Marianne Wälchli Music education is caught between culture and education, and when drafting a new music school law, the canton's law on the promotion of culture and primary education must also be taken into account. An ideal music school law lays the foundation for ensuring that as many children and young people as possible can attend music lessons outside of school, either individually or in groups, and that children from less educated and financially weaker families are not disadvantaged. It ensures transparent and fair employment conditions, regulates quality assurance and lays the foundation for optimal talent development. Quality assurance also includes ensuring that as many music school teachers as possible have both artistic and pedagogical qualifications, i.e. a Master of Arts in Music Education or an equivalent diploma.

The most wonderful employment conditions on paper are of no use if timetables only allow music lessons between 4pm and 7pm, for example, meaning that music teachers cannot get a reasonable number of lessons per week. It is therefore crucial that elementary school and music schools negotiate sensibly with each other.
Music lessons are ideally one-to-one lessons given by highly qualified teachers. And you need enough suitable classrooms for the lessons. It is obvious that this is cost-intensive. And even though it is now generally known how important music lessons are for mental and emotional development, there are supposedly resourceful cost-cutters who cut the number of minutes per child to such an extent that meaningful lessons are no longer possible. Or they prescribe group lessons where it is not practicable. In such situations, the SMPV must stand up for the members affected.

In the following sections, I would like to look at the development of music school legislation in individual cantons:

Ticino
The latest developments in the canton of Ticino give music teachers and students hope for the future.
As a reminder, the "100 giorni per la musica" initiative, which calls for music lessons for children and young people to be subsidized, as stipulated in Article 67a of the Federal Constitution, was submitted in 2023 by an initiative committee including SMPV member Emilio Pozzi. At the moment, the canton of Ticino only covers around 25% of the costs of recognized music schools. This means that parents of music students have to bear around 75% of the costs themselves, while parents in the rest of Switzerland pay an average of just over 30%. Children and young people from financially weaker families are thus effectively excluded from extracurricular music lessons, which clearly contradicts Article 67a.
In the first week of August, it was announced that the Ticino State Council had drawn up a counter-proposal in collaboration with the initiative committee.
The government is of the opinion that a law on extracurricular music lessons, as called for by the initiative committee, "is not suitable or appropriate to provide a satisfactory response to the common challenges raised by the initiative". The counter-proposal, on the other hand, provides for a partial amendment to the Cultural Promotion Act, which includes the following points, among others:

• An independent quality commission is to be set up to define the quality criteria that a music school must fulfill in order to receive subsidies.
• Extracurricular music lessons for children and young people up to the end of compulsory schooling or for young adults up to the age of 25 if they are in education should be substantially subsidized.
• Music students from low-income families are to receive additional support.
• Cantonal public schools should be able to use their premises for music lessons free of charge.

For the trial phase from 2026 - 2028, the government expects annual recurring costs totaling 1.5 million. The costs would be borne entirely by the Swisslos Fund during this trial phase.
If this counter-proposal is adopted by Parliament, the initiative committee is prepared to withdraw the initiative. It is therefore possible that the situation for music students and teachers in the canton of Ticino will improve massively as early as 2026!

Thurgau
A revised music school ordinance came into force in the canton of Thurgau on January 1, 2024. The road to this was described as "long and emotional".
In June 2018, Thurgau's public education authority set up a working group made up of representatives from the canton and the Thurgau Music Schools Association (VMTG) with the aim of "reviewing the funding and quality assurance of music schools". The board of the SMPV Thurgau also took part in the consultation and demanded, among other things, that lessons for young adults in training should be subsidized up to the age of 25 (instead of 20), which was unfortunately not approved. In this respect, music students in Ticino could soon be in a better position than those in Thurgau.
The increase in the proportion of qualified music teachers desired by the SMPV is a positive development. This must now be at least two thirds instead of half. As before, the salary tables for salary bands 2 and 3 of the elementary school apply to music teachers, whereby salary category A applies to qualified teachers and category B to non-qualified teachers.
Another significant innovation is the division of the cantonal contribution into a flat-rate salary per lesson and a flat-rate operating fee with a variable component, as music schools under public law are allowed to use school premises free of charge, whereas music schools organized under private law have to pay for classrooms. The canton anticipates additional annual costs of around CHF 600,000.
Although not all the demands and wishes of the music schools were met, the completely revised music school ordinance can be described as an important "milestone" for music education in the canton of Thurgau.

Grisons
Here, music school legislation is regulated in the Cultural Promotion Act. When this came into force in 2018, it brought a clear improvement for music schools. The regions were obliged to provide a comprehensive range of singing and music schools. To this end, the canton supports the music schools annually with an additional CHF 410,000 on top of the regions' contributions of around CHF 550,000.
However, the SMPV OSO would like to optimize details in the implementation of the law. For example, the canton sometimes does not contribute the 30% stipulated in the ordinance to the music school costs due to the method of calculation with flat rates for pupils, but only 25%, and the municipalities then have to bear the deficit even though the canton has not exhausted its budget. Secondly, the SMPV OSO is bothered by the fact that the salary of music teachers with a full-time workload corresponds to the salary of primary school teachers with a full-time workload, but that the music teacher lesson lasts 60 minutes, while the primary school teacher lesson is only 45 minutes long, meaning that music teachers actually earn 25% less.

