We invite you to the 3rd Instrument Maker Seminar in recent times. The focus of this seminar will be to establish a vocational college in Østfold and safeguard the intangible cultural heritage of the music industry in Norway.

The town of Markneukirchen in Germany has been the city where musical instruments have been built since the 1630s. The town of Markneukirchen has been called “das ist die kvälle für musikinstrumentenbau in den ganzen welt”.

After the music industry in the city was broken after the dissolution of the DDR, the city and the industry have spent 25 years rebuilding, and in 2014 were included on UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage in relation to musical instrument building and all industry-related activities.

Deputy Ûbermeister, Vorstand in Handwerkskammer and city councillor in Markneukirchen, trombonemaker Stephan Voigt, come to tell us about how this has been possible.

The intangible cultural heritage, here it is covered under the term house of musical instruments, contains instrument building, musicians, musical instrument museum, parts production, music shops, wholesalers, orchestras, school bands, acoustic institute, education, seminars, festivals, music competition, etc. These were arenas going back 30 years, a vibrant community that today is on its way to more or less crumbling.