Local 40-543 of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada
Musicians' Association
of Metropolitan Baltimore
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Welcome and thank you for your interest in the Musicians' Association of Metropolitan Baltimore, Local 40-543 of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada. The AFM is the largest organization in the world dedicated to representing the interests of professional musicians. Local 40-543 represents musicians in Central Maryland, the state's Upper Chesapeake region, and Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Local 40-543 Office Hours
Local 40-543 has not yet resumed its previous office hours. Our staff continues to work remotely. The best ways to reach us are to send an email to or call 410-337-7277 and leave a message on our answering machine.
BSO Musicians
Please Remember to Pay Your Local 40-543
Membership Dues for 2022
A musician who is hired to work for an employer that has a collective bargaining agreement with Local 40-543 is required to be a member in good standing with The Musicians' Association of Metropolitan Baltimore as long as they work for that employer. Employers who have contracts with Local 40-543 are the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Center Stage, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Everyman Theatre, Hippodrome/Broadway Across America, and now the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra.

In order to be a member in good standing of Local 40-543, a musician's membership dues must be current. A member is suspended when their dues are unpaid for three months and expelled when their dues remain unpaid for six months. This year Local 40-543 has been waiving late fees and penalties for musicians who are rejoining after being suspended or expelled. This practice will continue during the fourth quarter of 2021, so if you are suspended or expelled from Local 40-543, please consider rejoining before our late fees and reinstatement fees go back into effect.

Annual dues are $170 for a Regular Member, $76 for a Life Member and $70 for an Inactive Life Member. If a musician prefers to pay their dues quarterly, those amounts are $45 for a Regular Member, $21 for a Life Member and $19 for an Inactive Life Member.

In order to qualify as a Life Member, a musician must be 65 years of age AND be a member of Local 40-543 for 35 consecutive years.

Annual or quarterly dues can be paid by check or through the Local's website. If paying by check, please make the check payable to "Local 40-543 AFM" and send it to Local 40-543 AFM, 1055 Taylor Avenue #218, Baltimore, MD 21286. Annual or quarterly dues can also be paid through the Local's website with a credit card. Another option is to have automatic payment of dues made through a bank account.

There is a service fee charged for paying dues online. The service fee is currently 4.5%. We anticipate that it will be increased by the first of the new year, so members will save some money if they pay their 2022 annual membership dues by the end of 2021.

If a musician works under one of the collective bargaining agreements listed above, with the exception of Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the employer deducts work dues of 2.5% from wages and remits the work dues to Local 40-543. Most of this money stays in Baltimore to help Local 40-543 provide services to its members; a percentage is passed on to the Federation in New York.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO MAKE A CONTRIBUTION TO TEMPO

When paying annual or quarterly dues, please consider sending some additional money and making a contribution to TEMPO, the legislative and political fund that helps support members of Congress on all sides of the aisle who are friends of working musicians. TEMPO helped get the legislation passed earlier this year that saved the AFM-Employers' Pension Fund, and TEMPO is now working to support the American Music Fairness Act, which will, in part, ensure that performers are compensated when their songs are played on terrestrial radio. Contributions to TEMPO are not tax deductible.

If you are paying your dues by check, please consider sending an additional $10, $20, or $30 for TEMPO along with your dues. If you are paying your dues online, please do so here: https://www.afm.org/what-we-are-doing/tempo/.

And if you have any questions. . . .

Please call the office at 410-337-7277 or send an email to .

AFM DiversityThe AFM has been promoting and protecting professional musicians for over 110 years. Local 40-543 has been serving Baltimore, MD and area musicians since 1903 and continues to be an effective advocate for musicians' rights in the workplace (be that a nightclub, a symphony stage, in a recording studio, or on tour). The AFM and Local 4-543 protect the recorded works musicians produce from being exploited, and protect our members' live performances by providing several types of benefit programs that help them to build successful careers.

Members of Local 40-543 of the AFM are secure in knowing that their organization is actively lobbying to promote legislation and public awareness that protects musicians' interests, negotiating collective bargaining agreements with the recording industry, motion picture industry, jingle industry, TV networks, National Public TV and Radio, and providing excellent wages and working conditions for its members.

© Musicians' Association of Metropolitan Baltimore - AFM Local 40-543 . All rights reserved