\n
Erbe, Vielfalt und Zukunft<\/div>\n

On November 20, 2015, the Swiss Music School Association celebrated its 40th birthday in Biel. The keynote speaker was Helena Maffli, President of the European Music School Union. She has given the SMZ permission to publish the text of her speech here. Thank you very much!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Dear colleagues,
Tr\u00e8s chers amis,<\/p>\n

I am extremely pleased that we are able to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Swiss Music Schools Association together today, thank you very much for the invitation! It is a special honor to be the guest speaker at this celebration, and I have taken this task very seriously. I have chosen \"Heritage, diversity and the future\" as my theme. This is not an original invention but a pure loan - but it's worth copying the good ideas, don't you think?<\/p>\n

The fact that Europe has come to the good idea<\/strong> The idea of founding a national music school association was not that long ago. On the other hand, we all know that the founding of conservatories in the sense of public institutions of musical education dates back over 200 years. Le Conservatoire National Sup\u00e9rieur de Paris came first, in 1795, and in the following decades the founding movement spread to most European centers. In Switzerland, Le Conservatoire de Musique de Gen\u00e8ve was the first to be founded in 1835, followed by Bern, Lausanne, Basel, Winterthur and Zurich in the forty years that followed. In these schools, it was generally possible to study in the same building from childhood to the completion of professional studies: the continuum of musical education was a matter of course.<\/p>\n

Youth music schools, on the other hand, are a phenomenon of the post-war period. The major socio-cultural transformations, the new sense of identity and the general reconstruction after the war also favored the progressive emergence of a much broader musical education than before. In this context, it is no coincidence that France and Germany were the first to establish a national music school association in the 1950s.
In the sixties and seventies, the number of music schools increased rapidly, both in Switzerland and throughout Western Europe. Most music school associations in Western Europe were also founded at this time.
Eastern Europe, on the other hand, developed a different model based on the Soviet model, with centralized music schools and with the aim of promoting talent rather than the masses. During the Cold War, West-East contacts were extremely limited, but after the fall of the Berlin Wall, most Eastern European countries also founded music school associations.<\/p>\n

The links between the Swiss Association of Music Schools (VMS) and the European Music School Union (EMU) have been close and steadfast since the founding of the two organizations, EMU in 1973 and VMS two years later. We in the EMU are very grateful for this loyalty over the decades and for the many good examples set by the VMS. I will return to this topic in the third part of my speech.<\/p>\n

H\u00e9ritage, Diversit\u00e9, Futur. In Switzerland, diversity is an integral part of the heritage, just like in few other countries in Europe. More than 50% of the Swiss have at least one grand-parent from abroad, even though diversity is part of the identity of this population and (I quote) \"multiculturalism is inscribed in the Swiss reality to the extent that it has integrated our subconscious\", according to a quote from Neuch\u00e2tel native Gabriel de Montmollin. Anyone or anyone - like myself - who comes from a centralized country spends just a few years trying to understand this land where the customs and traditions, dialects, menus, architecture and everything else change as the landscape that we have admired since the trains of the famous Swiss railways passes by!
But it was even more exciting for me to discover that in this small country the same ways of thinking about teaching as well as the traditions and pedagogical practices are just as varied, whether in public schools or music schools. However, I would like to point out to you that I was not really aware of this when I was working at the Lausanne Conservatoire, before I started teaching colleagues from all over Switzerland thanks to my experience on the ASEM committee and in its work. Little by little, I then realized that Switzerland as such and Swiss pedagogy are a mini-Europe, and nothing surprised me more in the diversity of the European networks.<\/p>\n

\"Unity in diversity\" is both the beautiful European motto, the ideal of Switzerland and the source of the richness of our culture and our music. But it is such a demanding context! Concretely ensuring this demographic, political, linguistic and educational diversity is a daily task that requires a great deal of commitment and effort. ASEM offers an extraordinary national platform for meetings and debates that can be lively, but never destructive. Over the decades, it has always been possible for ASEM to find solutions to the most diverse problems because, ultimately, the whole world has been le choix<\/strong> de travailler ensemble \u00e0 long terme. This calls for patience. I have heard it said that in Switzerland the mills turn slowly (\"In Switzerland the mills grind slowly\"). For me, the sense of this slightly moqueuse phrase is positive. I believe that Switzerland is still this \"nation of will\" that is prepared to face the ever-growing challenges of the world today and is capable of finding solutions.<\/p>\n

\" Plus vous saurez regarder loin dans le pass\u00e9, plus vous verrez loin dans le futur\"\/\" The further you can look back, the further you will look ahead \" (Winston Churchill). The 40-year existence of the Swiss Association of Music Schools contains many aspects and solutions to problems that can be admired from a European perspective. I see the following valuable elements:<\/p>\n