Behind the scenes for professional horn players
Jessica Frossard is a professional musician. At the age of 12, Jessica Frossard began studying horn at the Freiburg Conservatory. She continues her studies at the University of Music (HEMU) in Lausanne in the class of Geneviève Huot first, then in the class of Olivier Alvarez. She also studies natural horn in Olivier Darbellay’s class. She obtained her teaching diploma in 2003, then her diploma of advanced music studies the following year and two years later again, a teaching diploma HEP. She taught for several years in different colleges while continuing to improve her instrumental level and performing regularly at various concerts in orchestra or chamber music. She plays in many orchestras in Switzerland and also likes to go out of the classical repertoire playing jazz, funk, rock, pop, experimental music.
Jessica officially joined in March 2019 the international alphorn group “The Alpine Sisters”. With this ensemble, as a duo and also as a soloist, she participated in the famous Festival and International Competition Nendaz Edition 2019. The Alpine Sisters, in duo won the first prize for the traditional competition, Formation, and the first prize for the modern competition (off). Jessica also won the 3rd prize in solo, modern competition with one of her compositions.
Jessica is also active as union secretary of the Swiss Union of Musician Artists (SMV-USDAM). SMV-USDAM works to improve the working conditions of professional musicians and defends the intellectual and material interests of its members. And it does so in many ways.
Playing the alphorn is fun and beautiful! That’s why it’s good to play a musical instrument. When it’s just for fun, as a hobby, financial questions remain personal and directly linked to the budget you can devote to the hobby.
For me, the situation, or rather the reality, is quite different: I’m a professional freelance musician and I have to make a living from my work. “A fine profession,” some might say, “to make a living from your passion! What a bargain!” And yet, behind the scenes of this “passion” are sometimes far less glamorous.
What it takes to be a professional musician
To be a professional musician is to have started and practiced an instrument from childhood onwards, to have devoted and sacrificed many hours, weekends and vacations to it, to have worked regularly for one’s weekly lessons, to have played concerts in various amateur groups.
Then it’s a matter of obtaining a certificate (practical and theoretical exam) to mark the end of non-professional studies for entry into a professional class at a music college. You need to pass your entrance exam (practical exam: audition and music theory exam (solfeggio, harmony, history and the ability to perform various harmonic cadences in all keys on the piano, even if you’ve never played the piano in your life!) Pass one or more entrance exams to secure a place with a teacher at a music academy (places are sometimes limited to just one, so it’s a good idea to try your luck at several music academies).
After that, the serious business begins: Bachelor’s degree with exams on the main instrument and secondary instruments, music theory exams (solfeggio, harmony, analysis, composition / arrangement / orchestration, …) other practical exams: conducting, chamber music, large ensembles, classical accompaniment, jazz, contemporary music, complex improvisations, …and a substantial Bachelor’s-level final paper.
And then, you move on to one or more Masters courses, depending on the specifications, with exams that are just as arduous and consequential…
Add to this years of experience in a variety of cultural environments, and you have the constant work of maintaining your level and progressing further, creating and sometimes undertaking large-scale projects that involve hundreds of hours of work.
In short, being a professional musician can’t be invented. Talent is only a small percentage, and without hard work and long-term investment, you can’t claim to be a “professional musician”. This reality is all too often masked by the romantic, fun or even commercial image of the musician-artist.
Professionalism has a value that must be respected. It’s sometimes difficult to convey this aspect of the profession, not only to the organizers of the projects we work on, but also in amateur circles.
Falling in the ditch
As professional freelance musicians, we’re tired of begging for fair compensation – even though we’re highly-educated. For other professions with the same level of education, we don’t question the cost of the fee. Even for professions such as plumbers or electricians, we know that the fees are high. We’re also tired of explaining that we don’t have commitments every day, but that we still have to practice every day to be ready in case a commitment comes up, that in the good months we have enough concerts or other events, but that there are months with very, very little. Many freelance cultural workers live well below the poverty line. The pandemic has made this precarious situation even worse.
There is a real gap between permanent salaried workers and intermittent and/or self-employed employees. This gap is mainly due to the short duration of individual contracts which means that freelancers do not meet the thresholds for many social benefits.
Examples of shortcomings in the Swiss system for intermittent employees and the self-employed:
- Loss of earnings due to illness: daily allowances: a minimum 3-month contract is required for the employer to be obliged to pay the musician if he is ill. So if a musician is hired for a short project and falls ill during that project, he or she is not paid.
- Old-age insurance: second old-age pillar (in Switzerland, the first old-age pillar is not enough to live on): freelance musicians do not reach the threshold of CHF 22,680 per year with the same employer. They can set up an optional retirment scheme, where all contributions are collected, but the process is complicated and can lead to dead-ends.
- Maternity leave: a lot of administrative work, which is sometimes difficult to complete. Freelancers with several employers must contact all their employers themselves (for the previous 2 years) and ask them to fill in a form attesting to their working relationship. In addition, you need to have earned a minimum of 5000CHF per employer for the calculation to go smoothly. A freelancer rarely earns 5000CHF with the same employer. It is therefore necessary to initiate a full appeals procedure and provide the necessary supporting documents.
- Protecting pregnant women is one of our core concerns. In Switzerland, laws have been put in place to protect pregnant women and the fetus. This is good in itself. However, these protective measures are not at all adapted to our profession. There are two measures that are problematic: the 85 db limit (average sound pressure for 8 hours) and working between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. for the last two months of pregnancy. The 85 db average is clearly exceeded (as a horn player, when I play alone I’m already over 90 db, and that’s without playing loudly), and we work a lot in the evenings. Failure to comply with these two measures will result in a work ban. For permanent employees, if the employer can’t arrange suitable conditions, he has to pay the loss of earnings. And pregnant freelancers are almost never hired. So there is discrimination in hiring. A motion has been tabled in the Swiss parliament to find a solution so that pregnant freelancers don’t end up on the dole just because they weren’t allowed to work.
A daily headache
Permanent workers have no idea of the daily headaches that freelancers have to deal with, and of all the additional costs they have to bear:
- Instrument: cost of purchase, maintenance and insurance
- Rehearsal space
- Repetition time
- Travel & transport
- Loss of earnings due to illness and accident
- Retirement provision
- Administration, contract negotiations, advertising, etc.
It’s for all these reasons that we can’t just play for fun and give workshops, teach or play at discounted events. The SMV-USDAM (the Swiss union of professional musicians) and the sspm (the Swiss association of music teachers), have tariffs that are easy to consult on their websites.
In the final analysis, we ask the amateur community and organizers to show a minimum of respect for our profession. Especially to those who earn a fixed salary and use our services for their hobby.
Long live the Alpen horn, with its gentle, poetic, warm and majestic sound!
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