When school and music school pull together
On 20.9.23, around 50 music school directors from the cantons of Central Switzerland met for an exchange meeting and the regional conference. The event takes place annually and is jointly organized by the VMS and the Lucerne School of Music.
Picture: Margot Müller
This year's meeting focused on cooperation between music schools and elementary school. In a survey before the event, music schools indicated what kind of projects and collaborations currently exist - it turned out that the range is very broad and that collaboration is regular and institutionalized in many places. The school subject "Music and Movement" is firmly integrated into everyday teaching at many music schools. Many music schools collaborate on annual projects. These include project weeks, instrument presentations, concerts or band workshops. Collaboration is also quite common for larger events - concerts or musicals, often around Christmas time.
Two examples of institutionalized cooperation were briefly presented at the regional conference. In addition, a short film by EMSA provided food for thought. EMSA ("One (music) school for all") is a model from Germany with various building blocks that aims to deepen cooperation between music and elementary school in educational and structural terms. The basis of the model is the appointment of two "music coordinators", one from the school and one from the music school. They ensure reliable and professionally designed processes and procedures and thus also a solid basis for cooperation.
More about EMSA in the short film:
The subsequent panel and group discussions were very lively. Most participants described the collaboration between music schools and elementary school as desirable and fruitful. Two things were highlighted as important. Firstly, cooperation must be legally institutionalized. And secondly, music school teachers, who are often mainly used to the setting of individual lessons, should be able to acquire the necessary skills for group lessons in initial and further training.
Philippe Krüttli and Eva Crastan from the VMS Board and Andrea Kumpe and Matthjas Bieri from the Lucerne School of Music thanked the participants for their input and stimulating discussions and invited them to a standing lunch.
