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.
January 7, 2016
IM -Appraiser Brendan Ryan had no idea that when he visited one Greenwich home he would make the discovery of a lifetime. When he saw the manuscript annotated in German he instantly recognized the writing. A musician, Ryan had been obsessed with Ludwig van Beethoven.
He called his old musical mentor Carmelo Comberiati, a professor at Manhattanville College who had studied Beethoven manuscripts as a Fulbright scholar in Vienna who was able to determine the work, written in 1810, to which the sheet music in question was connected. The page came from a sketchbook the composer used for brainstorming. After Beethoven’s death it was broken up and sold in portions to admirers.
The yellowed sheet music protected under glass went from being a curio in a Greenwich home to selling for $100,000 at auction.