Philharmonic musicians—members of Local 47 (Los Angeles, CA)—ratified a side letter to their current contract, which will be in effect through September 22, 2022. The side letter creates a four-tier system for compensation, with salary during tier one set at 70% of the previously bargained rate. Salary will […]
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Furloughed through the end of the 2020-21 season, musicians of the Phoenix Symphony ratified a contract at the end of October that will secure their health coverage and other benefits. The symphony’s musicians—members of Local 586 (Phoenix, AZ)—were initially furloughed for three weeks at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020. Thanks to PPP […]
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On January 10, musicians of the St. Louis Symphony, members of Local 2-197 (St. Louis, MO), ratified an agreement to modify their current CBA for the period of January 11 through August 29, 2021. Under the new agreement, musicians will be paid 85% of base scale wages and 80% of career track and overscale. Prior […]
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On March 24, 2020, the musicians of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, members of Local 72-147 (Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX), ratified a one-year extension of the agreement that had been set to expire on August 31, 2020. The financial terms of that extension, which covered the 2020-21 season, were identical to those for the 2019-20 season. On […]
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I don’t need to remind a musician how important resonance is. As a latecomer to music, I first grasped the importance of resonance in my high school physics class when we watched the famous video of the collapse of the Tacoma-Narrows bridge. Hitting the bridge at just the right frequency, the massive undulations eventually caused […]
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Flutist Bill Giannone, of Local 802 (New York City), has selected 12 well-known classical melodies and arranged them for solo flute with piano accompaniment in his new collection, 12 Great Flute Encores. Selections include Bach’s famous “Air on the G String” and the “Badinerie” from the Orchestral Suite No. 2, Debussy’s “Reverie” and the “Girl […]
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Forbidden Valley was inspired by a dream about traveling down into a deep, dry valley, with living secrets, hidden waters and shy vegetation. The piece can be performed by a flute quintet of three flutes, alto flute, and bass flute, or by a low flute-quintet of bass flute, bass flute in F, contrabass flute, contrabass […]
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This revised and expanded edition of Pepe Romero’s Guitar Style and Technique (1982), which had been out of print for some time, features new sections on tremolo, flamenco, concert performance, additional finger gymnastics, and a Romero photo album. It contains all of the music from the earlier version and several new pieces, all newly engraved. […]
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