When I vacated the Central Secretariat, I was struck by how much SMPV Switzerland has changed in such a short space of time:

Before 2005, much of the association revolved around professional training: you became a member because you had completed your own teaching diploma course at the SMPV, or you were a member because you trained students yourself through the SMPV.
Even back then, members benefited from individual services, but the main focus was the private SMPV music study program.

As a reminder: in 2005, the SMPV decided to make vocational training independent because this was the only way to meet the requirements of the "Bologna reform", but also because vocational studies were tearing an ever larger hole in the association's coffers. In 2007, responsibility for vocational training was handed over to the SAMP Foundation, which in 2009, together with the Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences, founded the SAMP AG School of Music, which in turn later became the Kalaidos School of Music.

The SMPV supported the young conservatoire until all students enrolled on an SMPV course had obtained their SMPV diploma. However, the SMPV's main focus increasingly shifted away from the topic of "vocational training".

What now?

The sections, whose main task has always been to look after their members and offer useful services for music teachers, were not about to undergo a drastic change of direction.
The central association, on the other hand, asked itself many questions: Do we still need it? What are the tasks of the SMPV if it no longer offers vocational training? Does the membership of the SGB decided by the 2005 DM bring us anything? What are the tasks of the "new" SMPV?
In 2011, the Board of Directors organized various meetings in Lucerne for interested members at which these issues were eagerly discussed.
It quickly became clear that the members wanted to preserve and further develop their association. They felt that it should become a purely professional association.
But while some wanted a pure trade union, others were satisfied with the popular services and wanted to leave the SGB straight away. Everyone agreed that the SMPV had to stand up for professionalism in music education. The association should only accept qualified music teachers. This would send a signal in the direction of the protected professional title "SMPV music teacher".

The big break

Nobody had expected the coronavirus pandemic. Many of our members were suddenly faced with existential questions. The SMPV was able to help many of them with advice and support: obtaining all the important information as quickly as possible, bundling it and passing it on to members. Many a presidium was "retrained" - learning by doing - to become a crisis manager. The fact that we were hardly able to obtain any compensation for freelance teachers is due to the fact that cultural workers who teach are either assigned to education or culture, depending on where costs can be avoided. However, we were able to ensure that as many of our events as possible could take place, and because we used good protection concepts to ensure that no one was infected at the events, we were able to show that musicians are not a dangerous species - not even singers.
Unfortunately, some members had to change jobs during this time. The crisis made others particularly strong. It probably even helped the SMPV on its path to professionalization.

The SMPV today

Today, the SMPV is a purely professional association. Throughout its 131-year history, the central association and the sections have constantly Service offers This is why it can offer its members such an unusually wide range of services that all music teachers could actually benefit from membership.
However, some of these services have to be obtained actively.
The SMPV provides: the SMZ subscription, the agenda that is still popular with many and the standard rates for private music lessons. In negotiations with politicians and in discussions with other associations, it advocates a fundamental improvement in the situation for music teachers. If you have problems at work, you can find support from the central association or the sections and, if necessary, you can also get free initial legal advice.
You have to make an active effort to maintain your profile on my-music-lessons.ch and on rent-a-musician.ch - but we will also be happy to advise you.
SMPV members can insure their earnings in the sub-mandatory area with the Music and Education Pension Fund.
At section level, you can have your students perform in music lessons, give teacher concerts, attend practice-relevant, discounted further training or even give a course yourself. You can find all the information you need at smpv.ch/service
Take advantage of our wide range of services and let us know if you have an idea for another service!

Outlook

Challenging times lie ahead: the baby boomers are gradually retiring and some of these members will be leaving the association. Recruiting members will become increasingly important if we do not want to have to raise membership fees sharply or restrict services.
The job title "music teacher" is still not protected, or rather only in the cantons of Vaud and Lucerne and there only for employment in music schools.
The shortage of skilled workers caused by the wave of retirements, which is already real for the instruments piano and guitar, can lead to music schools employing untrained teaching staff who can be paid lower wages, which could lead to wage dumping in general.
And politically, we must ensure that music, dance, theater and art teachers are given a lobby and that they are finally recognized as "cultural workers plus pedagogy".

It can be worthwhile to read music school laws very carefully. In 1999, resourceful minds in the SMPV Schaffhausen discovered that their cantonal music school law offered the association the opportunity to set up its own music school with subsidized lessons.
The wording of the purpose hardly differs from that of other music school laws:

"1. the canton shall promote music lessons for young people as a supplement or continuation of music lessons in public schools, with the aim of enabling them to participate actively in musical life.
2. to this end, it shall make contributions to recognized music schools..."
In order to be recognized, the music schools must be based in the canton of Schaffhausen, but then it also says "sponsorship":
"As school authorities, municipalities, associations of municipalities as well as associations or foundations with a corresponding purpose recognized."

Werner Joos, president of the section at the time, Beat Studer, the first director of the SMPV music school, and board member Anne Marie Rohr thus saw the prerequisites for successfully founding their own SMPV music school.

Today, the SMPV Music School is managed by Christoph Honegger, who is employed on a variable basis, depending on how many students are enrolled at the SMPV Music School.

