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.

The SMPV Bern training day will take place on October 28, 2023, 9.15 a.m. - 4.30 p.m. at CAP, Predigergasse 3, 3011 Bern.
The exciting training day will provide space for collegial discussions and sharing experiences.

Martin von Allmen, an expert in composing, arranging, editing and performing, provides an overview of how different software can be used to meet specific needs. The sound engineer, Walter Schürch, explains the interplay of microphone types and recording technology. Maurice Gaggioni introduces the "MobileSheets" app, which makes it easier to manage your own sheet music collection and use it in music lessons when practicing and performing. Finally, Daniel Brand shows how his app "trivs", developed in 2020, supports regular practicing and how habits can be developed for learning during lessons.

The course costs CHF 130.- for external participants and CHF 100.- for SMPV members. Registration deadline is September 30th. For registrations please use the electronic registration form.

The municipal council of the city of Chur will be informed of the changes to the primary music school at its meeting on Thursday, 7.9.2023. The proposal is expected to save the city CHF 44,000. The ones who will suffer are the 1st graders and the teachers.

Two round tables were convened in the spring to discuss music education in the city of Chur on a broad basis with the music education associations.
The second round table focused exclusively on the primary music school and possible improvements. The city's guidelines applied: 400,000 must be saved in the area of education and the 1st graders currently have two hours too many in the timetable. Everyone agreed that savings should not be made in music education, that primary music school should continue to be included as a subject in the morning timetable, if necessary instead of a "normal" music lesson, and that half-class lessons are absolutely essential to allow teachers to work in depth with the children.

The current partial revision of the Education Act almost completely ignores the postulates of the round table's music education representatives:
Year 1 pupils now have to register for the primary music school rather than deregister, and lessons have been moved to the afternoon, which makes it impossible for primary music school teachers to earn a living wage, as there are now only 4 x 2 afternoon lessons available rather than 5 x 4 or even 6 lessons as before. Nevertheless, and this is an important point, half-class lessons have been retained.
This proposal has major disadvantages. The very children who benefit from holistic lessons, in which all the senses are addressed in a playful way and learning content is taught, will no longer be able to enjoy these lessons, as parents will now have to register their offspring and if there is no understanding of music, registration will simply not take place.
Primary music school teachers will no longer be able to secure a living wage and it is questionable whether qualified teachers can even be found for two afternoon lessons. In the long term, lessons will therefore once again be taught by unqualified teachers and the quality of the primary music school will naturally suffer as a result.

On the one hand, 400,000 is being invested in the promotion of musical talent, but the very vessel in which early talent can be recognized, even if it is a child who has not yet come into contact with music, is being criminally plucked. In the end, only those children are supported who are already being supported anyway, as their parents are already interested in music and have the necessary income.
If the city of Chur dreams of a city of music, then it must invest in early musical education and grant all children access to musical education, as required by constitutional article 67a.
The associations and interest groups are irritated by the fact that this school revision was simply decided on, the arguments of the round tables were almost completely ignored and there was no consultation process. The Chur Primary Music School Association has written a letter of objection to the municipal councillors and the Education Commission, listing these disadvantages in detail, in the hope that this school revision will be reconsidered.

The SMPV OSO cannot approve of this approach.
He does not agree with this reduction proposal, which ignores practically all the arguments of the round tables and where a basic musical education that serves as a role model for the entire canton is being ripped apart for a potential saving of 40,000. Everywhere in the canton, music education based on the Chur model is being integrated into the timetables of 1st graders, in some places even a 2nd grade can benefit from music education, but the city of Chur is abolishing a system that has worked successfully for years and in which everyone involved was happy.we will work to ensure that the primary music school takes place in the morning again as before, that the children have to be deregistered and that there will be an expansion of basic music education. So that the children of the city of Chur can develop musically in a holistic way!

The Graubünden Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, the Graubünden Association of Singing and Music Schools and the SMPV are once again organizing a competition for young musicians from Graubünden. The winners will perform with the Graubünden Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Philippe Bach on Sunday, 2 June 2024 at the Chur Theater.

