Find a Union Musician

Singer/songwriter, some typing, no shorthand. Accompany self on guitar, others on harmonica. Active in Local 1000 from Day One. Happily living off the pension.

PETER ALSOP is a nationally known singer/songwriter, lecturer and humorist from California. He has a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and he is a Certified Experiential Therapist. His songs are used by thousands of parents, doctors, educators and other human service professionals to help families discuss sensitive issues such as sexual abuse, disabilities, loss and grief, codependency, self-worth, chemical dependency and family violence. Peter has worked as the Director of the Harbor Schools Residential Treatment Center for emotionally disturbed adolescents in Maine, and taught elementary school in the South Bronx ghetto. He’s lectured and performed at more than 400 colleges and universities and been on the faculty of many prestigious national conferences with such notable professionals as Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Benjamin Spock and Buckminster Fuller. He’s traveled extensively throughout the United States and Canada, Southeast Asia, Australia, Central America, and Europe presenting and performing at conferences, festivals, rallies, and concerts. As a writer, producer and actor, he’s done a feature film, musical comedy, directed and edited music videos, and has completed twenty albums, four songbooks and six dvds. His children's albums consistently win "Best Children's Album" of the year awards from Parent's Choice or the National Association of Independent Record Distributors. His songs are included on anthologies, in filmstrips, dvd's, movies and television programs. Peter now lives with his wife, actress/director Ellen Geer in Topanga, California. For more information, check out his website at www.peteralsop.com

Musician, painter and educator Natalia Zukerman grew up in New York City, studied art at Oberlin, started her mural business Off The Wall in San Francisco, began her songwriting career in Boston, and now resides, writes, plays, teaches and paints in the Hudson Valley. Having released eight independent albums on Weasel Records and her own label Talisman Records, Zukerman has toured internationally as a solo performer since 2005. Her music can be heard on the soundtrack of several seasons of The L Word and ABC Family's Chasing Life. She also created the score for The Arch of Titus, an independent film created for Yeshiva University and a Harvard online course called Poetry in America. Alongside her touring career, Zukerman continues to paint private and public murals as well as illustrate children’s books, design and paint sets for plays in New York City and paint private portrait commissions. In February, 2017, Natalia became a Cultural Diplomat for the US Department of State, playing concerts and conducting workshops with her trio, The Northern Lights throughout Africa. Alongside band Raining Jane in 2022, Natalia co-lead workshops virtually with social action musicians in Zimbabwe. Raining Jane and Natalia were selected to lead workshops again through American Music Abroad some time in 2023/24. Natalia teaches private songwriting lessons and has taught at various programs and festivals throughout the US and in Canada. In May 2018, she was the artist in residence at the cell theatre in New York City where she developed her multimedia one woman show, The Women Who Rode Away. In March, 2020, Natalia co-produced an online music festival called Shut In & Sing which ran for 8 weeks and provided immediate financial relief to hundreds of independent musicians at the beginning of the lockdown. Zukerman is also a 200 hour certified yoga teacher and is the artistic director for the conscious global community, SoulCall Global.

Folksinger/Storyteller/Songleader

Carl Jack (AKA Carl Fichtenbaum) is a singer-songwriter, who has been performing for more than 40 years, following a life-long passion of composing music, writing lyrics, and playing live shows. He uses music as an outlet to express thoughts, feelings and observation about the world. To him, love, humor, social activism and change are all intertwined. Because of this, he writes a variety of songs that are heartfelt, make you think, and challenge paradigms. He wants people to feel just a little bit better for having listened to his music. And if you sing along? Great! Because when we sing together, the world gets just a little bit better.

Julia Lane is an award-winning Celtic harper, singer, and folklorist. A founding member of Castlebay, she has toured the east coast from Cape Breton to Florida, and internationally in the UK, Ireland – even Kosovo. Julia has done extensive research into traditional songs collected in Maine and arranged many of them for a contemporary audience. She has also written and recorded original songs and harp solos. She composed incidental music for "Sang O' the Solway," a two-hour concert piece commissioned by the Galloway & Dumfries Art Association, wrote the book and music for an historical play with music, "The Grand Design." She has appeared as a guest artist on recordings on both sides of the Atlantic.

Tall, skinny, play 12-string guitar and 14-string guitar, fiddle, Irish flute (not all at once) Sing historic, humorous, and humorous historic songs. I work with Julia Lane, singer, folklorist and harper extraordinaire. We tour Cape Breton to Cape Canaveral; West Virginia to Kosovo. In 2021 we published a songbook of historical sea songs collected in Maine prior to 1943.

Singer-songwriter, lap slide guitarist, improviser, music educator.

Singer-songwriter and folk musician specializing in traditional music of US, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, and songs of the sea.

