New music education strategy for Winterthur
The Winterthur City Council has adopted a music education strategy. It is thus implementing the new Music School Act, which came into force at the beginning of 2023.
The strategy was developed with the help of Winterthur's music schools, the city's youth music and the elementary school. The Competence Center for Research in Music Education at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts provided technical support for the work. It formulates five strategic directions and nine measures for a four-year period: The musical participation of the population is to be facilitated, basic training with equal opportunities is to be ensured, musical talents are to be promoted and music-making in groups is to be further developed. Popular programs include the Winterthur Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Conservatory's youth choirs. Accents are also to be set in modern music.
According to the city's press release, the city and Winterthur's music schools can only implement the strategy together. The music schools have signed a cooperation agreement to this end. This is a milestone in the "Dreiklang" project of the Winterthur music schools, which aims to merge the music schools with the support of the city. The next step is for the city to draw up a joint service agreement with the music schools, which will cover the entire range of services required by the Music School Act, from entry level to university entrance.
The aim is for the new Winterthur music school, with its overall offering, to take on a supra-regional service mandate and thus be able to provide services for the communities supporting the current youth music school and beyond.