Teachers take on a lot of organizational responsibility, i.e. they look for and find their students themselves by word of mouth or, for example, via the SMPV private tuition platform my-music-lessons.chand they teach them in their own classrooms or at home because the SMPV music school has no premises. In return, they receive a small room allowance. The school is subsidized by the city, municipalities and canton with 55%, whereby, as with "normal" music schools, only the lessons of non-working students under the age of 25 are subsidized.

Every member of the SMPV Schaffhausen has the right to teach pupils in the canton of Schaffhausen via the SMPV music school. Musicians must have both an artistic and a music teaching qualification in order to join the SMPV, and so the city and canton have the guarantee that they will only subsidize lessons from highly trained music teachers - a win-win situation for everyone involved.
A special feature of the school is the salary flat rate: every teacher earns exactly the same regardless of age. However, there is a school-specific family allowance of 5% per child. The school management takes care of registration and deregistration, debt collection, social security accounting and salary payments, and organizes the school's own annual music day.
Around 170 students are currently enrolled at the SMPV music school.

I spoke to two of the current twenty-four teachers:

Flor Stammer is a violist and has been teaching violin and viola at the SMPV music school since 2021; she has also recently been employed as a viola teacher at the MKS. Apparently, there is a very peaceful coexistence between the MKS and the smaller SMPV music school and Flor does not feel under any pressure from the MKS to persuade her SMPV students to switch to the MKS; competition also stimulates business, and a larger selection of teachers can also generate a greater demand for music lessons.
She believes that the SMPV music school offers particular advantages for adult lessons, although these are not subsidized, because, for example, the teaching weeks and times can be arranged more freely. The association structures at the SMPV music school also lead to in-depth exchanges between colleagues, with ensembles from different classes being put together for the music day or sheet music being exchanged for lessons.
When she completed her studies in the middle of the Covid pandemic and it was very difficult to find a job as a music teacher due to the uncertain situation, she was particularly grateful that she was able to teach her first pupils almost immediately through the SMPV music school.

Urs Bringolf has been a percussion teacher since the school was founded and has taught the most students at the SMPV music school to date.
What he appreciates about this particular music school is that, although he can give subsidized lessons there, he still has much more freedom than at a state music school; he doesn't miss regular meetings, for example. He teaches almost 30 pupils through the SMPV music school. However, he also realizes that it is more difficult to find enough students these days. On the one hand, there is no longer a music store where he could always give trial lessons, so he no longer has a direct supplier; on the other hand, he has noticed that people are struggling with more fears since coronavirus. They feel or actually feel worse off financially, the news of wars fuels additional fears, and so they are less willing to spend money on music lessons. Especially if children don't practise much, lessons end after one or two years, whereas in the past pupils often stayed for ten years or longer. Despite this, he still loves teaching, and he talks enthusiastically about how he has to keep rearranging the drum kit on music days so that it is ideal for left-handers and then for right-handers, and how he hands out ear protectors to the audience because they sometimes "chlöpft" in the excitement of the performance.

Further information about the SMPV music school

A special feature of the SMPV is its structure: it consists of fifteen sections, which are independent associations that set up different programs of activities and offer different services. They can put forward their ideas for the development of the central association in the form of proposals to the DM. At the twice-yearly Presidents' Conferences, their Presidiums discuss which trade union and cultural policy topics the Central Committee should address, which services it should develop for members, how it should organize member recruitment and how it should communicate.

When discussing the association's strategy and planning extraordinary events, the Board must therefore always remember to take into account the different needs of the various sections.
It is ideal that the composition of the Board is as heterogeneous as possible in terms of age, experience, professional situation and special interests, and the Board is therefore very much looking forward to working with the new Board members:

Aita Biert knows all facets of (music) teaching professions from her own experience. She has trained as a primary school teacher, piano teacher, social worker and music therapist, has worked as a piano teacher at various music schools, was head of a music school in the Lower Engadine and has always also worked as a social worker. Today she works as an independent music therapist and piano teacher, is a member of the cantonal parliament of Graubünden and is also a board member of the Graubünden Association of Singing and Music Schools. She wants to make a strong commitment to recruiting members, as she knows from experience how important communities and interest groups are, and she is appalled that so many music teachers do not belong to a professional association. She is keen to use her political contacts to achieve political goals.

 Sebastian Mäder is very interested in the development of music education in Switzerland and would particularly like to advocate for the expansion of skills in pop/rock/jazz. He would like to initiate a discussion among music educators about what music education should be like in the future and what role the SMPV could play in this.
He completed his music education studies as a drummer at the ZHdK and will soon complete his music management studies at the HKB. Among other things, he teaches a drumset class, heads the pop/rock/jazz department at the Kilchberg-Rüschlikon music school and teaches skills in popular music at the HKB.

Assessments by our departing member of the Executive Board

Dear Ines, thank you very much for supporting us on the Central Committee despite your busy professional schedule. We already miss your intelligent, well-considered votes, and we have benefited enormously from your extensive experience in the trade union sector, which you gained in the CLA negotiations for the Musikkollegium Winterthur, as a long-standing employee representative and also in your work for the SMV.
How would you assess the situation of the SMPV based on your experience of working on the Central Committee? In your opinion, what is working well and where are there areas of improvement?

