ASEM celebrates 50 years in Berne

By late afternoon, the streets of Berne's old town were already dusted with snow as guests arrived at the Berne Conservatory. As a prelude, they were treated to a montage of excerpts from the 100 hours of podcasts produced in September during the Radio Bus anniversary tour of music schools in 17 cantons. Next, the Jugend Sinfonie Orchester Bern (JSO) took to the stage. Conducted by Droujelub Yanakiew, the musicians, aged 13 to 23, opened the celebration not with an energetic "hit", but rather with a gentle, nuanced performance of luminous string chords and a delicate question-and-answer game from the woodwinds in the gallery. A remarkable interpretation of "The Unanswered Question" by Charles Ives for which the JSO was warmly applauded.

Philippe Krüttli, the association's president since 2022, welcomed those present and expressed his deep gratitude, before offering a retrospective and an overview of ASEM's future activities. He paid particular tribute to the intense commitment of the 370 music schools affiliated to ASEM through their cantonal associations.

Federal Councillor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider began her speech with a quote from Albert Einstein, who said that if he hadn't been a physicist, he would probably have become a musician, because he thought in music, lived his daydreams in music and saw his life in musical terms. She emphasized that music and ensemble instrumental and vocal practice in orchestras or choirs develop key skills for the future. She also pointed out that ASEM was a key partner of the Swiss Confederation, and that the two national programs Jeunes Talents Musique and Jeunesse et Musique had thus been developed together. "Music is not a luxury, nor should it become one," she asserted. Finally, she thanked the music schools and music teachers, praising their work, which requires skill and passion: "Many of us remember the teachers who opened up the world of music to us". Her speech and spontaneous questions to the JSO musicians earned her thunderous applause.

Yvonne Glur, Vice-Chairwoman of the Swiss Music Council (replacing Stefan Müller-Altermatt) emphasized in his speech "the incalculable value of music schools for society as a whole. 600,000 amateur and professional musicians are united in the Swiss Music Council. Without the ASEM, without the music schools, there would only be a small part of them." Andreas Wegelin, President of the Swiss Youth Music Competition (CSMJ) and Director of SUISA, expressed his thanks to ASEM, noting that the encouragement of musically gifted children was a sound piece of work that ASEM and CSMJ had in common. He also drew attention to a number of threats to musical and cultural creation in Switzerland: artificial intelligence, which requires reliable rules on a global scale if creativity is not to be sacrificed to rationalization, and the "200 francs, that's enough" initiative.

Yan Hostettler (14) illustrated the remarkable musical possibilities of a hackbrett with three works: a Beatles piece, Appenzeller Bläss and a Yann Tiersen tune. And electronic music enthusiast David Barta from Lausanne played a Drum'n'Bass track, then gave an overview of his Ableton session, presented his favorite synthesizer and explained the effects he created on the various tracks. And a jazz band from the Swiss Jazz School Bern kept the audience enthralled right to the end.

Finally, committee member Eva Crastan thanked the music schools that had taken part in the anniversary tour - school principals from almost all the cantons concerned had made the trip to Berne.

The evening ended with a convivial aperitif dinner. Guests from all over Switzerland and neighbouring countries enjoyed lively discussions, and we often heard toasts to ASEM's next 50 years - we're happy to join in!