The Graubünden Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra, the Graubünden Association of Singing and Music Schools (VSMG) and the Swiss Music Pedagogical Association Section East-Southeast Switzerland (SMPV OSO) are jointly committed to organizing and performing a prizewinners' concert with young soloists. The aim is to promote young and talented musicians residing in Graubünden. The next prizewinners' concert will take place on June 2, 2024 at 5 p.m. in the Theater Chur. Rehearsals with the orchestra will also take place on Saturday, 01 June 2024 at the Theater Chur.

Tender competition
The Kammerphilharmonie Graubünden is holding a Grisons music competition to select the young soloists who will perform with the Kammerphilharmonie Graubünden under the direction of Philippe Bach. This will take place on Saturday, January 20, 2024 at the Chur Music School.

Criteriawhich the musicians must fulfill at the time of the audition:
- Residence in the canton of Graubünden
- Maximum age for instrumentalists: 20 years
- Maximum age for vocalists: 22 years
- No access to a music academy

Registrations until September 30, 2023
https://www.kammerphilharmonie.ch/de/konzerte/termine/preistraegerkonzert.php

Question from an SMPV member: Many SMPV members have their own homepages. Visitors leave their IP addresses when they visit them, perhaps their name and e-mail address, if they contact the musicians via the contact form, if Google Analytics is installed, for example, personal data is processed, if someone orders a CD via the homepage, for example, he or she even leaves their home address. The following questions therefore arise:

• How much effort does a simple musicians' website have to put into complying with the new data protection law?
• Is it enough to create a customized privacy policy once and place it clearly visible on the homepage in the footer, or does it have to be continuously updated, e.g. if a plug-in is installed?
• What additional obligations do owners of a simple (musician's) website have when dealing with personal data in the broadest sense?

Answer Dr. Kovacs:

1. From September 1, 2023, the completely revised Data Protection Act (DPA) will come into force in Switzerland. Musicians will also have to deal with the new requirements. In particular, fines of up to CHF 250,000 can be imposed if the requirements are not met. This article provides guidelines on this, but this does not mean that a detailed risk assessment is no longer necessary.
2. The effort required to comply with data protection regulations is limited for musicians. In particular, as an SME, they no longer have to comply with complex obligations that only apply to larger companies. The new requirements must be implemented once in advance. Afterwards, the relevant information only needs to be integrated in the event of changes to the law or changes to your own business activities or the design of your website.
3. The following key questions must be clarified in advance in your own company and clearly communicated to potential users of your website as part of a detailed privacy policy.3.1 What personal data is collected and how is it processed? Precise information about the operating systems and programs used, e.g. as follows:
   • Cookies and image elements
   • Newsletters and marketing emails
   • Google Analytics
   • Google reCaptcha
   • Plug-ins
   • Profiling / automated decision-making

   This information must be updated when new programs and systems are used. Information must also be provided on whether and how these can be switched off or bypassed.

   3.2 What is the purpose of the data processing? The data may only be collected and processed for the specified purpose. E.g. the following information:

   • Information and advertising on offers, services, websites and other platforms on which you are present;
   • Communication with third parties and processing their inquiries (e.g. inquiries from interested parties)
   • Examination and optimization of procedures for needs analysis for the purpose of direct customer contact and collection of personal data from publicly accessible sources for the purpose of customer acquisition;
   • Implementation of "online meetings".
   • Registration to receive the newsletter with information about the right of withdrawal at any time

3.3 From whom do you receive personal data?

3.4 To whom do you disclose personal data? Specify the recipients or categories of recipients to whom personal data will be disclosed.
be announced.

3.5 How long will the personal data be stored? Ensure that the personal data is deleted or anonymized,
as soon as they are no longer required for the original purpose of collection. Tracking in particular
of data on websites must be checked and, if necessary, removed.

3.6 How is the data technically protected? Prompt notification must be made to the Federal Data Protection Commissioner.
(FDPIC) in the event of a data security breach. The FDPIC has issued guidelines on technical security, which are available at
whose website is online.