 Ines Hübner: In the service sector, the SMPV is very well positioned and very modern, and highly competent work is also being done there. I would mention our two mediation platforms, for example.
On the other hand, I think that the SMPV should significantly increase its presence at music schools and make music school teachers aware that it is available to represent their interests - e.g. also in CLA negotiations.
I can't understand why only one music school has a CLA, why the teachers don't make an effort to negotiate such a contract for their music school. A CLA creates transparency, ensures equal employment conditions for all and creates a forum for discussion at an inter-collegiate level and up the hierarchy for an exchange on an equal footing.

MW: No member responded to the interview with Mr. Munzinger on the subject of CLAs. Are music school teachers simply doing too well to need a CLA?

 IH: I don't want to say that. There seems to be this perception based on a "patron-centered" view of the world: "Everything works, my music school management takes care of me." But for fear of upsetting this ideal world view, people don't dare to say or question anything. This means that employees go into hiding if there are minor problems and sit them out, and if there are major problems and they have to defend themselves, they risk losing their job. In the spaces provided by a CLA, such problems can be discussed democratically without fear.

Every music teacher is a specialist in their field. Thanks to the democratic structures offered by a CLA, everyone can contribute their specialist knowledge, which is ultimately a huge benefit for the whole music school.

But I know it's difficult to get people involved in trade union work. Creative, new solutions are needed. I see this as a very important task for the SMPV!

Elida Tirtopan gives in „Rhythmic basics for instrumental lessons" Tips on how to playfully teach the necessary rhythmic basics in beginner lessons in the often limited time available. In "Playing with colorful rhythms" lets us Susanne Maria Schwarz experience how the game with colored cards, words and course possibilities takes away the fear of rhythmic problems. In "Sound before sign!" leads us Regula Schwarzenbach into the concept of rhythmic learning through listening and movement and lets us speak polyphonic chants as an example, while Josef Rédai shows how, thanks to the "Marton rhythm concept" can easily grasp even complicated rhythms. Oliver Schär strengthens in "Impulse / In the pulse" with various exercises the feeling of the musical pulse, whereby any rhythms can easily be placed on this foundation, and with Barbara Wäldele-Hoppmann we go to "Rhythm in the blood" on an enjoyable physical journey of discovery from normal walking to dance combinations.

Registrations with the electronic Registration form
Registration deadline is Monday, May 27, 2024

The course fee is CHF 100 for SMPV members and CHF 130 for external participants.

The SMPV Bern is looking forward to a collegial exchange with you!

Flyer

The group of members born between 1962 and 1967 is also by far the largest in the SMPV. It is therefore worth thinking about how to prevent a future shortage of music teachers when these baby boomers reach retirement age.

In addition, the Federal Council has announced its intention to save half a billion francs in "education and research" between 2025 and 2028 despite general inflation, and it is clear that the austerity measures will also affect conservatoires. It must also be interesting for music academies to train young talent for areas in which graduates can actually find work. It is therefore to be hoped that, despite the pressure to save money, they will invest more in the field of music education and train fewer pure performance artists, not all of whom will find work later on. Or as Urs Frauchiger, who sadly passed away last year, used to say to first-year students when he was director of the Bern Conservatory: "You think you're in a talent factory here, but first and foremost you're in a music teachers' seminar."

This does not mean at all that music students should be less well trained artistically. Future music teachers in particular should be outstanding musicians with profound technique, high musicality, great stylistic knowledge and ability and a winning charisma. They should also perform regularly and have the ability to pass on their knowledge and skills to pupils of all ages. In order for more very good young musicians to take the path of music education out of conviction, professions in the field of music education must be better recognized by society.

A colleague who teaches around 35 pupils at various music schools was recently asked by the mother of a pupil: "What do you actually do for a living?". Such scenes should definitely be a thing of the past. And it should no longer happen that colleagues say of themselves: "I'm just a music teacher."

Teaching music is a wonderful, enriching, versatile, demanding and important profession. The didactic training is just as important as the artistic training. And the SMPV must and will work to ensure that music schools do not suddenly employ people who are not trained for this profession (preferably at dumping prices), as is already common practice in elementary school.

In response to my very last-minute request to the student members, three of them spontaneously took the time to answer a few questions over the phone or via Zoom. Coincidentally, all three are flautists and they all study at the HKB:

Dominique Bircher is in her first year of a Master's degree in education. In January, she was elected to the board of the SMPV Bern, making her the first student member of the board of a section of the SMPV. Her letter of motivation included the following: "For me, teaching is not just a way of teaching music to children. Above all, I am learning to be the best possible teacher for myself, hopefully for the rest of my life."
Lea Mirjam Hitz is studying for a Master's degree in Performance, has just successfully completed her Master's degree in Pedagogy and is looking forward to becoming a full member and finally getting a profile on mein-musikunterricht.ch. She already teaches at the Murgenthal Music School.
Édua Nyilas was born in Hungary, but has lived in Switzerland since completing her Bachelor's degree. She works as a flute teacher, choir director and school musician to finance her Master's degree in education.

What motivated you to become an SMPV member?
Lea: I was recruited by a professional colleague who is a member herself. And of course I already knew the important and useful tariff lists. And I'm also interested in the private tuition platform.
Dominique: A colleague drew my attention to the association. For me, it is particularly interesting to network with other music teachers and to be able to make contacts in the world of professional musicians. And I appreciate the opportunity to help shape things.
Édua: I kept seeing SMPV material from lecturers and then did some research on Google. There I immediately discovered the two very professionally made platforms.

