MOME Commissioner Pat Swinney Kaufman

Dear Local 802 community,

The Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment is so proud to once again present New York Music Month, the city’s official celebration of its music community. This year, for the seventh iteration of the program, MOME has collaborated with 25 partners, including Local 802, to create a series of unique events in June. Audiences will enjoy concerts, performances, talks, workshops, free rehearsal spaces – all to support and spotlight the industry to a global audience. A full calendar can be found at NYMusicMonth.NYC.

MOME’s portfolio includes all aspects of our city’s creative economy, which of course includes its vibrant music scene, and Local 802 has long been a key partner in our efforts to raise the visibility of this industry’s positive impacts. Local 802 worked with us to bring back the Grammy Awards for its 60th anniversary, and supported our first-ever economic impact study of the music industry in 2017, which showed that the industry supports 60,000 jobs and generates $21 billion in economic activity here in NYC. Local 802 also partnered with us on the first New York Music Month and has continued to do so every year since.

Local 802 is presenting a Pride Concert on June 27

This year being no different, Local 802 will present a Pride Concert during New York Music Month, a musical celebration of Pride featuring a chamber music ensemble, cabaret artists and an accompanying trio, on June 27. Additionally, Local 802 will host the NYC Female Battle of the Bands, presented by Warrior Women in Business, a concert and talk aimed at supporting the career growth of female artists and bands in NYC, featuring local NYC professional female-led all-originals bands, ranging from Rock and Alternative to Indie and Punk to Pop, on June 28. Both events take place at Local 802. 

Also included in this year’s New York Music Month:

• The annual NYMM Conference, presented in partnership with the NYU Steinhardt Music Business Program, will take place for the first time at the NYU Skirball Center on June 5, where experts and acclaimed artists will discuss issues impacting the industry. 
• A free Concert Series with NYC Parks Department, featuring Frankie Negron (June 8, Al Quinones Playground, Bronx), Neil Berg’s Fifty Years of Rock and Roll (June 20, Cunningham Park, Queens) and DJ Clue and Company (June 19, Roy Wilkins Park, Queens). 
• The continuation of NYMM’s free rehearsal space program, which provides NYC musicians with free studio space at Astoria Soundworks in Queens, Brooklyn Conservatory of Music Studios, Fenix Studios in Staten Island and Greenwich House Music School in Manhattan, throughout the month of June. 

We are so delighted to present New York Music Month, bursting with events and experiences that reflect the state of the local and global music industry, and shine a light on the incredible talent who live, work and perform in our great city, the creative capital of the world. When NYC’s music scene thrives, NYC thrives, so let the festivities begin!

Pat Swinney Kaufman is the commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment