MCV attended the seminar today Jazz musicians all over Europe unite! at Jazzahead, where the results of a new major survey were presented.

When the stages are closed - clubs, concert halls and festivals - the jazz actors have been hit particularly hard:
1) The working conditions for practitioners are very fragile, often without any forms of employment at the bottom, which makes safety nets very weak.
2) Musicians are generally dependent on working internationally, which has been impossible during the pandemic.
3) In addition, there are generally relatively low levels of cultural support for the organizers.

Despite the fact that the governments of many countries have pushed for crisis support, many musicians are still very hard hit.

A European collaboration between fourteen jazz music collecting organizations (including the Association of Swedish Jazz Musicians and Swedish Jazz) took shape in May 2020. After monthly meetings, a common cause was made in December last year - a European survey was conducted and the results and analysis of this survey were in focus. at today's seminar.

Those who presented the survey were Urs Johnen from the German Jazzunion, Fleurine Mehldau from BIM, the Dutch jazz organization and Pedro Cravinho from the Portuguese jazz network (as seen in the picture above).

The survey in fast (scary) figures:
1500 musicians from 23 countries have responded.
80% of the respondents are men.
73% are musicians who play live, 24% are also teachers.
72% are freelancers, 16% employees (eg big bands or radio orchestras).
82% are full-time musicians, 12% part-time musicians.
91% have had less than 20 gigs in the year 2020, most just a few.
53% assume that they will stop being professional musicians and change jobs after the pandemic.
Only 38% believe that they will continue with their profession as musicians.

(As soon as we find a link to the survey, we will publish it here!)

Invited to the seminar were Barbara Gessler, Head of the EU Creative Europe Cultural Program, European Commission.

Gessler said that a new program, which will be aimed at supporting the music sector, will be launched within a month (something that will take over after the Music Moves Europe program).

Gessler expressed that it is good and appreciated by the EU that jazz musicians organize themselves in Europe. Even more important, however, is to be able to speak with one voice for the entire musical life, according to Gessler. She says that both the Commission and Parliament are very aware that the music sector is particularly hard hit during the pandemic.

Also participated Franz Romeo, Vice-Chair of the European Parliament's Culture and Education Committee, also a musician.

He believes that the survey shows that the pandemic has hit the music sector enormously and that the situation can almost be described as a disaster.

The representatives of the organizations told the EU that it is fantastic with these large crisis support from both nations and the EU, but that the survey clearly shows that there is relatively little support that reaches the most vulnerable: freelancers.

How can the EU support musicians and help improve conditions?

Romeo recalled the direct funds that still exist for the music sector (Music Moves Europe) but noted that the large funds go to the countries' own institutions and authorities that are much closer to the practitioners.

Gessler recalled that the EU today provides support for networks, such as Europe Jazz Network and the importance of gathering broadly. She also referred to FIA, the European Association of Musicians' Associations.

In conclusion, the seminar organizers encouraged all musicians to join and get involved in their jazz organization.

Going Public: Putting Together a Promotion Plan that Works

Folk Alliance International assembled a panel with global focus, solid industry knowledge and experience. An inspiring and hopeful seminar where everyone agreed: Start with the Art!
Start with art in other words - the expression, the arrangement, the text, every word and tone is important. Twist and turn, ball with colleagues and friends! How do other artists who succeed in getting media attention? A tip is to follow them, subscribe to their mailings and pages on social media, follow them on Spotify, then maybe they will start following you. Be inspired by others!
There was also talk of a career plan and building a team around the business, about media communication and budget distribution.
Here you can see all the Folk Alliance seminars and the above can be seen in full here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9B5DaWL1a8

Watch out after Folk Alliance seminars and subscribe to their newsletter to learn more and participate in upcoming webinars!

MCV's Lasse Franck was in (digital) place when the Riksting for Western art music was held on 23 March. It was a very eventful morning whose cultural-political ingredients were highly relevant to all musical genres - not just to art music. One of these ingredients was the Music Center's survey.

