Bennie Keys, President
Kevin Murphy, Vice President
Paul Austin, Secretary/Treasurer
Barbara Corbató
Carsten Forester
Charles Johnson
Christina Fong
Robert Johnson
Sterling Jenkins
Bennie Keys, President
Bennie Keys is a jazz & pop drummer and has been a member of Local 56 since 1989. He was elected to the Local 56 Executive Board, later becoming the Vice President, and in 2018 was elected President. He has been on the Diversity Council for the American Federation of Musicians for several years. If you would like to contact him, his number is 813-0753, E-mail him at bkeys@hopenetwork.org.
Kevin Murphy, Vice President
Kevin Murphy has been a member of Local 56 since 2000 and became a Board Member in 2008. He has Vice President since January 2019. Kevin has a Bachelors Degree in Music Education from Aquinas College, studied at Berkley Jazz Music Conservatory in Boston, attended the Guitar Institute of Technology in Los Angeles and teaches privately on guitar, sax, bass and voice.
Kevin has played music professionally most of his life, currently fronting his own band, Murphy’s Law on sax, vocals and guitar, and he also does a solo act. Over the years, he has opened for the God Father of Soul – “Mr. James Brown”, played with Junior Walker’s All-Star Band as well as some Motown groups while living in Hollywood. He also does vocal recording, musical arranging and orchestration for area local Artist.
“I support youth who want to pursue live music because it can be very helpful when those who are involved take an interest in them. Both Elementary and High Schools cease to have arts programs because of budget cutbacks. As a result, we as professional musicians need to be vibrant and visible. This helps make young people aware that there are positive choices within reach: ‘Living the Dream’ as one might call it. I have two beautiful daughters and I am still a free spirit. My pursuit of the martial arts encompasses a combination of styles; as a result, my approach seems to be a bit unorthodox but effective.”
Paul Austin, Secretary/Treasurer
For decades, Paul Austin has been an active member of the American Federation of Musicians. Through his leadership roles in Regional Orchestra Players’ Association (ROPA) and the International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM), Paul has served on the AFM’s Media Committee since 2008 and has been an AFM Strike Fund Trustee since 2019.
Paul has been a French horn player in the Grand Rapids Symphony since 1999 and has seen the importance of Local 56 in the GRS contract negotiations, serving as co-chair of the Negotiations Committee four times. Paul holds degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the Tennessee Tech University, was a Resident Artist at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, and studied in London, England as the recipient of a Gilmore Emerging Artist Grant.
Carsten Forester
Carsten is a Grand Rapids based multi-instrumentalist who specializes in traditional Folk music, Country and Bluegrass. While acoustic music is his main focus now, Carsten honed his chops playing Jazz, Metal, Post-Hardcore and Classical music during the early part of his musical journey. He currently plays mandolin with his own project, the Grand Industrial String band in addition to sideman work on Guitar, Mandolin, Banjo and Bass for other musicians such as Ben Traverse, Brian Oberlin, Hannah Rose Graves and Keala Venema. In 2017 Carsten received his degree Music and Recording Arts from Hope College where he also began his studies with Mandolinist and Guitarist Nate Roberts.
Aside from performing and recording, Carsten splits his time between music education work, activism and labor organizing. Solidarity and community building are at the center of everything he does, especially after joining AFM Local 56 in 2023.
Charles Johnson
Charles C. Johnson is a versatile bassist, music conductor and bandleader who performs and excels in numerous music genres. He has performed with many music masters including ten-time Grammy winner Bobby McFerrin, nine-time Grammy winner Janis Siegel of Manhattan Transfer, internationally celebrated jazz vocalist Mark Murphy, noted folk singer/songwriter Kate Campbell, Dove Award winning Inspirational songwriter and musician Michael Card and multi-Grammy and Dove Award winning artist Bruce Carroll. He has appeared on 9 live recording projects. He is a member of AFM Local 56 and freelance affiliate member of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Science. Charles currently performs with WMBS member band Crossroads Resurrection and is a trustee of the West Michigan Blues Society.
Christina Fong
Christina Fong was elected to the Board of Directors for Local 56 in January 2017.
A member of the Grand Rapids Symphony and the Local 56 since 1988, Fong is currently Associate Concertmaster and plays in the Symphony’s Calder Quintet, which tours western Michigan giving civic and educational concerts. From 1990 to 2002 Fong served as an adjunct instructor of violin at Grand Valley State University.
Michigan resident Christina Fong is a leading performer of new music on the violin and viola. Fong’s series of recordings on OgreOgress, mostly world premieres, include several of Cage’s final works (the ‘number pieces’ One6, One10, Two4, Four, Twenty-Three and Twenty-Six with Twenty-Eight & Twenty-Nine), Feldman’s complete violin, viola and piano works, his Violin and String Quartet and three early quartets, Hovhaness’s published works for violin, viola and keyboard and three of his concertos with strings, several Schoenberg string works and fragments, Alvear’s Fuerzas for viola and string quartets by Beardsley, Toub, Kotlowy and Prokop. The diverse group of artists in collaboration include sitarist Gaurav Mazumdar, keyboardist Arved Ashby, cellist Karen Krummel, percussionist Glenn Freeman, pianist Paul Hersey, the Prague Winds, shō player Tamami Tono, the Rangzen Quartet & Strings, conductor Rastislav Štúr and the Slovak Philharmonic.
Fong has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Northwestern University, where she graduated Pi Kappa Lambda and was awarded the honorary title “Eckstein Scholar.” Her principle violin teachers were Blair Milton, Myron Kartman and Donna Schaff. She studied orchestral music with Samuel Magad, Rubin Gonzales, Francis Akos, Charlie Pikler, Blair Milton and Edgar Muenzer and received chamber music coaching from Gerardo Ribiero, Donald Owens and Ray Still. Fong has held positions with the Florida Philharmonic and Civic Orchestra of Chicago. In 2010 Fong was recipient of a Fulbright Hayes grant and served as a US cultural representative in Minsk, Belarus where she performed a new music concert with the Belarus Philharmonic and gave master classes at the Belarus State Academy of Music.
Robert Johnson
Robert Johnson began his double bass studies at the age of 18 with Edward Fedewa, earning his BM from Central Michigan University. He also completed MM and doctoral degrees at Michigan State University studying under Jack Budrow. Other teachers include Stephen Molina of the Detroit Symphony, Scott Dixon of The Cleveland Orchestra, and the faculty of Domaine Forget. Robert is an active freelancer, playing in orchestras all over the state of Michigan and throughout the U.S. Other appearances include Dallas Winds, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He was appointed Section Bass with the Grand Rapids Symphony in 2022 and works as a luthier at Grand Rapids Violins. He has been a member of Local 56 since 2011.
Sterling Jenkins
A violinist with the Grand Rapids Symphony since 1997, Sterling Jenkins grew up in the rich cultural environment of our nation’s capital with its domestic and international diversity. He displayed his talent at the early age of 6 with a performance of Bach’s Double Violin concerto at the National Cathedral.
“Music is for everyone” is his fundamental musical principle. Through his violin playing, he has captivated diverse audiences by revealing the common threads linking classical, gospel, jazz, ethnic and contemporary music together. This has allowed classical repertoire to reach new ears that may have found traditional performances inaccessible or alienating. He believes that everyone can have a transformational appreciation of music.