In the three years since I joined Local 802, it’s safe to say that much has changed in our union, the broader labor movement, and the city in which our members perform on a daily basis. Before looking ahead at the work to be done in the remainder of my term as Recording Vice President, I want to take a moment to share with members a bit about my background and why I feel called to serve at Local 802.

HOW’D WE GET HERE?

My musical journey began on the south side of Chicago when I discovered my love of music playing violin in the first grade. Growing up in a blue collar neighborhood, my peers were overwhelmingly focused on athletic pursuits. I, however, was drawn to classical music from the start. I continued my musical education at the Merit School of Music where, upon entering a high school without a string ensemble (but with an incredibly large athletics budget), I transitioned into playing trumpet in marching band and by fall, the french horn in concert band.

Many of the MSM teachers were CFM Local 10-208 members — an organization I knew nothing about at the time. My studies with Erika Hollenback and Timothy Riordan opened a world of musical possibilities for me, paving the way to move to New York at age 18 and inspiring me to pursue my Bachelors of Music at NYU. I went on to study with Ann Ellsworth during my undergraduate degree where I had the opportunity to meet and take many music theory, history, and aural training courses with current Local 802 Executive Board member Sarah Haines!

Despite years of hard study and many odd gigs to pay the bills in college, I realized that perhaps more than my desire to perform on stage, I’d developed a deep reverence for the profession itself and my teachers who, like many 802 members, enrich their students’ lives in ways both directly and indirectly related to music itself. I came to understand the struggles of securing healthcare as a gig worker, planning for your financial future, and what it meant to juggle rehearsal and teaching schedules with young children to care for. I learned that although a lot of nonunion work was out there, you had better make sure your membership was current if you wanted to get gigs upon which you could build a career.

Upon completing my Bachelors of Music at NYU in 2011, I opted to not pursue a career in performance — my chops were mediocre at best, after all — and instead to enter the world of public service where my north star remains to this day: to uplift and empower the workers who give color to a challenging world through their talent.

SINCE JOINING 802

I jumped at the chance to put my skill set to work as 802’s Chief of Staff after spending a decade working with politicians and organizations on the periphery of the arts and education spaces.

Since joining Local 802, I am proud of what I’ve worked with our members to accomplish. In the first year, we focused the entire weight of the union behind ending the 4-year fight for DCINY’s first contract. We spearheaded an aggressive campaign to hold the Here Lies Love producers accountable to Broadway’s minimums, with Michael Paulson boldly declaring that the producers “bowed” to the union’s demands.

We didn’t stop there: in 2023 we won a very strong contract for the NYC Ballet, paving the way for historic gains in the New York Philharmonic’s 2024 campaign, rightly restoring its pay status to one of the highest levels in the nation. With the AFM, we organized the musicians of “Severance,” winning our first union contract for a show on Apple TV+ covering not just the marching band in the season 2 finale but also ensuring that the entire series is scored with union music.

Riding on these successes, I spent much of early 2025 in Albany on a singular mission to win musicians their fair share of access to the New York State Film Tax Credit Program, ending a 20-year disparity between musicians and other creative workers covered by the credit while creating an additional 10 percent “uplift” to entice producers to hire musicians in New York State.

We’ve built strong relationships with friends we can count on: sister unions like Actors’ Equity, WGA, and SAG-AFTRA, not to mention elected leaders like Gov. Kathy Hochul, Manhattan BP Mark Levine, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, and Sen. Brad Hoylman. We are now deepening these ties from transactional to transformational relationships, opening pathways for what comes next.

It’s been a busy summer since assuming the Recording Vice President’s office two months ago. In addition to serving as Political Director and interim Chief of Staff, I have continued to work closely with the Broadway Theatre and Negotiating Committees on their contract campaign. We have settled many contracts already including the Big Apple Circus, Midori and Friends faculty, and the John Engeman Theatre. Jazz at Lincoln Center is an ongoing discussion as well as long expired contacts like 54 Below and many others.

WHAT’S AHEAD?

Despite all of these improvements, however, our work is far from done. We live under growing threat of censorship — artistic and otherwise — with a federal administration seeking to gut the hard fought legal statutes that paved the way for organized labor to have a life changing impact on the lives of all working people.

As we look to the future, we know that solidarity is the way and that we have nothing if not for one another and the union. We are witnessing that in real time as we continue to navigate a historically contentious Broadway contract in tandem with Actors’ Equity Association. I am so heartened to see the groundspring of participation and solidarity among Broadway musicians in this contract campaign as well as the unwavering support for them from other musician communities and committees from within the Local 802 fold and beyond.

In the months to come we will be intentionally focusing our resources to engage in a strategic planning process that will determine our next steps as a union. We plan to expand our organizing department and communicate with musicians who have been overlooked and underpaid for too long. As you’ve likely heard me say in the pits: we can’t do this without you. So please: stay tuned and join us.Both forms of censorship are part of the authoritarian playbook. Local 802 and the labor movement will not be silent in the face of attacks on free speech.And, as we can see, fighting back does make a difference.

What we cannot do is bury our heads in the sand or give up. A wise union organizer once said that all organizing comes down to hope vs. fear. Union busters and dictators both thrive on fear. We can counter this fear by making sure that our music, words and actions are adding hope to the world. And every victory — like Jimmy Kimmel’s reinstatement or winning a fair union contract — gives us more inspiration, courage and resilience to keep on fighting.