We join the world in mourning the loss of Chris Cornell, who died the evening of May 17, 2017. He was 52.
A member of AFM Local 47, Chris was a dynamic musician and one of the greatest voices of this generation. The frontman of influential ’90s grunge group Soundgarden, he went on to join two supergroups, Audioslave and Temple of the Dog, in addition to enjoying a successful solo career. Continue reading
AFM Local 47 musicians, WGA-West writers, and Healthy California coalition members marched with tens of thousands of Angelenos on May Day 2017 on a three-mile course from MacArthur Park to City Hall.
View our May Day photo gallery on Flickr
Musicians marched on Monday in record numbers. Our community of politically-engaged musicians has grown larger than ever before, with nearly 50 musicians making the long march in the hot sun yesterday.
Tony Jones, Jeff Fish and Bryan Head led the drumline at the May Day March Los Angeles 2017. View our May Day YouTube playlist. Continue reading
Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell (13th District) speaks about the great value musicians give to the community at the inaugural AFM Local 47 Lifetime Achievement Awards on April 24, 2017. (Photo: Liska Yamada)
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Esteemed members of the Los Angeles musicians union honored at inaugural event
LOS ANGELES, CA (APRIL 26, 2017) — More than 200 musicians gathered on the evening of April 24, 2017, to celebrate a new tradition honoring esteemed members of the Los Angeles musicians union at the inaugural American Federation of Musicians Local 47 Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Acclaimed musicians Gene Cipriano (woodwinds), Vincent DeRosa (horn), Louise DiTullio (flute), Carol Kaye (electric bass), and Dick Nash (trombone) were recognized during the ceremony, held at the AFM Local 47 Serena Kay & Earl Williams Auditorium in Hollywood, for their outstanding achievements and support of the artistic community of Los Angeles.
Composer Jeremy Turner led an AFM Local 47 orchestra at the Warner Bros. Eastwood Scoring Stage in January to score the Netflix docu-series Five Came Back. Continue reading
The 89th Annual Academy Awards telecast is one to be remembered — and not just for the Best Picture snafu.
In the Oscar’s 64 years of being televised, every single person who worked on the production has been listed in the end credits — that is, except for musicians.
That changed this year, when the names of all the live orchestra musicians were listed on the end crawl. Continue reading
Musique Sur La Mer music director blends artistry with advocacy
by Linda A. Rapka
After years of watching music programs in schools dwindle town to almost nothing in her neighborhood of Long Beach, Marcy A. Sudock set out to do something about it.
Partnering with a local neighborhood youth center in 2001, she founded the Musique Sur La Mer Orchestras, a nonprofit orchestra group serving every level of musical performance starting with musicians as young as 7 years old. In an effort to build up music programs in public schools, which often limit students to one or two electives, as a contingency to join MSLM students must also be enrolled in their school’s music program. Continue reading
At our Presidents Day Town Hall the evening of Feb. 20, 2017, musicians welcomed an excellent panel to discuss healthcare, labor rights, tax credits for musicians, and arts education and funding.
Guest panelists were Congresswoman Judy Chu, RMA President Marc Sazer, ICSOM President Meredith Snow, composer/arranger and Secretary of Americans for Democratic Action Cliff Tasner, and WGA-W Political Director Corri Freedman. Members asked insightful questions about where the greatest threats would come from, and about how we could do effective advocacy.
Photo: Linda A. Rapka
Leimert Park lit up the night of February 23, 2017, at the exhibition opening of BlackMusic, BlackWork.
Presented in conjunction with the Los Angeles Black Worker Center, UCLA Labor Center, the exhibit shares the dynamic history of organizing in the arts spans the founding of the Black musicians union Local 767 in the 1920s to the contemporary struggles of working musicians who understand the transformative power of art and culture.
Special guests speakers included AFM Local 47 President John Acosta, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, LA County Federation of Labor Rusty Hicks, Los Angeles Black Worker Center Co-founder Lola Smallwood Cuevas and member Andrene Scott, and Dr. Robin D.G. Kelley, Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA. Black Worker Center member Patsy Howard served as MC. Continue reading
