Healthcare

As a benefit of membership, the Musicians Union offers dental insurance for an additional charge.

For more information go to the Membership page and click on Healthcare.

News, Events, Opinion

Aleida Gehrels

Aleida Gehrels

Category:
Author: stephen
Posted: June 15, 2023

Violist Aleida Gehrels is a Seattle based performer and recording artist. A leading collaborator in cross-genre music, Aleida has toured with Macklemore and been featured live on KEXP radio with ODESZA and Jeremy Enigk. Other recent highlights include an appearance as wedding violist on the hit Netflix show Love Is Blind, as well as performances, tours, and recordings with Father John Misty, Perfume Genius, Abney Park, and many other international acts. In addition to her work in contemporary music, Aleida maintains an active career as a classical violist performing over 70 events yearly with the Arcobaleno String Quartet and freelancing in area symphonies.

Shelly Delvin

Shelly Delvin

Category:
Author: stephen
Posted: May 25, 2023

Shelly Devlin received her Bachelor of Music in Trumpet Performance and Education from the University of Iowa and her Master of Music in Trumpet Performance from the University of Washington. She currently serves as adjunct trumpet instructor at Pierce College in Puyallup, Washington.

An active performer, Shelly currently plays principal trumpet with the Bremerton West Sound Symphony, the Choppers Brass Quintet, and the Choppers Brass Trio.  Shelly’s solo appearances include Telemann’s Sonata for piccolo trumpet and Handel’s Messiah with the Bremerton West Sound Symphony, Vincent Persichetti’s The Hollow Men on trumpet with the Pierce College Orchestra, and Adagio from Concierto de Aranjuez for flugelhorn with the Evergreen Brass. Shelly frequently performs as a featured trumpet soloist on chamber music series, and has been sponsored on solo tours to the Midwest.  Shelly formerly served as a trumpeter with Navy Band Northwest.

Stephen O'Bent

Stephen O’Bent (he/him)

Category:
Author: stephen
Posted: April 21, 2023

Stephen O’Bent is a trombonist, conductor, composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist with extensive experience in a variety of styles and ensembles, including choirs, orchestras, musical theater pits, and jazz/rock/samba bands. Stephen holds the position of Assistant Professor of Music at DigiPen Institute of Technology, where he conducts choirs and teaches courses in music history, conducting, low brass, and orchestration. He also serves as Minister of Music and the Arts at First Congregational Church, Bellevue, UCC, where he regularly composes new works for choir and has conducted works such as Fauré’s Requiem (2017), Street Requiem (2019), and Considering Matthew Shepard (2023). As a performing member and musical director of The Flying Karamazov Brothers, the critically acclaimed vaudeville troupe, Stephen has performed in major commercial theaters in London, Madrid, Chicago, and New York. He has played on five continents and appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman (twice), Good Morning America, and the BBC. Stephen is also half of the indie music duo PepperJill & Jack, where he acts as primary songwriter and performs on guitar, ukulele, piano, trombone, vocals, and percussion. He lives in Seattle with his wife Shannon, two small kiddos, dog Kaylee, and cat Rigby.

www.stephenobent.com

Kareem Kandi

Kareem Kandi

Category:
Author: stephen
Posted: October 26, 2022

Kareem is a versatile saxophonist and composer with strong roots in the traditions of Jazz, Blues, Classical and Funk, and has been performing throughout the U.S. and abroad for years, gaining attention from critics and audiences alike. While staying true to musical styles of the past, he also keeps an eye towards the future by composing original music as well as new arrangements of timeless songs from the great American songbook.

kareemkandi@hotmail.com

www.kkworldorchestra.org

Cynthia Swenson

Cynthia Swenson

Category:
Author: stephen
Posted: October 25, 2022

Cynthia Swenson is an experienced cello teacher and performer, recently moved up to Port Orchard from the San Francisco area.  She has played cello since age 9, after/while also studying piano and flute, and completed her bachelor’s degree in biology from Stanford University while under music scholarship.  She studied with the esteemed cello instructors Irene Sharp, Irving Klein, Bonnie Hampton and Gabor Rejto, and has performed as principal cellist with numerous professional and community symphonies and chamber groups.  Cynthia also ran and performed in a professional string trio for many years, along with various gigs in musical theatre, choral and church ensembles, opera and ballet pit orchestras, and accompanying some rock, pop and fiddling groups!  Her award, exam and competition winning students have successfully auditioned into many youth orchestras and summer programs; one was even selected to play on NPR’s radio “From the Top” program.  Cynthia teaches all levels and commitments of playing; ages 4 through mature adult.  She is also available as a performer with orchestras, chamber and choir ensembles, and solo events.

Available for Weddings and Events!

website:   cellogirl.me
email:   cswenson@stanfordalumni.org
phone/text: 650-387-2106

Jason Gray

Category:
Author: stephen
Posted: July 15, 2022

Guitarist with background in theater, rock/pop, classical, and jazz. Held guitar chair in Waitress the Musical, as well as the National Tour for 3 years. Also served as guitarist in the U.S. Army Band for 3 years. Degrees in Music Composition and Guitar Performance.

Briana Bui

Briana Bui

Category:
Author: stephen
Posted: April 7, 2022

Briana Bui is a freelance pianist and vocalist based between Seattle and New York. A native Californian, she studied classical piano under Dr. Naira Shahsouvarian at Fresno State for nearly a decade and choral arts under Dr. Tonya Florer. In addition, she studied opera under Sherah Moore Burdick at Fresno Pacific University. After graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara, she relocated to the Seattle area where she expanded on her artistic repertoire by collaborating with local artists and the Densho. Highly involved in the Vietnamese community in Seattle, Briana believes that the best way to learn a language is through music and can sing in Vietnamese, Spanish, and Italian. As a multi-faceted musician, dancer, and actor, Briana plans to pursue her master’s in fine arts in order to further hone her craft.

Mary Manning

Mary Manning

Category:
Author: stephen
Posted: December 23, 2021

Mary Manning, violinist and violist, is a Tacoma native and a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio where she studied both modern and baroque violin performance with Marilyn McDonald. She is longtime Principal Second Violin of Northwest Sinfonietta as well as the Vashon and Tacoma Opera Orchestras. She has served as guest concertmaster for Northwest Sinfonietta, Seattle Pro Musica, Olympia and Bremerton Symphonies. As a chamber music player she has been a member of the Regency, Tomasini, and Bravura String Quartets, the Chinook Trio, and the Puget Sound Consort. Her extensive work as a baroque orchestral musician has included membership in the Seattle, Portland, and Pacific Baroque Orchestras, Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra, and the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra. More unique work has included appearing, as a violinist, in a television commercial for Folgers coffee, recording a soundtrack for a silent movie (The Showoff, Turner Classic Movies) and playing backup for Robert Plant and Jimmy Page on their 1995 tour. She taught violin at Pacific Lutheran University and was a member of the faculty string quartet from 2008-2019. Mary lives in Gig Harbor and is a private violin and viola teacher.

Richard Reed

Category:
Author: nateomdal
Posted: September 6, 2021