Aaron has been performing since he was 16. Working alongside several musicians throughout his career he has built a breadth of musical experiences from house concerts to festivals and concert halls. His passion for the music and the power it can have with groups of people is part of why he keeps bringing the music to audiences across the country. Aaron brings a polished fingerstyle and rhythm guitar playing to a warm tenor voice. His songwriting tells the stories of common folks bringing uncommon stories to life. Whether one of the more than 100 songs from rural communities across this country or songs of passion and purpose, Aaron delivers a performance that will move you. As an educator, Aaron began his teaching career in 1984 after he graduated from Friends University in Wichita, KS. Aaron intended to teach a couple of years at the elementary level then move to middle school and then high school and then land a career at the college. Well, part of that became a reality. Aaron taught 2 years at the elementary level and 2 years at the middle school level. The problem is that he stayed another 7 years, teaching middle school for 11 years! Some love middle school kids and Aaron is one of them. It was in 1995 when Aaron decided to pursue songwriting and touring more intentional. Now 32 years later he still loves working in the classroom drawing music and stories out of students. Aaron's work includes work with the itty-bitty one, birth through 6-year-olds through Wolf Trap Early Learning Through the Arts. As a National Trainer, he loves getting these very young ones finding the music and rhythm inside themselves. Aaron is a Certified National Teaching Artist with Young Audiences in New York and a Wolf Trap Master Teaching Artist with Wolf Trap Early Learning through the Arts in Vienna Virginia. His current home in Wichita, Kansas keeps him connected with Arts Partners Wichita working with students K-12. The work of integrating the arts into science, math and language arts is a wonderful way to inspire kids to use the creative space in their heads to think about the world they live in. In early 2020 Aaron began thinking about how to leave some of the stories he was telling students about Bella and Choco, the two classroom therapy dogs that work with Aaron in the classroom. He came up with the concept of a children's book about the two adventurous dogs that visited the classroom with him as Therapy dogs. The first book, Being YOU-Neek, was written during the 2020 Pandemic. It became the first book in the series The Adventures of Bella and Choco. This book helps children learn about character traits and a variety of academic lessons. The second book is entitled, The Boat, and is about how all us belong on this great plant we call Mother Earth. The 3rd book will come out in the spring of 2022 and is an Alphabet book highlighting local businesses in Wichita Kansas where Aaron and illustrator Peter Mader live.

Traditional - Singer of songs with a strong historic base.  Composed long ago, by those whose names may be long since forgotten, but whose ideas are still relevant today. 

“Stunning” is the word often used to describe Debra Cowan's vocals. She performs unaccompanied or with guitar, interpreting a wide range of traditional and contemporary songs. She is a full-time performer who bridges the old and new with a refreshing stage presence and has released six recordings, all having earned praise on both sides of the Atlantic. She tours in the United Kingdom and in North America and can often be seen on stage with her good friend, singer and musician John Roberts. Debra is a proud member of American Federation of Musicians Local 1000 and endorses Harvey Leach guitars. 

Singer. Songwriter. Music Educator. Choir director.  I am especially passionate about music that gets ordinary people singing along.

Touring folk music performer specializing in community singing and song leading. I also do a variety of educational programs--as a solo and with the amazing Robert Jones.

Elise Witt’s concerts of Global, Local & Homemade Songs™ and her Impromptu Glorious Chorus™ workshops create and connect singing communities around the globe. Her songs are available for choruses and choirs through the Elise Witt Choral Series and for solo and community singing in All Singing: The Elise Witt Songbook, as well as on 12 CDs.
She currently serves as Director of Music Programs at the Global Village Project, a special purpose middle school for teenage refugee girls in Decatur GA, where she uses singing to help students learn English, share their cultures, gain self confidence, and learn to navigate their new world.

From bluegrass and jazz to rock & roll and old-time fiddle, Vi the Fiddler exudes energy, passion, humor, and musical mastery in every performance.

Multi-instrumentalist Ben Deschamps plays regularly with Celtic artist Heather Dale, and also tours internationally as a side musician for other folk and blues acts. Ben's long recording career includes producing and/or engineering over 40 albums, and running live sound for performances. Ben Deschamps and Heather Dale have played 1500+ shows across 3 continents. Together they run the musician-friendly OnlineConcertThing.com music platform. Ben has been a proud Local 1000 member since 2011.

Tom Kastle has been a singer and folk musician for decades, traveling the world, collecting and performing maritime songs and stories, and captaining sailing ships on the Great Lakes. These days, Tom lives in Madison and his passions are even more diverse and include a recording of original songs based mostly on traditional fiddle tunes, film projects like Francisco Torres’ Delight In the Mountain, with Richard Riehle and Tom Wopat, an opera role, and television where he hosted a short documentary that was nominated for an Emmy Award. Add in musical director and composer credits, and recent theatrical roles ranging from musicals to Shakespeare, playing a political pundit with the legendary Ed Asner in God Help Us! and a one man play based on the life of Joe Hill and you have an artist living a vivid life, indeed!

Saskia Tomkins is a master musician on Violin/Fiddle, Viola, Cello and Nyckelharpa, who moved to Canada from England in 2007. She is classically trained with a folk background and a B.A.hons. in Music (Jazz). Saskia won All Britain Champion Irish Fiddler and in October 2022, was given an award for her services to Irish music in Canada by Comhaltus Canada.