Kathy Dyson stands for General Secretary of the Musicians’ Union the first and only woman ever to do so in the union’s 123 year history

Jazz guitarist, academic, composer and trade union activist Dr Kathy Dyson is standing for General Secretary of the Musicians’ Union in the upcoming election. She is the first and only woman ever to do so in the 123 year history of the union and is challenging current Assistant General Secretary Horace Trubridge for the post. Kathy is standing because she believes the union has to change in order to meet more effectively the unprecedented challenges we are now facing. 

Kathy says: ‘I’m standing for a more feminist, inclusive and collaborative approach to working together, and for a decentralised union that fights more strongly for funding, musical work, and instrumental music education in all the regions.  We need to create a long-term policy and strategy for every area of music we cover as a guide for action. We must also involve members more fully in our collective endeavour.’

As a jazz musician and award-winning jazz educator, Kathy believes that organising initiatives, such as the Fair Trade Music campaign by the AFM in the States, will help to improve fees and generate better work for jazz musicians. Many jazz musicians also rely on instrumental teaching work, which is under threat from local authority and central government funding cuts. 

Kathy says: ‘We can build on our existing work creating cooperatives with music teacher members. We can also help to improve fees, wages and conditions by focusing more resources on fighting funding cuts and working more collaboratively with regional arts organisations.’ 

For more information please contact Dr Kathy Dyson at: kathydyson175@gmail.com.

----- 

Dr Kathy Dyson GS Election Biog and Vision 

As a jazz musician and instrumental teacher, I've been working since the late 70s and have toured the UK and Europe quite extensively: I know what it’s like to be out there over the long haul and the challenges in sustaining a career and making a living. I play in a duo with my husband John and have run various bands over the years, including recently working with Deirdre Cartwright on the Emily Remembered project - the album got a 4* review from John Fordham in the Guardian and a UK tour. 

I hold a PhD from Sheffield University and have done a lot of research into music education - specifically in learning jazz improvisation.  I've written and presented many conference papers but also two substantial commissioned reports for Arts Council England which led to more funding for jazz musicians and jazz education in the North West and North East. As a Senior Lecturer in Jazz at Leeds College of Music, I won Jazz Educator of the Year 2010 at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards, in recognition of my work.

In a leadership role, I was Chair of the board of Inner City Music that runs the legendary Band on the Wall venue in Manchester for 10 years and lead  a ￡4.5m pound capital fundraising project from ACE, HLF and MCC to refurbish and extend the venue. Having seen the project through and been instrumental in creating a new business model, the venue reopened in 2009 to great acclaim and goes from strength to strength. 

I’ve been a union activist since rejoining the union in 1996, after a long stint touring in Europe, and progressed from Manchester branch member to branch chair to EC member then EC VC and Chair.  I’ve always been part of the wider TU movement representing the union at TUC, Labour Party Conference and the GFTU meetings, and speaking and lobbying on our issues. I’m currently on the Women's TUC committee and helping to organise their conference (which I’ve spoken at many times) and generally tackling the inequality  that women still face. Despite our strong and specialist presence in the Labour movement we still have a great deal of work to do to persuade our trade union colleagues of the importance of music and that musicians are workers like any other and deserving of good pay and conditions. 

I am committed to improving the lot of musicians and musicians who teach and have devoted a great deal of my own time to be a strong advocate for music and musicians for over 20 years.

This experience represents my past and now we are looking to the future. It would be a great honour and privilege to take on the role of General Secretary and I would bring a lot of different qualities to it, in collaboration with our committed and highly knowledgeable officials and the huge range of skills that you as members have. 

Goals/manifesto 

In terms of my goals/manifesto I'll be explaining it in full and in detail, during the campaign in February, should I get on the ballot paper but it includes: - strengthening and extending the regional presence and remit of the union to challenge cuts to music funding- which is especially important to orchestras but also to instrumental music teachers ; - increasing the scope and strength of our collective bargaining agreements in a number of areas; - improving communication between the union and members and find better ways to engage them in activism and the democratic processes; - recruiting more members to the union to address the revenue funding shortfall (rather than cutting staff or regions, or raising subscriptions) and create strength in numbers; - initiating short, medium and longterm strategies for the union in all areas of its work in consultation with members and officials.