Which SMPV services do you already use and which do you want to benefit from soon?
Dominique: I have a profile on rent-a-musician.ch, took part in a training day and was able to benefit from legal advice once. I would soon like to have my students perform in music lessons.
Édua: I also have a profile on rent-a-musician.ch, I'm glad that the tariff lists exist and I'll certainly make use of the music lessons. I'm interested in the training days, but they're too expensive for me at the moment.
Lea: Soon I can have a profile on mein-musikunterricht.ch and I'm also interested in the other platform. I would like the list of rates to include other lesson lengths and that there are also rates for group lessons.

 What do you expect from the SMPV in trade union and political terms?
Édua: The SMPV should work to ensure that only teachers with professional artistic and pedagogical training are employed at music schools.
Dominique: In general, it should stand up for the rights of professional music teachers. If we join forces, our concerns will carry more weight.
Lea: It is important that he opposes dumping prices in music lessons.

What are the most pressing problems in your everyday student and professional life and how could the SMPV help?
All: Although we have vocational training, we still know very little about what we need to do in practice in the transition from studying to working life. When and where do we have to register for which social insurance, what do we need to become (partially) self-employed, how do we apply to music schools and questions like that. A leaflet or even a course from the SMPV for newcomers to the profession would be great.

Dominique: A list of which foundations we could write to for what would also be helpful. After all, it's not unimportant to know how we can finance our lives.
Édua: Exactly, because we have to work alongside our studies to finance it, there is even less time for practicing on the instrument, and we already have far too many subjects anyway, so it's almost impossible to manage everything.
Lea: Perhaps the SMPV could support us in our search for affordable teaching and practice venues.

Thanks for the suggestions! We can certainly offer such a course. If you have specific questions, you can always contact the presidiums and offices of your sections and the central association! You can search for rooms and fellow musicians in the Marché on smpv.ch.

If you could wish for anything, what else could the SMPV ideally offer you?
Dominique: I dream of a coworking space in every major city where we could meet musicians from the professional world and make contacts with them. And perhaps a slightly more realistic wish: it would help us if the SMPV could support us in our search for practice students.
Lea: The SMPV should intensify its contact with the universities.
Édua: Exactly, it should be closer to the students.

A colleague from both disciplines recently asked me to write an occasional article on the subject:

Wishes from the pop/rock/jazz department
Sebastian Mäder is a freelance pop/rock musician and teaches at the music school
He teaches a drumset class in Mutschellen, heads the pop/rock/jazz department at the Rüschlikon music school and teaches skills in popular music at the HKB. It is very important to him that more teachers are well trained in the field of pop/rock/jazz. He is not primarily interested in teachers with different technical training, but in teachers who have stylistic skills in the style of music that primary school children listen to every day.

In this way, children and young people from (musically) educationally disadvantaged families can be picked up where they stand. Teachers should be able to make it so easy for primary school children with no prior knowledge to play together in a group that they can easily make music together on different instruments, start improvising and develop their own ideas. The focus should be on the joy of playing so that they get into a flow with each other, which in turn motivates them to continue playing. Because it is not about playing and singing correctly or incorrectly, but about simply doing it, there is no fear of failure when starting music lessons in this way.

He believes that from this point, music education bridges can be built in every stylistic direction and that such an introduction helps to get children interested in making music in the first place. In this way, they are more willing to get involved with other styles of music later on. The development of pop/rock/jazz skills could therefore ultimately also stimulate the classical field.
Audio production skills are also very important with the aim of being able to record your own musical ideas and sound concepts. To do this, music educators need a sound understanding of the different sounds of the various pop/rock/jazz subcultures.

Around 80% of prospective music teachers are trained in the classical music department, and Sebastian Mäder believes that there should definitely be more study places for music teachers in the pop/rock/jazz area. He is aware that there is competition with the classical department for financial resources. However, as many music school teachers will be retiring in the next five years, more music teachers urgently need to be trained.

Concerns in the Classics department
Wolfgang Pailer is a singer, classical singing teacher and retired secondary and grammar school music teacher. He observes with unease that singing teacher positions at renowned music schools and grammar schools are increasingly only being advertised for pop/rock/jazz singers. He fears that children and young people, who usually only listen to pop/rock music, will not be able to find their way to classical music if they never come into contact with classical music, even at subsidized music schools and grammar schools. He believes that these subsidized schools have an educational mission and that they should also introduce children and young people to music that they do not or hardly ever encounter in their daily lives. Only when they have heard and played classical music in the broadest sense can they decide for themselves from this experience which music ultimately fascinates them more. Then they could specifically choose a teacher from the classical or pop/rock/jazz department. As a music education association, the SMPV must draw attention to this problem and work to ensure that classical music is not neglected by music schools and grammar schools.

Find synergies
I think that this problem varies depending on the type of instrument.
The recorder player and the horn player, for example, certainly have less reason to fear losing students to colleagues from the pop/rock/jazz department than the singer and the guitarist. Perhaps the SMPV should advocate that for instruments that are suitable for this purpose, it should be stipulated that music students must also take lessons in the other department within a framework that is yet to be defined, or that all music students should be included in a project in which they can gain practical experience with the musical styles of the other department in a playful way.

Music education is not an exact science. It develops on the basis of its tradition, which naturally goes back further in classical music than in pop/rock/jazz, and is influenced by pedagogical fashions or new technical possibilities. But it is also constantly evolving through the people who teach music and through those who experience these lessons positively or negatively.

