Delegates' Meeting on the Rhine
The annual Delegates' Meeting (DM) of the Swiss Union of Musician Artists USDAM took place in Basel. Once again this year, an important decision on cultural policy will probably be taken in Switzerland's third-largest city.
Union Secretary Jessica Frossard opened the Annual General Meeting, held in the rehearsal hall of the Basel Symphony Orchestra, with an alphorn and a yodel. Central Co-President Davide Jäger then welcomed the delegates and guests, who represented some of Switzerland's most important musical institutions. He pointed out that the USDAM was celebrating its 110th anniversary this year, and that it had succeeded in making the lives of musicians better and safer. Central Co-President Muriel Noble expressed the hope that the Union would continue to demonstrate enthusiasm, courage and patience. It's the small steps that keep us moving forward. In his welcome address, Central Committee member Markus Forrer, from the Basel section, mentioned the city's incredibly large number of orchestras and concerts of all genres, from early music to contemporary, to which must be added a great Music College, which continually "produces" talented young musicians. A lot of music for a medium-sized city of just over 170,000 inhabitants, he added. But alongside all this light, there is also shadow: an initiative for greater musical diversity, which easily reached the necessary 3,000 signatures, calls for free, non-institutional musical creation to be supported by at least a third of the annual music budget in the canton of Basel-Stadt in future. The initiators criticize the fact that 90% of public subsidies go to orchestras and classical music institutions (including early and contemporary), and that taxpayers' money would be used to unilaterally support a certain type of music. In their view, there is a wide range of music on offer in the city, including, apart from classical, blues, electronic music, hip-hop, jazz, pop, rock, metal, world music, dance and much more, all thanks to independent musicians.
A controversial initiative
Franziskus Theurillat, Managing Director of the Basel Symphony Orchestra and Co-Chairman of the association Réseau politique culturelle Bâle, gave delegates his view of the initiative: while it would offer great opportunities, and the initiators' demands would be met with a degree of understanding, existing institutions would risk massive cuts, and their very survival would be threatened. Both the State Council and the Commission for Education and Culture have come out against the initiative. The association Réseau politique culturelle Bâle, of which some twenty Basel cultural institutions are members, is now calling for a counter-proposal to the initiative, proposing implementation through a budget increase, including additional support for the programming, venues and structures of institutions that host and support the free scene. Theurillat pointed out that the canton of Basel-Stadt had generated huge surpluses in recent years, and could easily afford to spend an additional CHF 8.1 million on culture.
Approval of Union activities
The minutes of the previous Annual General Meeting of June 15, 2023, the activity report by Central Secretary Beat Santschi and the annual financial statements of the Central Fund, the Death Fund and the Solidarity Fund, as well as the 2024 budget were then accepted, and the positive report of the Management Committee was noted. Discharge was given unanimously to the Central Committee and the Central Secretary. There were no surprises in the elections either: all current members of the Central Committee and current representatives on commissions and institutions were unanimously re-elected, as were the Co-Chairman, Co-Chairman and Central Secretary. Muriel Noble and Elisabeth Goering (as substitute) were elected to the USS feminist commission, while Sebastian Schindler was elected as USDAM's representative on the board of the SON foundation. New members of the Management Committee are Maximilian Näscher and Stefanie Sampaio de Medeiros (as alternate). Catherine Suter and Luca Borioli are stepping down from the Central Committee. We will recall their merits at a later date and introduce Birgit Thorgerd Müller, newly elected to the CC. At the Presidents' Conference, held just before the DM, it was proposed that a kind of "traffic light for intermittents" be set up in Switzerland, such as the one published online by unisono in Germany, enabling us to see immediately whether orchestras are complying fully, partially or not at all with the USDAM rates for supplementary fees.
