Music education is culture and training!

Often, during the pandemic, we were told: "Art education is not culture; you are training", when we pointed out the difficult financial situation of independent music educators, or when we wanted to have our say on cultural issues.

To become a qualified music teacher, you have to prove your high technical and artistic level on your instrument in the entrance exam to a music college, and you have to be convincing in your artistic presence. You then study for at least five years on the instrument, and continue to develop these performance qualities. Didactic skills are then acquired either in the 4th and 5th years of study, or as part of an additional curriculum. - And here's where the problem begins: from the point of view of the federal government, music educators who continue to perform and teach music at the same time are no more than "part-time artists", despite the fact that they professionally devote themselves exclusively to their art - partly performing and partly passing on their musical knowledge and skills to people of all ages, giving them access to music, to different styles and helping them discover their own music through musical improvisation. Suddenly, their activities, though they revolve exclusively around music, are no longer "culture" but simply "education". It's a bit like saying to a surgeon, as soon as he teaches at a university in addition to his medical activity: "You are now education, not medicine".

The label awarded has consequences: for example, the SSPM, which represents some 2,500 musicians, receives 0.00 francs in structural subsidies from the Confederation because it is not recognized as a cultural association, even though it is, whereas the USDAM, which has far fewer members, receives substantial structural subsidies. The irony is that the SSPM organizes numerous cultural events, while the USDAM concentrates on its union work. Nothing will change this grotesque situation if the SSPM is not recognized at national level as a cultural association and finally has a say in cultural matters.

Many of the requirements set out in the culture message are already met by the SSPM as an association and by its members in their day-to-day work:

• Cultural participation of the population: student concerts and concerts given by our teachers, or concerts for babies, often attract people who don't usually go to concerts, but who are fascinated and encouraged to attend larger concerts. Or active singing in an ad hoc choir organized by the association is a low-threshold access to choral singing. Here, as well as in our members' daily individual or group lessons, people of all ages and backgrounds gain access to the most diverse musical styles. Our students acquire skills they can then use in orchestras and amateur choirs. Inclusion is a matter of course.
• Social cohesion is fostered through shared musical practice in lessons with the teacher or in an often intergenerational ensemble.
• The SSPM has always attached great importance to advising its members on social insurance and labor law issues. However, the service was expanded during the pandemic.
• Digital transformation: with its guide to digital music education, which the SSPM put together in the blink of an eye during the pandemic, with its range of continuing education courses on digital media, and with the association's two own platforms, mein-musikunterricht.ch (for private music lessons) and rent-a-musician.ch (for concert engagements), the SSPM is already very well placed in this area.
• Both platforms also contribute to sustainability by providing qualified musicians for music lessons and concerts, virtually from the comfort of their own neighborhoods.

As music educators, let's not allow ourselves to be challenged about being cultural, even if part of our job is to teach and transmit it. How boring our teaching would be if we were no longer artists in the classroom!

We need to unite with associations from other artistic disciplines and fight for music education and arts education in general to be seen as the important Y between culture and education, and for associations representing artistic pedagogues to be treated as cultural associations.