SMPV Schaffhausen Music School
In addition to the MKS Schaffhausen Music School, there has been an SMPV Music School in Schaffhausen for 25 years, which is run by the SMPV Schaffhausen.
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.