In conversation with Sebastian Mäder, I suddenly remembered the last Swissmedmusica symposium, where several speakers talked about how frighteningly many university students are unable to cope with performances and exams without beta blockers or similar. Perhaps the non-judgmental approach to music-making propagated by pop/rock/jazz teachers could also help us classical musicians to avoid developing a fear of failure in our quest for excellence. It is certainly worthwhile for both departments to exchange ideas on music education issues and to learn from each other without bias.

What is your opinion on this topic?

The Board of Directors is delighted to be able to introduce a young member of the association as the new Central Secretary:
Christian Gertschen completed a commercial apprenticeship, graduated from the HKB in 2023 with a Bachelor of Arts in Euphonium and is currently also studying for a Master's degree in Pedagogy at the HKB. He teaches at two music schools in Bern and is a committed conductor and instrumentalist in the brass band scene. German is his mother tongue, and he speaks fluent French and English. Christian Gertschen has been a student member of the SMPV since January.

He will be working in the Central Secretariat from March 1, 10% and from June 1, 20%. The Board of Directors is very much looking forward to working with him and wishes him every success in his new role!

In addition, the central secretariat is due to relocate in May: The Board of Directors has succeeded in finding much more favorable office premises at Bernstrasse 118 in 3066 Stettlen.

Culture, and music in particular, was very important in the Küng family. Franz Martin's mother was a piano teacher and his father was a sought-after hairdresser in Baden and a wig maker for the silent film industry. Little Franz accompanied his music-loving father to the opera from an early age, and as a small boy he was able to recognize the grooves on his ever-growing collection of shellac records before he could read the inscriptions on the sleeves.

As a lower school pupil, he received ballet lessons, was discovered as a talent and was allowed to dance in performances at the Zurich Opera House. Franz only realized that becoming a pianist and not a dancer was his vocation during his time at boarding school in Zug, where he trained as a primary school teacher. He practiced many hours a day on the instrument and eventually studied piano privately with Irma Schaichet at the SMPV. He also received important impulses from Magda Tagliaferro in Paris.

Apparently he was playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in a piano lesson with Mrs. Schaichet when Géza Anda rang her doorbell and wanted to speak to her. She asked him to wait in the garden until the piano lesson was over, and there Géza Anda heard Franz Martin's piano playing through the open window. The fact that he was looking for a replacement for himself for the 1st Beethoven in Croatia was a happy coincidence for the young pianist, who of course gladly accepted the commission. His further international career took him from London to Athens, Stockholm and Rome. He particularly enjoyed talking about the concert there with Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto under Ricardo Muti. But as much as he loved the piano and the performances, he also got to know the downsides of such a career: the constant traveling, the loneliness associated with it and the great physical strain made it increasingly difficult for him. When he had to give countless concerts "like an assembly line worker" for a record contract with one and the same programme, he realized that he was not cut out for it.

He accepted the position of piano teacher at the Kanti Baden and found his true calling there as an enthusiastic and inspiring piano teacher. He was particularly strict when someone from his group of students stood out as a "primal talent". He knew that in addition to talent and diligence, this profession also required an iron will to persevere. He demanded a lot from them, but he also supported them by letting them know that he believed in them and that they could achieve anything if they put in the necessary effort. And because he knew how important performance experience is for young artists, he organized several concerts a year for the young talents. After retiring after 31 years at the Kanti Baden, he continued to teach at his parents' house in Baden - often with the window open, as the story goes. I wonder if he hoped that his students would be discovered the way he was back then?

He has felt very close to the SMPV since his studies. And so he was elected to the board of the Aargau section and eventually took over its presidency. He also often acted as an expert at diploma examinations, where he judged competently, strictly and yet benevolently. The "old" SMPV with its professional training was "his" SMPV. After this was handed over entirely to the Kalaidos University of Music, he remained loyal to the SMPV, but told me on the sidelines of a presidential conference: "Oh you know, I must have fallen out of time a bit; it's good that you're doing this now.". On November 24 - badly affected by his illness - he handed over the documents of the Aargau section to his successor - just two days before his strength left him.

Cari colleghi,

An important topic of the past year was the cultural message, with which the Confederation defined its goals, priorities and objectives for the next four years. A central theme is "cultural participation", a topic that particularly concerns music teachers.

Attraverso la nostra attività pedagogica, permettiamo ai nostri studenti / alle nostre studentesse di partecipare alla cultura - nel nostro caso, alla musica - di contribuire attivamente, di creare, di realizzare le proprie idee e non solo di consumare passivamente la musica. L'espressione individuale è un bisogno fondamentale dell'essere umano e, pertanto, per mantenere sana la società, non solo deve essere resa possibile, ma anche promossa. With our work, we music teachers have made an important contribution to the promotion of global and individual health. Che questo lavoro vi riempia anche l'anno prossimo, che i vostri studenti e le vostre studentesse si sviluppino e trovino la propria espressione per partecipare attivamente all'azione culturale. In this way, our society forms a community in which everyone and everyone can enter into the community without having to join in.

In this sense, auguriamo a tutti e tutte voi un nuovo anno ricco di successi e di creatività, affinché la cultura fiorisca e la nostra società rimanga sana e felice!

