Allegro

Currently Browsing: October, 2005

When an Orchestra Folded, Musicians Stepped In
Jacob Heyman-Kantor
See below article for photos by Claire Houston. Members of the now-defunct Gateway Symphony of Staten Island have formed a new orchestra. The Staten Island Philharmonic Orchestra performed its first concert on Aug. 21 at the Noble Maritime Museum to

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Responding to Katrina
David Lennon
Click here for information if you need help, or if you want to donate. When the waters came, the music in New Orleans stopped for the first time in 300 years. Symphony players, jazz artists and street musicians all tried

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DONATE INSTRUMENTS TO FELLOW NEW ORLEANS MUSICIANS! The Moonshine Project, a non-profit entertainment company in NYC, has partnered with The Tipitina’s Foundation in New Orleans, LA to put instruments back into the hands of musicians who lost everything in Hurricane

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Nicholas, Jeremiah, and Akeem are three kids displaced from Hurricane Katrina. They’re pictured with Lovie Smith-Schenk, the president of AFM Local 65-699 (Housten) at a benefit concert for Katrina survivors. I had just had surgery a little over a week

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Lou Barranti
802 member Pedro Diaz with Kathy Caballero, co-chair of the Pittsburgh Opera and Ballet Orchestra Committee. The “Ballet Handbook,” a primer for children on the Web site of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, defines ballet as “a way of telling a

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Theatre Community Initiative Breaks New Ground
Lynne Bond
Duke LaFoon and Megan Lawrence in “Monica! The Musical,” one of the shows in the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Photo by Daniel Shiffman. This fall Local 802 began a unique relationship with the New York Musical Theatre Festival —

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Governor Allows for a Second Try
If you’ve ever performed in a club that serves food, you probably weren’t aware that the owner of the venue has to pay tax on the “music charge” or admission. Earlier this year Local 802 introduced legislation in Albany that

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New Seminar Offers Tools to WinOrganizing Matters
John Arbo
Ben Franklin said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.” That’s especially relevant today, when unions are under fire and fighting for musicians’ rights and workers’ rights is tough. In June, I attended a newly-designed

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Photo Section
Music makes the labor movement stronger! On September 10, Local 802 joined hundreds of other unions in the Central Labor Council’s annual labor parade. Performing in Local 802’s contingent were Sam Bardfeld (violin), Curtis Fowlkes (trombone), Norbert Marius (bass), Roy

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Views from the Board
Tino Gagliardi
This new column will feature thoughts and opinions from your Executive Board. During the week of July 11, I was given the opportunity by our local to attend a full-week seminar at Cornell University’s School of Industrial Labor Relations as

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Guest Commentary
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney
With the federal government poised to spend more than $50 billion to rebuild areas destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, the AFL-CIO is calling on Congress to reverse President George W. Bush’s Sept. 8 executive order that would allow contractors to pay

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The National Endowment for the Arts won a $4.4 million increase in its 2006 budget. Approximately $3 million of the NEA increase will restore funding to the popular Challenge America program, providing arts grants to under-served communities, which President Bush’s

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Over the summer, a few record companies have submitted payrolls without taking deductions from musicians — in other words paying them “net.” This means that such companies will need to issue 1099’s to each musician at the end of the

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Legal Corner
Harvey S. Mars, Esq.
Last year in this column, I briefly analyzed several cases that involved the rights of musicians to practice in their own apartments. At the time when I wrote that article, however, I had not yet acquired first-hand experience in litigating

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Musicians' Assistance Program
Melissa Haslam, MSW
As a musician, what may be at the forefront of your mind are thoughts about events in the approaching weeks and months, such as any upcoming gigs, rehearsals or special engagements. With all of this it’s easy to get caught

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Book Notes
Bill Crow
“Fifties Jazz Talk, an Oral Retrospective” by Gordon Jack (Scarecrow Press, 2004). A new addition to Scarecrow’s “Studies in Jazz” series, this book contains transcribed interviews with thirty jazz musicians, survivors of the 1950s jazz scene, who were selected by

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Book Notes
Bill Crow
“‘I Just Happened To Be There…’ Making Music With the Stars” by Nick Perito (Xlibris, 2004). Though he was a musician since his childhood in Denver, Nick Perito’s career as an accordionist, pianist, arranger, composer and conductor began in New

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PARTNERS IN TIME To the Editor: I invite members of 802 to join me in a project. Since around 1990 or so I have been doing interviews, mostly with rhythm section players — including Ray Brown, Percy Heath, Milt Hinton,

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Heather Beaudoin
HILLARY RESPONDS TO KATRINA In response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Senator Hillary Clinton has introduced legislation to restore FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to Cabinet-level, independent status. Clinton argued that when FEMA was moved to the Department

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New York Grand Opera. A three year agreement has been reached between Local 802 and New York Grand Opera, Inc. When performing in New York’s major venues and Flushing Town Hall, the employer has agreed to pay the appropriate Local

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Kaufman Center. The union brought a grievance against the Kaufman Center to the American Arbitration Association for the failure of the center to provide 2 percent raises to faculty teaching in the center’s outreach program. The arbitrator denied the employer’s

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CORRECTION:Billy Bauer, a guitarist and a Local 802 member since 1936, died on June 17, not June 24 as printed in last month’s Allegro. Jack R. Carman – Trombone Michael Di Vito – Violin Oliver Edel – Cello Chris Griffin

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May 3, 2005 -- May 10, 2005
TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2005 Meeting called to order at 11:20 a.m. Present: President Lennon, Recording Vice President Dennison, Financial Vice President Blumenthal, Executive Board members Babich, Gagliardi, Gale, Giannini, Landolfi, Schaffner, Shankin, Weiss, Whitaker, Assistant to the President Delia and

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