School of Music SSPM Schaffhausen

It may be worthwhile to take a close look at the laws governing music schools.
In 1999, ingenious minds at the SSPM Schaffhausen discovered that their cantonal law on music schools allowed the association to set up its own music school with subsidized tuition.

Admittedly, the wording of the purpose differs only slightly from that of other music school laws:
" 1. The canton encourages the teaching of music to young people as a complement or extension to the musical education provided in public schools, with the aim of enabling them to participate actively in musical life.
2) To this end, it pays subsidies to recognized music schools...".
To be recognized, music schools must be based in the canton of Schaffhausen. Then, under "responsible body", it also says :
"...are recognized as bodies responsible for schools: communes, associations of communes, etc. as well as associations or foundations with a corresponding purpose ".

Section president Werner Joos, Beat Studer, the first director of the SSPM music school, and committee member Anne Marie Rohr felt that the conditions were right for successfully founding an SSPM music school.
Today, the SSPM Music School is managed by Christoph Honegger, who is employed on a more or less full-time basis, depending on the number of students enrolled at the SSPM Music School.

The teachers take on a great deal of organizational responsibility, i.e. they themselves seek out and find their pupils by word of mouth or, for example, also via the SSPM private tuition platform mein-musikunterricht.ch, and they teach them on their own premises or at home, as the SSPM music school has no premises of its own. In return, they receive a small room allowance. The school is subsidized to the tune of 55% by the city, communes and canton. Of course, as with "normal" music schools, only courses given to students under the age of 25 who are not in employment are subsidized.

Every member of the SSPM Schaffhausen is entitled to teach pupils from the canton of Schaffhausen through the SSPM music school. Musicians are required to hold an artistic diploma and a music pedagogy diploma in order to join the SSPM, and the city and canton are thus guaranteed to subsidize only courses taught by fully-trained music teachers - a win-win situation for all participants.
A special feature of the school is the flat-rate salary: every teacher earns exactly the same, regardless of age. There is, however, a family allowance of 5% per child, specific to the school. The school management takes care of enrolments and de-enrolments, collections, social insurance settlements and salary payments, and organizes an annual school music day.
Some 170 students are currently enrolled at the SSPM music school.

I spoke to two of the twenty-four teachers:

Flor Stammer is a violist and has been teaching violin and viola at the SSPM music school since 2021; she has also recently been employed at the MKS as a viola teacher. Apparently, there is a very peaceful coexistence between the MKS and the small SSPM music school, and Flor doesn't feel pressured at all by the MKS to encourage her SSPM students to join the MKS; competition also stimulates business, and a wider choice of teachers may well generate greater demand for music teaching.
She believes that the SSPM music school offers advantages, particularly for adult teaching, which is however not subsidized, as, for example, the weeks and hours of lessons can be organized more freely. The SSPM music school's associative structures also make it possible to deepen exchanges between colleagues, to bring together ensembles from different classes for Music Day, or to exchange scores for lessons.
When she completed her studies in the midst of the Covid pandemic, and it was very difficult to find a job as a music educator due to the uncertain situation, she was particularly grateful to be able to teach her first students almost immediately through the SSPM School of Music.

Urs Bringolf has been a drum teacher since the school was founded, and has taught the largest number of students at the SSPM music school.
What he appreciates about this particular music school is that, while he is able to provide subsidized teaching, he still has much more freedom than he would in a public music school; he doesn't miss regular meetings, for example. He teaches some 30 students through the SSPM music school. However, he also notes that it's harder to find enough students these days. On the one hand, the music store where he could still give test lessons no longer exists, so he no longer has a direct supplier, and on the other, he observes that people have more fears to face since Corona. Their financial situation has deteriorated, whether in real or perceived terms, news of wars fuels further fears, and so they are less willing to spend money on music lessons. Especially if children don't practice much, lessons stop after one or two years, whereas in the past pupils often stayed for ten years or more. Despite this, he continues to teach with great pleasure, and enthusiastically recounts how, at music days, he has to constantly modify the drums to make them ideal for both left- and right-handed players, and how he hands out hearing protection to the audience because, in the excitement of the performance, the sound can sometimes be very loud.

More information on the SSPM music school