Background & Findings
In Depth 2 of 3 · Historical Background and Mapping
Background & Findings
An unbroken professional connection with Germany since 1977, five years of systematic fieldwork across the Nordic countries and the Baltic region - and a consistent, well-documented picture of a profession in structural crisis.
Historical Background
An Unbroken Professional Connection with Germany Since 1977
The connection with the Chamber of Skilled Crafts (Handwerkskammer) Vogtland and the Guild in Markneukirchen is both long-standing and well documented - from Arnfred Marthinsen’s own journeyman training to today's systematic mapping and the establishment of the new vocational college. It is this continuity that gives the project its professional credibility.
Marthinsen completes his journeyman training in Markneukirchen, becoming the first Norwegian craftsperson to receive direct training there since the mid-19th century.
Marthinsen's workshop is approved by the Ministry of Church and Education as an accredited apprenticeship training company. Apprentices spend three months each year in Germany, where they receive specialist training and sit their examinations.
The training model is restructured with the establishment of the Music Instrument Academy (MIA). Students complete both their practical and theoretical examinations in Germany, qualifying for the German Journeyman's Certificate.
Under the leadership of Marthinsen, the Music Instrument Academy (MIA) administers the Journeyman's Examinations for candidates from across the Nordic region in Markneukirchen, in cooperation with the Vogtland Chamber of Skilled Crafts (Handwerkskammer) and the Guild.
The cooperation agreement with the Vogtland Chamber of Skilled Crafts (Handwerkskammer) is renewed and transferred to the newly established International Vocational College. The agreement covers students from across the Nordic countries, the Baltic region, and the rest of Europe.
Systematic mapping of the profession across the Nordic and Baltic countries is launched.
An Erasmus+ project (KA210-VET-000030004) is awarded, with the Vogtland Chamber of Skilled Crafts (Handwerkskammer) serving as the project's professional guarantor.
The findings are presented at WHZ Zwickau / Markneukirchen (2024) and at the 24th International Musical Instrument Makers' Seminar in the Old Town of Fredrikstad (2026).
Methodology
Five Years of Systematic Fieldwork
Since 2020, the Music Instrument Academy (MIA), under the leadership of master instrument maker Arnfred Marthinsen, has carried out systematic fieldwork throughout Norway, the Nordic countries and the Baltic region, visiting instrument makers, restorers, repair specialists and tuners.
The mapping has been carried out through individual partner visits to each participating organisation, followed by a joint seminar and continuous project collaboration through monthly meetings throughout the project period. The findings deliberately overlap with those of the Erasmus+ project conducted in 2023. This is not a weakness but a strength: the structural challenges facing the profession do not change overnight, and the fact that the same conclusions have been confirmed across two independent project cycles involving the same named professional network significantly strengthens the reliability and credibility of the documentation.
What the Mapping Revealed
A Broken Knowledge Network
The mapping confirms a consistent pattern across all the countries visited: an ageing generation of skilled craftspeople, almost no new recruitment, a lack of formal education and training pathways, and the traditional craftsmanship associated with national instruments facing a genuine risk of disappearing.
Crafts on the Brink of Disappearing
Several musical instrument crafts are on the verge of disappearing across the Nordic region because new instrument making has all but ceased.
Specialist Services at Risk
Repair, restoration and tuning - the specialist services on which the entire musical community depends - become increasingly vulnerable as the professional community shrinks and is not renewed.
Professional Isolation
There is little collaboration within individual instrument disciplines, between disciplines, or across national borders. As a result, each specialist is left working in isolation, carrying their knowledge alone.
A Cultural Heritage at Risk
Schools for musical instrument making and professional knowledge organisations have disappeared in several countries and now survive only at a critically low level in others.
Findings by Country
Specialist Expertise in the Hands of Very Few
The clearest picture emerges when the findings are examined country by country. Across the region, specialist expertise is concentrated in the hands of individual practitioners, and the consequences are already being felt directly by those who depend on their services.
Iceland
A small and vulnerable professional community in which individual specialists carry entire fields of expertise on their own. The user community is well organised but depends on a very small number of highly skilled craftspeople. The langspil, Denmark's national instrument, lies at the heart of this endangered cultural heritage.
- The only school in the Nordic region owned and operated by musicians themselves offers training in the langspil - yet there is nowhere to learn how to build, repair or restore the instrument.
The country's leading authority is a certified concert piano technician for the world's major piano manufacturers and a specialist in the restoration of 18th-century keyboard instruments. However, the expertise is in practice concentrated in a single individual, making the profession exceptionally vulnerable to generational change.
Finland
Finland has the strongest formal education and training environment for instrument tuning and repair anywhere in the Nordic and Baltic region, yet there remains a substantial unmet demand for qualified professionals. The kantele, Finland's national instrument, occupies a central place in the country's musical heritage.
