Health Insurance
1.5 hours
Health Insurance for Artists in Challenging Times
A wide-ranging, forward-looking discussion of health insurance – for composers, sound designers, musicians, and freelance artists, analyzing current day problems and an uncertain future, featuring representatives from USA Local 829, AFM (New York and Chicago) and the Entertainment Community Fund.
Moderated by Michael Roth. (+ on Zoom)
MICHAEL ROTH has composed chamber music, film scores, new opera & music/theatre, and music and sound for theatre productions throughout North America. His self-produced THE WEB OPERA – thewebopera.com – composed to raise awareness of cyber-abuse, has been an official selection at 35 film festivals and an Opera America finalist, with a new fourth episode to be premiered soon. Other projects: in LA, HENRY IV with Tom Hanks and RICHARD III with Al Pacino; with Christopher Plummer, THE TEMPEST and Plummer’s solo-show at the Stratford Festival; IMAGINATION DEAD IMAGINE, his treatment of Beckett’s text for string quartet and laptop, performed in LA and Prague, most recently in Ashland; two US premieres with Tom Stoppard; collaborations with Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig; and many projects with Randy Newman including music direction for Disney’s PRINCESS & THE FROG, orchestrations and music direction for Randy’s FAUST in concert most recently in LA and editing five anthology songbooks. SHEETCAKE, his sonata for 4 pianos, toy piano and electric bass was recently premiered in LA. Michael studied with William Bolcom, has taught at UCSD, was a founding TSDCA board member and hosted 30 TSDCA Composer Salons during the pandemic.
Panelists:
Sid Solomon, SHRM-CP, serves as Benefits & Support Services Liaison at United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829, IATSE – the first person to hold that position – where he helps the union’s 5,000+ members navigate multiemployer health and retirement benefits, government programs, and related support services. Previously, he served for nearly eight years as an officer of Actors’ Equity Association, including two years as the union’s Eastern Regional Vice President. Prior to his time at USA 829, Sid spent nearly 20 years working as a professional actor, including more than 1,800 performances with The Play That Goes Wrong on tour and Off-Broadway. Sid is an alum of LaGuardia Arts High School and the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program, and holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Illinois Springfield. He is a Society for Human Resource Management Certified Professional (SHRM-CP).
Karen Fisher is the Financial Vice President for the AFM Local 802 in New York.
She received her degree in clarinet performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music. As a performer, she worked in the Filarmónica del Bajío in Guanajuato, Mexico, toured for many years with Keith Brion and The New Sousa Band, The New York City Opera National Company, and Porgy and Bess throughout Japan. Broadway credits include The Phantom of the Opera, Beauty and the Beast, Ragtime, and other Broadway and Off-Broadway productions. From 1990-94 she served in the United States Coast Guard Band, and maintained an active teaching studio and freelance career in the tri-state area. Karen began working at Local 802 in 1997 as a business representative in the Concert Department, where she learned union organizing, writing contract language, labor law, grievance handling, and negotiation protocol. She was chosen by the Local 802 executive board to attend the Cornell ILR Advanced Labor Union Leadership seminar and earned a certificate in 2010. In 2018, she was elected to the position of Financial Vice President and Assistant Executive Director, a position that includes supervision of the concert, ballet, and opera departments. Among her many responsibilities at the Union, she is the lead negotiator for 24 discrete collective bargaining agreements. She has represented Local 802 at the New York Central Labor Council, the ICSOM, ROPA, and TMA conferences, serves as a liaison to the Entertainment Community Fund, a delegate to the AFM convention, and is a union-side trustee of the Local 802 Musician’s Health Fund.
Jim Bracchitta is the Managing Director of Health Services at the Entertainment Community Fund, a national human services organization that helps everyone who works in performing arts and entertainment. In addition to his work at the Fund, Jim has been a working actor (Broadway, film, TV, commercials) in NY for 35+ years. He’s been in six Broadway shows and more than a dozen off-Broadway shows. He’s also acted on television, in films, and in thousands of television and radio commercials. Jim serves as a trustee on the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan, as well as the SAG Pension Plan; is a Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (CEBS); and is on the faculty of the Trustee Masters Program at the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.
BJ Levy was elected as President of the Chicago Federation of Musicians, Local 10-208 in December of 2022. Prior to that, he served six years as Secretary-Treasurer, three years as Administrator of the CFM Employers’ Welfare Fund, and nine years as a member of the Board of Directors. He received his Bachelor’s in Music Performance in Trumpet from Indiana University in 1996, his Master’s in Jazz Studies from DePaul University in 2001, and completed the three-year Labor Leadership Certificate program at DePaul University. Upon moving to Chicago in 1998 after two years of performing for Carnival Cruise lines, he began working in the commercial music industry and eventually theatre pits, where he spent the bulk of his performance career.