3.7 How are data subjects informed about the collection and processing of data? Exact identity and address
online and offline of the person responsible for data collection and processing and information about the right to information,
Right of rectification and erasure of the data subject. The obligation to provide information also applies to data obtained from third parties.

3.8 How do you have control over contracted third parties? Written contracts with external data processors must be checked and signed.
be adjusted if necessary.

3.9 Is data obtained from abroad or transferred there? Does the GDPR apply to the EU area or other
Legal systems for other countries observed?

4.  The bottom line is that you must inform the potential readers and users of your websites about all these issues and always keep this information up to date. The corresponding data protection declarations must be drafted individually, as the respective information can vary greatly. The SMPV's legal advice center can offer support at any time.

Northwestern Switzerland
Talent Stage 2023 Basel
The Northwestern Switzerland section is launching a music competition in November, the "Talent Stage 2023", for children and young people aged 7 to 20! Registration deadline is September 30, 2023.
Further information is available at: https://www.smpv.ch/nordwestschweiz/smpv-talentbuehne-2023/
Questions to: nordwestschweiz@smpv.ch

Berne
Performances by the Seefestspiel Choir
On Saturday, July 1 at 12:30 pm and on Sunday, July 2 at 3:30 pm, the ad hoc choir put together and prepared by the SMPV Bern, consisting of singers from 7 to 86, will perform at the Bern Lake Festival.
Venue: Werkhof Egelsee, Muristrasse 21e, 3006 Bern - Admission free.
Location Bad weather option: Forum Zentrum Paul Klee -
In case of doubt you will find here Details of the definitive venue

Music lesson in September
The CAP, Predigergasse 3, 3011 Bern is reserved for music lessons on September 9 at 17:00 and 19:00. The SMPV Bern invites you to register your students by August 20. Because the registration deadline is only one week after the summer vacation, this time it is sufficient to send an e-mail with the first name, name and instrument of the students and the approximate performance time to bern@smpv.ch. Marianne Wälchli will then get in touch with you.

Sezione di Lingua Italiana
Iniziativa 100 giorni per la musica
In addition to the 7,000 required, 10,835 valid applications were submitted for the initiative, which also calls for the Canton of Ticino to take a more prominent role in the promotion of music education in application of Article 67 of the Federal Constitution. Thus, il Canton Ticino dovrebbe farsi carico del 50% dei costi di formazione delle scuole di musica riconosciute. Attualmente la quota è inferiore al 25%. This should make music lessons possible, even for children from low-income families. Il grande successo nella raccolta delle firme ci fa sperare che le richieste dell'iniziativa possano essere attuate in un futuro non troppo lontano, nonostante la difficile situazione finanziaria del Cantone.

Zurich and Winterthur/Zurich Oberland
CLA for music schools?
This year's Zurich Music Teachers' Forum will discuss the following questions, among others: What advantages does a collective labor agreement (CLA) offer music school teachers? What conditions must be met for a CLA? Why is the Winterthur Conservatory the only Swiss music school with a CLA?
The forum organized by the professional associations MuV.vpod, SMPV Zurich and SMPV Winterthur/Zürcher Oberland will take place on Saturday, 2 September 2023 from 10:00 to approx. 12:00 at the FKS-Schulhaus Kreuzbühl, Kreuzbühlstrasse 16, 8008 Zurich (near Stadelhofen station). Music teachers who are not members of an association are also welcome to attend the event. Admission is free. Information under www.fzhm.ch

"I don't know whether the founder, Elvira Lüthi-Wegmann, would have liked the competition name "Elvirissima", as she was a particularly petite lady who would hardly have been suited to this form of intensification," SMPV colleague Madeleine Zimmermann recently told me on the phone. My colleagues on the Board of Trustees, Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer and Professor Bernhard Hunziker, and I certainly hope that Ms. Lüthi-Wegmann would agree with the way in which we use her legacy and how we try to support talented young singers in Switzerland in the best possible way in accordance with her wishes.

