Boston Musicians AFM Local

The Boston Musicians' Association (BMA) is a labor union representing over 1,600 professional musicians in the Boston metro area and beyond. We work to ensure that musicians have fair wages and economic security through collective bargaining agreements, wage scales, guaranteed contracts, instrument insurance and a pension fund.

In 2000, Local 9-535 President Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin undertook a project to record an oral history of the Boston Musicians' Association. Nearly fifty BMA members were interviewed in groups and individually over a period of several months. The resulting transcripts document over seventy years of our union's rich history.

The Boston Musicians' Association (BMA) Anti-Racism Committee exists to identify and acknowledge the racist and unjust past and present practices of the BMA, and to actively work to change these practices moving forward. We envision a professional musical community across the entire BMA membership that embraces and fosters a diverse array of musical expressions, regardless of race, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical ability, and gender. We strive to ensure that our community will provide fair, equitable, and just working conditions that all BMA members have the right to expect.

Don't toil away in isolation, struggling to "make it" as one individual in a monolithic music industry. Join the Boston Musicians' Association not only for added security but for the opportunity to work together and improve the music industry. Membership is open to everyone. Normally, a new member's total initiation fee is $145 ($65 for AFM Initiation, $80 for BMA Initiation).