Annette Dannecker e Paola De Luca, co-presidenti SSPM

Dear colleagues,

An important topic last year was the cultural message, in which the federal government set cultural policy priorities and goals for the next four years. One of the main topics is "cultural participation", an issue that particularly concerns us as music teachers. Through our teaching activities, we enable our pupils to participate in culture - in our case, music - to actively contribute, shape and implement their own ideas and not just passively consume music. Individual expression is a basic human need and must therefore not only be made possible but also encouraged in order to keep society healthy. We music educators therefore make an important contribution to holistic and individual health promotion with our work.

May this work continue to fulfill you in the coming year, may your students unfold and develop, that they find their own expression so that they can actively participate in cultural events. In this way, our society forms a community in which everyone can fit into the whole without having to give up themselves.

With this in mind, we wish you all a successful and creative new year, so that culture flourishes and our society remains healthy and happy!

Annette Dannecker and Paola De Luca

As we have since learned from Wolfgang Pailer, it was apparently a matter close to Roland Vuataz's heart that the SMPV should have such a charter, and so towards the end of his time as SMPV President, he ensured that it was formulated and printed. It was effectively his farewell gift to the SMPV.

For our charter to be effective, we must of course be familiar with it. And we SMPV members must also be able to stand behind our charter. That is why the section presidents are inviting you, dear members, to let us know by the end of the year what you would like to see changed or added.

The charter was written in French and translated into German. I have taken the liberty of reprinting the German text slightly edited:

SMPV Members' Charter
This charter links the general objectives of music teaching with a common professional ethic.

Human education through music:
Music education stimulates the imagination, it promotes creativity, intuition and sensitivity, which is why musical education is always also human education.

Mutual respect
Making music means being able to listen to others and express yourself. Holistic music lessons therefore contribute to building a society based on respect, mutual esteem and tolerance.

Right to optimal music education
SMPV members are committed to providing the best possible music education by supporting their students and motivating them to achieve the best possible musical level while maintaining the joy of making music.

The joy of learning
Progress brings joy and satisfaction. It is the result of personal commitment, effort and concentration. Promoting the joy of learning is an important concern for music lessons.

Music practice as a benefit
When teachers make music themselves and strive to constantly improve their skills, this also has a positive effect on the development of their pupils.

Further training through exchange of experience
SMPV members keep each other informed about developments and progress in music education. They continue their education, exchange experiences and are open to innovations.

 Public relations
Convincing the public of the need for professional music education is one of the most important concerns of the SMPV and its members.

Mutual appreciation
SMPV members are characterized by openness, collegiality and mutual recognition, regardless of their diverse artistic and pedagogical activities.

The text still seems relevant to me because it was originally formulated so openly. Nevertheless, I would like to see a section on dealing with digital media and AI added. And the topic of "social media" should also be included. There needs to be an agreement on how teachers, students and SMPV members communicate with each other there, what can be posted and how we protect the personal rights of others.

It also seems important to me that we work together politically and in trade unions to promote the concerns of musicians in general and music teachers in particular, and that we work closely with partner associations to achieve this, because we can only achieve our goals together.

Finally, in the section "Joy of learning", I am missing something about the feedback culture, which has a major influence on whether or not the joy of making music and practicing is maintained.
And you, dear colleagues, what would you like to change or add to the text so that you can ultimately fully support the SMPV Charter?

Please send topic requests, specific change requests and text suggestions by December 31, 2023 to marianne.waelchli@smpv.ch.

The CLA has triggered a cultural change, says Benjamin Kellerhals, President of the Winterthur Conservatory Teachers' Association. Because they have a say in all important matters and are involved in decisions, the teachers show greater solidarity with their music school and are more likely to identify with the decisions made.

Obviously, both employees and employers are very satisfied with this model, and so the question arises as to why more music schools are not seriously addressing this issue. Is it because all music teachers in Switzerland are very satisfied with their professional situation and don't want to change anything, is it because they are afraid of jeopardizing their own employment if they tell the school management that they want to enter into CLA negotiations, or is it simply because they have too much respect for the huge amount of work involved in drawing up such a contract?

In 2002, the teaching staff at the Zurich Conservatory were already covered by a collective labor agreement. The NZZ wrote at the time that this CLA "can be regarded as trend-setting for the entire Swiss music school landscape." Due to the merger of the Zurich Conservatory with the Zurich Youth Music School (under public law) to form the MKZ, the CLA was dissolved; only music schools organized under private law can have a CLA.
A CLA has been in place at the Winterthur Conservatory since January 1, 2006, and it is still working well today.

I speak with Hans-Ulrich Munzinger, the former director of the Winterthur Conservatory, during whose tenure the CLA was negotiated.

Mr. Munzinger, what was the impetus for negotiating a CLA at the Winterthur Conservatory?

Some teachers have told me that they would like such negotiations, and it is quite clear that the music school management must respond to this. There were already initial experiences from Zurich, and the five-year process was supported by the MuV, VPOD and SMPV. Sibylle Schuppli from the MuV was the initiator of the Zurich CLA alongside Martha Gmünder from the SMPV, and she was able to bring this experience to the Winterthur negotiations.

Has all the hard work paid off? What are the benefits of the CLA for teaching staff and music school management today?

It was definitely worth it! The negotiation process itself was very important. Teaching staff and school management had to understand each other's situation exactly: the school management got to hear all the concerns and problems of the teaching staff, and the latter in turn found out which requirements from the authorities and politicians were decisive for the work of the school management.

