What Socrates put into words has had a lasting influence on the history of culture and society within Europe. Still valid in our time, it has been made more topical today thanks to a number of recent scientific studies. Music promotes the free development of the personality. It provides a foundation of values and orientation in an often chaotic and superficial world. The ability to feel music and to express it expands a person’s ability to experience themselves and the world around them. Playing music cultivates a person’s ability to communicate and trains individuals in social behaviour.

• Music schools commit themselves to this educational ideal.

Playing music trains important secondary abilities in a person – abilities, which are also of benefit in other life contexts, for example in professional life. These include concentration, stamina and motivation, creativity, communication and expression skills, social role behaviour and teamwork.

• Music schools further this “added value” of music training.

What holds Europe together at its core is its nature as a cultural space. European musical culture has created a language of music which can be understood by all peoples of Europe.. Musical education helps people to accept the cultural differences which exist in our common world; it enhances integration and the preservation of peace – a process of life long learning.

• Music schools open a door to music for people of every age.

European music culture with its diversity of form and style, is a great common heritage, worthy of being preserved and developed. Music needs to be experienced and understood, deeply felt and grasped in its manifold dimensions.

No technical devices will ever be able to substitute live music as a genuine expression of human vitality. Playing music or listening to live music denotes human encounter, mutual understanding and communication.

• Music schools make music come alive within each of their students.

The development of a cultural identity was granted the status of a human right by UNESCO in 1989. In 1999, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child calls upon us to respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and to encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for creative and artistic activity.

• Music schools play an important part in making these basic rights a reality.

In order to fulfill their important educational task music schools need to

• –  be recognized as public educational institutions
• –  be a subject for which cultural, educational and social policy take responsibility
• –  be granted sufficient public funding
• –  receive broad support from all parts of society.