The new faces and horizons of CHEMS

Antoine Gilliéron - A major renewal within the association marks the transition to 2022. These appointments at the helm of some of Switzerland's higher music education institutions are a welcome boost for CHEMS, which is now entering a phase of implementing a strategy designed to open up new horizons for Swiss tertiary music education.

The CHEMS vision is to contribute to building our constantly evolving society, socially, culturally and intellectually, by disseminating the knowledge, research and productions of higher music education.

As defined in its bylaws, CHEMS's missions are :

- The coordination of tasks and problems specific to music colleges ;

- Developing the quality of music teaching and research;

- Defending the interests of music colleges vis-à-vis Swissuniversities and the Chamber of Universities of Applied Sciences, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SEFRI) and the Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK), as well as in higher and university education at national and international level;

- The exchange of experience between national and international music academies, as well as cooperation with the Rectors' Conferences of German, French, Italian and Austrian music academies and music colleges, the European Association of Conservatoires, the Academies of Music and Musikhochschulen and the European League of Institutes of the Arts;

- Drawing up professional and educational policy statements and recommendations, while disseminating them at specific communication levels or publicizing them through the media;

- Maintaining strong links with professional music organizations and Swiss music associations, such as the Association Suisse des Ecoles de Musique (ASEM) and SONART;

- Involvement in cultural and educational policy for the interests and promotion of music, musical creation, musical education/training and research, as well as for appropriate framework conditions for the promotion of young musicians and their initial and pre-professional musical training.

The Conference of Swiss Universities of Music has recently equipped itself with a management tool that will enable it to plan its future development in a way that is as harmonious as it is ambitious. As a result, its vision and missions now revolve around a credo designed to reinforce its impact: coordination / foresight / federation.

The CHEMS, in its role as a national umbrella organization and aware of the major challenges ahead, will thus be able to move forward in achieving its objectives in the service of the arts and the constant improvement of society. In this way, Switzerland's music academies are helping to build a knowledge-based society that promotes creativity as one of Switzerland's core values.

This is why the excellent quality of the training offered in the field of music, as well as its links with production, research and innovation, are key aspects of the new strategy. The new strategy is designed to provide clear measures of action to enhance the legitimacy and visibility of higher music education in Switzerland, with the fervent hope that new recruits will be able to contribute their talents in proportion to their responsibilities.

Gemäss einer Mitteilung der Kalaidos Fachhochschule Schweiz verfügt Michael Bühler über eine breite professionelle musikalische Ausbildung, die er mit einem Executive MBA der Universitäten Zürich und Stanford (U.S.) sowie einem Doktorat an der University Gloucestershire (UK) erweitert hat. Während mehr als zehn Jahren hat er als Intendant und Managing Director das Zürcher Kammerorchester geleitet, davor war er u.a. Executive Director der Stiftung Schweizerischer Jugendmusikwettbewerb und Orchesterdirektor im Opernhaus Zürich. Neben der Vermittlung einer professionellen musikalischen Ausbildung will der neue Rektor die Studierenden der Kalaidos Musikhochschule auch gezielt auf die "unternehmerischen Herausforderungen des modernen Musikmarktes" vorbereiten.

Born in Lausanne in 1974, Béatrice Zawodnik is a musician-performer, teacher, curator and manager with a multifaceted career committed to culture, creation and training. Béatrice Zawodnik holds a triple diploma from the Conservatoire supérieur de musique de Genève in music pedagogy, piano and oboe, and has completed various post-graduate courses in Switzerland (baroque oboe) and Germany with renowned teachers (oboe), including Heinz Holliger.

In 2020, she was awarded the prize for the best Master's degree in public administration by the Institut de hautes études en administration publique de l'Université de Lausanne (IDHEAP). Béatrice Zawodnik's professional career is marked by solid, multi-faceted experience in the field, reflecting the richness of her artistic, pedagogical and managerial background. Musically, Béatrice Zawodnik has been active for over twenty years in numerous baroque and contemporary orchestras and ensembles, in Switzerland and abroad, and regularly collaborates with composers for whom she has premiered and recorded several works. Her work as a teacher for over ten years, in particular as an oboe and didactic teacher in Geneva music schools, at the Haute école de musique de Genève and at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne, guarantees her a solid knowledge of the field of higher education.

Lastly, in terms of management, Béatrice Zawodnik demonstrated her skills as a school director during five years at the head of the Lausanne site of the Haute école de musique de Lausanne (HEMU). Since 2018, she has worked as Head of Teaching Coordination at the HEM Genève - Neuchâtel, where she took over as Director in January 2022.

While the next head of the music department at the Hochschule der Künste Bern is not yet known, CHEMS warmly wishes Graziella Contratto, who was the first female member of the association, all the best for her future career, as well as Frank-Thomas Mitschke and Philippe Dinkel for their well-deserved retirements, and warmly thanks all three of them for their very positive, eminently efficient and lasting commitment to CHEMS.