Sam Denov gave many hours of his time helping to set the direction of the Guild. It was Sam who drew up the original draft of the Guild bylaws. We are greatly indebted to him and he is truly a great inspiration to all of us.

A retired symphony musician, Sam Denov was a percussionist and timpanist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1954-85 and a member of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada, AFL-CIO, for more than fifty years. With a degree in labor education, Denov was in the forefront of symphonic labor relations during the
turbulent 1960's. As such, he served at various times as Chairman of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Members' Committee, Chairman of the International Conference of Symphony & Opera Musicians (ICSOM), the first elected Union Steward of the CSO, a Trustee of the CSO Pension Trust, and most recently, as President of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Alumni Association. In 1962, he was one of the organizers of Chicago Musicians for Union Democracy, a political faction in the Chicago Federation of Musicians, whose slate defeated James C. Petrillo and his administration in the first democratic election that AFM Local ever had. Petrillo had been that Local's President for 40 years!

After retiring from the CSO in 1985 and moving to Southern California, he was a self employed labor relations consultant. As such, he was a resource person for the formation of the International Guild of Symphony, Opera and Ballet Musicians based in the Seattle area.

He also had the opportunity to represent two members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in a landmark case before the National Labor
Relations Board. That case established the right of employees to not be coerced into union membership and the payment of full membership dues.  It was the first successful NLRB case based upon the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Communications Workers of America v. Beck. The losing charged parties, who entered into a consent agreement after some four years the case was pending, were Local 47, AFM, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra Association. At the conclusion of that case in 1992, Denov was apparently placed on a national black list as a musician by the AFM and the Major Managers Association.

Sam serves as a clinician for Zildjian Cymbals and is featured in instruction books, articles and videos. Along with his wife of more than fifty years, Charlotte, Denov now resides in a suburb of Chicago.

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You can e-mail Sam at samdenov@musician.org

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