Allegro

Currently Browsing: May, 2020

BEFORE…AND AFTER
Financial vice president's report
Karen Fisher
  By Karen Fisher Throughout my childhood, it seemed that nearly every event in my family was defined as having happened “before Norman died” or “after Norman died.” Norman was a great-uncle I never met but whose life became somewhat

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Local 802 officers and staff, wearing safety masks, mail out recording checks to members
Despite the fact that our building is shut down, several of our key staff in the Electronic Media Department – including Recording Vice President Andy Schwartz and some his team pictured below (Cathy Calabrese, Steve Singer, Bob Pawlo, Alex Blake

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Songs of Support
Views from the board
Janet Axelrod
By Janet Axelrod I don’t think I’m the only one who has had more offers for recording work in the past few weeks than in a long time. A particular offer was special. It came because I’m a third of

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VIRTUALLY TOGETHER
A multi-screen video guide
Isaac Trapkus
By Isaac Trapkus Making a multi-screen music video is a great way to reconnect with your colleagues and re-engage your audience. By sharing the process we used to create our “Bolero” video (see screen shot above), which featured 80 musicians

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Musicians raise our spirits during quarantine
Katherine Cherbas
By Katherine Cherbas Shortly after New York City’s concert halls and theatres were shut down in March, videos started appearing in my Facebook feed featuring quarantined musicians playing together from afar. Like many of you, I’ve always cherished the kaleidoscope

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REMOTE TEACHING
How a public school music teacher figured it out…and how you can too!
Dr. Brian Doherty
By Dr. Brian Doherty Many teachers use the old adage “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” regarding the degree of success in their instruction as it relates to lesson planning. While I agree that good teachers must

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#SaintsForSaints
Matt Hong
By Matt Hong My wife, Diana Velazquez, is a charge nurse in the ER at Mt. Sinai Morningside. The FDNY lined up every night on their block to blow their sirens and applaud the healthcare workers during their shift changes

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THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSIONS OF LIFE UNDER QUARANTINE
Views from the board
Lynne Cohen
By Lynne Cohen In late summer 1986, my family was moving to Europe. I had given up a full-time orchestra job in South Florida, shipped the bare necessities ahead, and sold the rest. For the summer, I was playing at

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LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE QUARANTINE
Views from the board
Caryl Paisner
By Caryl Paisner This is not my first quarantine. In 1997, when just 20 weeks pregnant with my twins (now 22 and healthy), I went into labor. After a week in the hospital to stop the process and to stabilize

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Making lemonade out of coronavirus
Emily Pecoraro
By Emily Pecoraro I think we can all agree that times are pretty strange right now. In our confinement, the entire music community has faced a unique circumstance in which we are all trying to figure out new ways of

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Stamford Symphony musicians and soloists record a performance from their homes dedicated to Fairfield County healthcare workers
Peter Weitzner
By Peter Weitzner “No man is an island,” wrote the poet John Donne. Really? I’m not so sure about that. After the Stamford Symphony was forced to cancel the rest of its public performing season, we found ourselves struggling to

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Legal corner
By Harvey Mars, Esq. The coronavirus pandemic put the arts community in uncharted territory. However, the law actually anticipated something like this. Many Local 802 contracts contain a provision called “force majeure” or “Act of God.” While force majeure clauses

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HELP FOR MUSICIANS DURING THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS 1. Start at the Local 802 resource center at www.local802afm.org/resource-center 2. Go to the Local 802 Musicians Emergency Relief Fund at https://erf.local802afm.org 3. Looking for counseling? Help with substance abuse? Someone to talk

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Winning on stage
Don Greene
By Don Greene Although I currently reside in Los Angeles, I am a real New Yorker at heart. I lived in Queens when I was young, went to high school in Brooklyn, practiced diving in the Bronx, and lived in

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Feature profile
Todd Bryant Weeks
By Todd Bryant Weeks Gene Perla walks into his study, tall, lanky and youthful and sits down at his computer and waves to me… at the other end of our virtual space. He looks up, sees I’m there and hits

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Chris Sax
Chris Sax
I joined Local 802 to develop my career in solidarity with other professional NYC artists. The perks of being a member of the union are great! I grew up just outside of Niagara Falls and got my first union gig

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Matt Pavolka
Matt Pavolka
I re-joined Local 802 when I got some Broadway work last year. I’ve been in NYC for 25 years and still love the music scene here. I want to continue being a part of it and doing what I’m doing.

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Reggie Pittman
Reggie Pittman
I joined Local 802 when I moved to Brooklyn after previously being a member of AFM Local 4 (Cleveland). I’m a trumpeter, flugelhornist, bandleader and producer. The union serves a multitude of purposes; some of them include news sources (including

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Ada Westfall
Ada Westfall
I re-joined Local 802 because…well, technically, I’m not sure that I left the union. But I’m a trans woman and my entire name changed along with my gender, so they had to issue me a new union card number! But

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Will Eversden
Will Eversden
I joined Local 802 because I’m a firm believer in unions and the role they play in sustaining community. More than ever, it’s important to stand up for what we believe in, fight for what’s right, and preserve our livelihood

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Douglas Baldwin
Douglas Baldwin
I re-joined Local 802 because the better the pay and the better the working conditions, the more likely it’s a Local 802 gig! Whenever I work in New York City, I want to be sure that rehearsals will be timed

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Requiem
Vladimir Baranov Vladimir Baranov, 74, who played first violin in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for three decades, died last fall, on Nov. 1, 2019. He had been a member of Local 802 since 1978. Mr. Baranov was born and raised

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March 10, 2020 - April 1, 2020
Tuesday, March 10, 2020 Meeting called to order at 11:18 am by Recording Vice President Schwartz. Present: Executive Board members Axelrod, Davis, Hoyt, Kainuma, Paisner, Shankin. President Krauthamer absent on union business. Minutes of March 3, 2020 reviewed. Executive Board

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Digital petition
The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed many weaknesses in our social safety net and labor laws. The predicament of musical artists — the original gig workers — is particularly poignant. With live performance shut down, the vast majority of the music

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THE BAND ROOM
May 2020
Bill Crow
By Bill Crow With everyone forced to stay home and all our gigs canceled, the internet has become more and more a place for people to stay connected. Many musicians are posting live performances. I’ve watched quite a few of

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