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.
March 1, 2021
This new transcription of the famous Ciaccona from the Second Violin Partita (BWV1004) is the result of many years of research by Italian guitarist Paolo Pegoraro in style and interpretation, both as a performer and teacher. In preparing this edition, Pegoraro has always kept Bach’s original text foremost, while making it suitable for a plucked […]
Read MoreFebruary 26, 2021
The Value of Networking and Niceness in the Music Game As a child growing up in Santiago de Cuba, Luis Conte was surrounded by music. The radio was always on in his house, and someone was always playing guitar, piano, percussion, or singing. There was music everywhere, and it seeped into his pores, into his […]
Read MoreFebruary 1, 2021
Composing the flavor of her cultural heritage Jazz cellist and composer Akua Dixon has been playing music professionally for nearly 50 years, with world-class musicians at venues around the globe. One thing she has learned—and one thing she believes—is that you are what you hear. “The music I compose is a product of all my […]
Read MoreFebruary 1, 2021
International Musician, the official publication of the AFM, has received seven awards in the 2020 International Labor Communications Association (ILCA) Labor Media Awards. The awards recognize excellence among union publications, websites, film, video, and other media from across North America. It is the first and largest competition exclusively for labor journalists and communicators. “It is […]
Read MoreFebruary 1, 2021
The not-for-profit Rachel Barton Pine (RBP) Foundation’s Music by Black Composers (MBC) project has launched its first free online directories of classical music written by Black composers: Repertoire for Violin and Orchestra, and Repertoire for Unaccompanied Solo Violin. MBC works to rectify historic and ongoing racial injustices in the classical music sphere. MBC’s repertoire directories establish a central location for existing […]
Read MoreFebruary 1, 2021
When talking to musicians about their lives and careers, the phrase that always occurs during the conversation is: “…and then COVID hit.” It’s been a life- and career-changing event, and one that has allowed/forced musicians to spend time on special projects. For Marta Bradley—bass player and secretary-treasurer of Local 161-710 (Washington, DC)—that project was the […]
Read MoreFebruary 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 […]
Read MoreFebruary 1, 2021
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 […]
Read MoreFebruary 1, 2021
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 […]
Read MoreFebruary 1, 2021
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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