When the Federation of Migros Cooperatives quietly discontinued its study scholarship program for singers, instrumentalists, actors and dancers in the middle of the pandemic, when the cultural scene was already struggling with major difficulties, i.e. when it abolished the well-known "Migros Prizes", we quickly realized that our work on the Foundation Board had suddenly become even more important. With the Foundation's modest financial resources, we can only financially support four talents every two years, but we make every effort to offer something to the other candidates too: As external jury members, we always select conductors so that the competition is also an audition for the candidates, and we are delighted that our jurors always engage prizewinners and "empty-nesters". The competition is recorded and the videos can serve as demo videos for the candidates who sang well. And if the performance is not as successful as desired, the singers can see what still needs to be improved.
You can find the Elvirissima 2023 videos at www.youtube.com/@elvirissima5062

Major differences between Elvirissima 2021 and 2023

On Whit Monday 2021, Elvirissima took place under the strictest protection concept without an audience but still live in front of the jury in the large Maihofsaal. Around 50 singers - including those who had long since graduated - had submitted their dossiers and applied to take part in the competition in order to be able to perform again and in the hope that winning a prize would alleviate the difficult financial situation caused by the pandemic. It was not easy for me to turn down more than half of them at the time. - In this respect, it is good news that only 20 candidates have registered for the 2023 competition: there is obviously a lot more work for the young singers again, and they can also travel abroad again for competitions and auditions.

Out of sheer joy at finally being able to audition again, the 2021 candidates tended to sing with too much power. However, it was also noticeable that most of them worked very intensively on expression and that they had time to develop their interpretations. In 2021, for example, the assessment sheets often said "expression" on the plus side and "don't shout" on the "construction site" side. In 2023, I often see "well-controlled voice, albeit a little tight" and "great coloratura" on the plus side and "more expression" or "stylistically not differentiated enough" or "needs to learn to come out of herself more" on the "construction site" side. I conclude from this that the restrictions imposed by the pandemic have not only brought disadvantages for singers in training: Enough time to practise on the instrument, enough time to take a break, clearly also brings advantages. Perhaps the quality could be improved if the universities found a way to award more ETCS points for practicing on the instrument...
But of course nobody wants the pandemic back, and I was very pleased to hear during the feedback sessions that young singers were able to secure a place at an opera studio abroad, what exciting projects await them at home and abroad, that they are invited to auditions and that some of them find work, whether as a soloist or in an opera choir. However, it also became clear how high the costs of audition trips and training and further education are and how important financial support is for them, especially during the smooth transition from student to professional life.

You too can support the young singers in Switzerland

The Board of Trustees of the Elvira Lüthi Wegmann Foundation works on a voluntary basis and invests the foundation's assets extremely carefully, but the interest and dividends cannot be used to finance scholarships. The foundation is therefore a "consumption foundation", i.e. the assets are gradually used up. However, because it is so important to support young artists on their way into the world of music, the Board of Trustees is very happy to receive any donation, large or small, to IBAN CH79 0630 0504 7766 0750 5 (Valiant Bank) - Elvira-Lüthi-Wegmann-Stiftung, 3067 Boll - Note "Donation Elvirissima". If you have any questions, please contact the President of the Board of Trustees, Marianne Wälchli, at wettbewerb@elvirissima.ch

Elvirissima 2023 prizewinners - from left to right: Polina Kulykova, 3rd place; Alice Paroissien, 4th place; Jonas Jud, 2nd place and Evan Gray, 1st place (klangworker.ch)

The 2023 award winners

The Swiss bass-baritone, Evan Gray, (1st prize) impressed the jury with his great voice, his strong presence and his outstanding musicality. The Swiss bass, Jonas Jud (2nd prize), impressed the jury with his resonant true bass voice, his professionalism and his expressiveness. The Ukrainian mezzo-soprano, Polina Kulykova (3rd place), impressed with her presence, dramatic power and big voice, while the French soprano, Alice Paroissien, touched the jury with her naturally sweet expression, soulful pianos and careful coloratura.
The 1st prize is a scholarship of 12 x CHF 800 per month, the runner-up receives 12 x CHF 400 per month. The 3rd prize is CHF 2,000 and the 4th prize is CHF 1,000.