Cantonal and national exchange

President Philippe Krüttli commented on the status of the New Cultural Message 2025-2028. Among other things, the VMS Board would like to place particular emphasis on access to music education for preschool children and vocational school students and the Young Talents Music program. It is in contact with the Federal Office of Culture in this regard.

There is already a lot going on throughout Switzerland when it comes to Young Talent Music. As of June, three quarters of the cantons have submitted a declaration of intent to the BAK, of which four cantons have already submitted their finished concept. The first approval in Switzerland was recently received by the canton of Nidwalden.

Eva Crastan, responsible for Public Affairs, introduced the topic of regional conferences into the discussion. Two such cross-cantonal conferences are currently held across Switzerland every year - in French-speaking Switzerland and Central Switzerland. In Central Switzerland, the regional conference was merged with the exchange meeting of the Lucerne School of Music and the music schools in the 19/20 school year and thus serves both as a showcase and link to higher education and research as well as cantonal exchange. The Conférence romande has a more informal character and takes place in December at a music school. Around half of all head teachers in the region take part in both events. The VMS Board emphasizes that it is happy to provide organizational and administrative support to cantons wishing to set up and hold such regional conferences, if necessary also by liaising with universities.

Christian Braun spoke about the status of work on the digitalization concept - the aim, according to the discussion at the last delegates' meeting, is to provide music schools with a basis for developing their own strategy for digital transformation. And Thomas Saxer reported on the project development at the two labels Quarte and Precollege, whose structures will be aligned in the near future without being outsourced as originally planned.

Several delegates reported on political events in their cantons. In the canton of Aargau, for example, a non-partisan motion to improve equal opportunities in music lessons was adopted in spring 2023. In Ticino, an initiative with similar concerns was submitted with around 11,000 signatures - among other things, the text of the initiative calls for an increase in public contributions so that the current extraordinarily high parental contributions could be reduced.

Finally, Regula Gehrig, principal of the Reinach AG music school, was presented with the certificate of the newly acquired quarte Open Label quality management label to applause.

Photo: Anicia Kohler