We then had to convince each other of all the points of contention until a consensus was finally reached. Thanks to the negotiations and the resulting CLA, we achieved a very high level of transparency, which led to greater satisfaction on both sides.
For example, we have introduced a salary scale according to age. This means that it is clear to everyone who earns how much and when, and there is no more guesswork about why someone might be graded how. - Of course, you don't have to solve the wage issue in this way in a CLA; the important thing is simply to have clear guidelines and absolute transparency.

Does the school management still have room for maneuver with a CLA?

Of course, there is still a certain amount of room for maneuver, as we also want to shape and design something. We have deliberately kept the CLA lean and also regulate details in an "application booklet", in which individual points can be changed more easily with the agreement of the employer and employee side if they do not prove themselves in practice.
In addition, the school management can still do a lot in terms of selecting additional courses, special events and the school's public image.
Incidentally, the teaching staff also have a great deal of creative freedom when it comes to the style and content of lessons, and their own artistic activities are explicitly encouraged and promoted, for example by granting them time off.

Which points in the CEA or the application booklet do you find particularly important in practice?

There are a few: e.g. that any points of criticism in staff appraisals are announced in advance so that the teacher can prepare for the meeting. That long-term teachers can receive a workload guarantee for three semesters based on the average number of hours worked in the last four semesters. And centrally: that teachers clearly know what is expected of them in terms of their workload, namely preparation and follow-up work for lessons, student concerts, participation in the convention, further training and, last but not least, practicing on their own instrument. This leads to a pay factor of 1.75 for teaching hours to working hours.

What happens in the event of a dispute?
There is a joint committee (PaKo) that decides. If it does not come to a conclusion, the case goes to the official arbitration board, whose decision is binding. Fortunately, we have never had to go to them. This also shows how well the CLA works.

Thank you very much for the interview!

Dear readers, what do you think about the CLA? The SMPV looks forward to receiving letters to marianne.waelchli@smpv.ch!
As a professional association, one of its aims is to support members who wish to negotiate a CLA at their music school.

Winterthur Conservatory Photo by Oliver Pailer

During the pandemic, we were often told: "Art teaching is not culture; you are education." when we pointed out the difficult financial situation of self-employed music teachers or when we wanted to have a say on cultural issues.

To become a qualified music teacher, you have to prove a high technical and artistic level on your instrument in the entrance examination at a music college and you have to impress with your artistic presence and charisma. After passing the exam, you study your instrument for at least five years and continue to develop these performative qualities. You then acquire didactic skills either in the 4th and 5th year of study or after completing your Master's degree in an additional course of study. - And this is where the problem begins: from a federal point of view, music teachers who continue their performative work after graduation and also or mainly pursue a music education activity are only "part-time artists", although they are professionally involved exclusively with their art - partly performative and partly music education, by passing on their musical knowledge and skills to people of all ages, giving them access to music, different styles and a wide variety of literature, and letting them discover their own music through musical improvisation. Suddenly what they do, although it is all about music, is no longer culture but "just" education. To put it bluntly, it's like telling a surgeon, as soon as he starts teaching at a university alongside his medical work: "You are now education and not medicine."

The label awarded has consequences: the SMPV professional association, which represents around 2,500 musicians, receives CHF 0.00 in structural contributions from the federal government because it is not recognized as a cultural association, even though that is exactly what it is, while the SMV, with significantly fewer members, receives substantial structural contributions. The irony here is that the SMPV organizes many cultural events with its music lessons, talent stages, teachers' concerts, toddler concerts, ad hoc choir events, etc., while the SMV focuses on its trade union work. Nothing can change this grotesque situation if the SMPV is not recognized nationally as a cultural association and is not finally allowed to have a say in cultural matters.

Many of the demands formulated in the cultural message are already being met by the SMPV as an association and by its members in their daily work:

• Cultural participation of the population: People who don't normally go to concerts often come to music lessons and concerts by our teachers or to children's concerts, but are fascinated by them and are encouraged to attend larger concerts. Or active singing in an ad hoc choir organized by the association is a low-threshold approach to choral singing. There and in the daily individual or group lessons given by our members, people of all ages and backgrounds find access to a wide variety of musical styles. Our students acquire skills that they can then use in amateur orchestras and choirs. Inclusion is a matter of course.
• Social cohesion is promoted by making music together in lessons with the teacher or in an often intergenerational ensemble.
• Advising our members on social security and employment law issues has always been important to the SMPV. However, the service was expanded during the pandemic.
• Digital transformation: With its guide to digital music lessons, which the SMPV compiled at lightning speed during the pandemic, with its range of further training courses on digital media in music lessons and with the association's two job placement platforms mein-musikunterricht.ch (for private music lessons) and rent-a-musician.ch (for arranging concert engagements), the SMPV is already very well positioned here.
• The two platforms also contribute to sustainability by providing qualified musicians from the neighborhood for music lessons and concerts.

As music educators, we can no longer deny that we are culture, even if part of our work consists of teaching and communicating it.
How boring our lessons would be if we were no longer artists in the classroom!

We need to join forces with associations from other art disciplines and fight for music education and art education in general to be perceived as the important Y between culture and education and for associations representing art educators to be treated as cultural associations.