Susanne Rydén, preses i Kungl. The Academy of Music and CEO of Music in the South, began by telling about the initiative Singing children. She declared the National Agency for Education incapable of considering aesthetic subjects as areas of knowledge - aesthetic subjects no longer give credit points at upper secondary school level and it is now proposed that the student's choice should be removed from the compulsory school curriculum. In addition, the positive influence of music is not used in other subjects, even though research clearly shows that it promotes brain development and learning.
- How many studies on the positive impact of classical music on study peace and concentration need to be presented before we trust the results? Should we not take the signals seriously when higher education institutions such as the Stockholm School of Economics initiate courses in aesthetic areas to promote creativity - precisely because the students are not equipped with this in their previous schooling, Rydén asked.

Research and principals can promote music education
In the ensuing discussion, the moderates' education policy spokesperson pressed Kristina Axén Olin that the music lessons are few in comparison with other subjects and that we in Sweden have fewer lessons than in, for example, Denmark. She also believes that there are all opportunities to create good conditions for music teaching even if the student's choice should disappear and that it is largely up to each school's management and principal.
The Social Democratic chairman of the Education Committee Gunilla Svanstorp noted that many music teachers are worried about their services and think that politicians listen too little to research.
Axén Olin and Svanstorp agreed that research results and good examples need to be made visible and disseminated before Rydén concluded with the hope that a significant part of the country's principals will be present the next time the matter is discussed.

The cultural journalist, the musician and the music teacher Sofia Lilly Jönsson read his written and much appreciated speech You are the song. About the song as an emergency.

Can the live wind music live?
Noomi Hedlund gave a speech about the future of wind music, which began with a look back where she stated that it had been threatened for a long time, that warning signals and alarm reports had been heeded, but that the negative development still seemed to continue. 50 years ago there were more than 30 professional wind ensembles - today there are only nine.
- If nothing is done now, we risk going to an increasingly quieter, grayer and more and more digital society where some wind instruments are only left in archives from a bygone era, said Noomi, whose speech can be read in full here.

Music life after the pandemic
Svensk Scenkonsts VD Mikael Brännvall talked about life after the pandemic and expressed optimism about the audience's return to the scenes. He does not believe that there is any risk that the consumption behavior forced by the pandemic - where we experience most things through screens - will continue. However, he expressed concern about the performers and took up the Music Center's survey which shows that every third musician is considering leaving the profession. He was also concerned that children and young people have now missed half of the school stage's encounters with culture.
Brännvall further stated that there is a lot of talk about what music and music life now needs to get from the state and said that it is equally important to turn it around and ask the question what music can give society when it is to recover.

United cultural politicians self-critical
The cultural policy spokespersons for all parliamentary parties then participated in a panel discussion, exemplified by Noomi Hedlund. The members of the Culture Committee show great agreement across party lines and seem to agree that the current situation has highlighted shortcomings in the social insurance system that must be remedied and created new pressure for it to work for combiners as well. As well as that they must do more to increase security for free actors - for example through investments in the center formations and cultural alliances.
Lawen Redar (S) stated that scholarships are not sickness benefit qualifying. But maybe they should be?

Christer Nylander (L) said that the restart investigation must be offensive and followed up properly. Viktor Wärnick (M) took the opportunity to mention the proposal for a 70% cost coverage for canceled events that his party raised and which the week after the Riksdag was presented by the government.
Everyone was also worried that fewer people were applying to the music academies' educations.
- It is not a cultural or educational policy issue - it is a societal issue, said Nylander who also claimed that digitalisation is admittedly necessary but not the solution to much or the future of Swedish culture.
While politicians now realize that they need to improve support and security systems, and adapt them to the conditions of cultural workers, they believe that cultural life itself also has lessons to be learned - for example about how to contract each other.

Riksting for Western art music is arranged by Kungl. The Academy of Music in collaboration with the King. The Academy of Music and Swedish Performing Arts.