The Helsinki Conservatory of Music is the only institution in the Nordic and Baltic region that provides formal education in both piano tuning and instrument repair, with tuning students working in close proximity to music students throughout their training.
Capacity finding: Finland has more than 160,000 pianos requiring annual tuning—an unmet demand that far exceeds the available professional capacity.
The kantele craft has been identified as a profession under increasing pressure, with only a handful of instrument makers remaining and very few opportunities for formal training.
Sweden
Specialist expertise is concentrated in the hands of very few practitioners, with particularly strong competence in stringed instruments. The nyckelharpa, Sweden's national instrument, lies at the heart of this endangered cultural heritage.
The only person in Sweden to hold a German Journeyman's Certificate in guitar making runs one of the Nordic region's leading stringed instrument workshops. At the same time, it illustrates that the profession's formal qualifications must still be obtained outside the Nordic region.
Stockholm's two remaining professional woodwind instrument makers are based just two blocks apart, yet have never met or spoken to one another—a striking illustration of the fragmentation within the profession.
Latvia (Riga)
Latvia provides the clearest example of the direct link between the shortage of skilled craftspeople and the preservation of musical culture. The kokle, Latvia's national instrument, occupies a central place in this heritage, while the museum plays a vital role in its documentation and preservation.
One of Latvia's leading violin workshops is run by a single family, with new recruits trained through Germany rather than locally.
The most significant individual finding of the entire mapping project comes from Latvia: the Riga Symphony Orchestra has explicitly warned that it will face serious difficulties in staging concerts unless more qualified musical instrument makers are trained and retained in the country. This provides direct evidence of the link between the shortage of skilled craftspeople and the potential breakdown of musical and cultural life.
- The museum confirms a historical tradition in which museums employed restorers who also possessed the skills to build musical instruments - a craft that is now rapidly disappearing.
Across the region, the findings reveal a consistent pattern: specialist expertise is concentrated in the hands of a very small number of practitioners, many of whom are approaching retirement; formal education in instrument repair, restoration and tuning is almost non-existent; and the impact on the user community is already becoming evident—most clearly demonstrated by the documented concerns of the Riga Symphony Orchestra.
Norway
A Profession That Lost Its Educational Infrastructure
Norway once had a thriving musical instrument industry. The long list of companies that have disappeared tells its own story, but the greatest loss was that their closure also brought an end to the apprenticeship and training opportunities they provided.
1975
The last piano manufactured in Norway was built by Jacob Knudsen in Bergen, marking the end of domestic piano production. Norway has now been without its own piano manufacturing industry for more than half a century.
1980
Marthinsen completed the last traditional apprenticeship at Cappelen Musikk, representing the final genuine Norwegian pathway into the profession.
1994
Since then, aspiring Nordic musical instrument makers have had to travel to Markneukirchen, Germany, to complete their journeyman's qualification.
0
Today, there are no active guilds within Norway's musical instrument sector, leaving no recognised body able to appoint examination boards for journeyman's assessments.
The same pattern can be observed in related crafts. Norway's church organ building sector has declined from an estimated 30–40 active firms to a single remaining company nationwide. This is not an isolated case but part of a broader pattern associated with the disappearance of the educational, apprenticeship and guild structures that once sustained the profession.
Comparative Analysis
Four Systems, One Shared Medieval Origin
| System | Status of Guild and Professional Structures |
|---|---|
| Germany - Markneukirchen |
The historical model. A fully integrated vocational pathway, with examinations administered through the Handwerkskammer and the guild system, combining approximately 30% theoretical instruction with 70% practical training. |
| Poland – cech system |
Formal guilds operate under each Izba Rzemieślnicza, preserving the same medieval tradition. However, the industrial foundation that once supported the profession has largely disappeared, exemplified by the closure of the Calisia piano factory in 2007. |
| Norway | No active guilds remain. The Mesterbrev has become detached from the journeyman's qualification and is now primarily a commercial certification. Norway is currently rebuilding a comprehensive vocational training system modelled on the German approach. |
| Nordic and Baltic Countries |
There is currently no formal education programme for musical instrument makers. The Norwegian initiative, developed in partnership with Markneukirchen, will be the first vocationally grounded programme of its kind in this part of Europe. |
Methodological note. The findings were gathered through partner visits and seminars and are consistent with the Erasmus+ mapping conducted in 2023. Their confirmation across two independent project periods, involving the same identified professional communities, indicates that the observed situation is structural and persistent over time rather than a temporary or isolated phenomenon.
Responsible for all research and documentation · Arnfred Marthinsen & Roger Nilssen