Biography
Kale Cumings serves as the President of Musicians’ Union Local 6, bringing his dedication to workers’ rights to a career playing trumpet.
Kale’s journey as a musician began in rural Michigan after discovering an old cornet in the attic. With Beethoven piano sonatas and Mahler symphonies on the soundtrack to his teen angst, he picked up the trumpet and traded farm chores for his first paid gig at 16. From there, he studied music at Wheaton College and received his Masters in Music at Northwestern University under the renowned Vincent Cichowicz. Work and life brought him to San Francisco, where his family grew alongside his credits. Kale appeared on Grammy Award-winning albums and became a first call trumpet player throughout the Bay Area.
Two decades into his career, Kale began to experience task-specific focal dystonia, a movement disorder affecting his ability to play. What initially felt like a career collapse became the pivot that brought him to the Musicians’ Union, where he joined negotiating committees with local orchestras before becoming Vice President of the union in 2015, then President in 2018. His musician-focused vision and initiatives put members first, aiming to organize and empower those who make their living making music. Kale leads negotiations on major contracts and key labor agreements in and around San Francisco, ensuring fair wages, improved working conditions, and pension provisions. On his quest to create a greater safety net for freelance musicians, he worked to secure COVID-19 relief for performers during the pandemic, and helped ensure their voices were represented in California’s worker classification law AB5 and clean-up bill AB 2257. Kale’s work endures at the state level, advocating for arts funding and musician-friendly legislation as President of the Professional Musicians of California and on the boards of California for the Arts and the California Arts Advocates.
While he fights for fair labor standards, Kale continues to perform. When not at the bargaining table, you can still see—and hear—him all across Northern California, playing trumpet with the region’s many orchestras and theaters.
