We are living in challenging times. Music schools across Sweden are struggling with reduced student numbers and cut cultural budgets and we are unfortunately no exception. But we know that with your help, we can continue to be a place where children and adults can develop through music.
Nordenfeltska Musikskolan is a non-profit organization, led by a board of directors on a voluntary basis, where the activities are mainly financed by student fees and a small part by operating grants from Danderyd Municipality. The school has a part-time head of school position, while all our teachers are employed on a consultancy basis, the extent of which depends entirely on the student population for each semester. We have no private owners or principals who make money from our activities, but all our income goes directly back into the business.
In 2008 we moved into our premises in the center of Stocksund, which we, together with the municipality, had renovated to suit our needs. After 17 years, we were unfortunately forced to leave the fine premises in 2024. The background to this was a sharp increase in rent from the property owner, who wanted to raise the rent by as much as 300% for our basement premises and 100% for the upstairs. At the same time, the municipality announced, due to the current recession and Danderyd municipality's financial challenges, that they would no longer be able to continue to give us the premises grant we have received since the expensive renovation in 2008. Nordenfeltska Musikskolan has always had a good and close cooperation with the municipality and Kulturskolan, however. However, as we are a non-profit music school and non-profit organization that always balances our costs carefully, the financial burden became too great. This forced us to start looking for a new venue, and with the help of the municipality, we managed to find the East Wing at Djursholm Castle. Although the new premises are more expensive per square meter than the one we had in Stocksund, the smaller area has enabled us to keep costs down.
The move has brought many positive changes, but also some challenges. One of the biggest difficulties has been the new geographical location. For some students, it meant they could not continue, and for others it has meant longer and more complicated travel routes. At the same time, there is a large student base in the new area, but many have not yet discovered us. We have invested in marketing on both Google and social media and in August 2024 we even participated in an article in Mitt i Danderyd, in the hope that it would generate new students. Unfortunately, it has proved to be a challenge to get more people to notice us and find our new premises. Here we would need your help to spread the word about us!
Another factor affecting our student population is teacher turnover, and unfortunately the school lost a number of teachers after the summer of 2024, including our singing teacher Christos Gontevas, who after 10 years with us decided to focus entirely on his songwriting career, and piano teachers Marcell Guerra, who moved abroad, and Natalia Markova, who went on maternity leave. Teacher changes often lead to students moving on, and this was evident this year when several teachers left at the same time.
Another change is that we have stopped teaching drums in our new room. As the East Wing is more responsive than our previous, professionally soundproofed room in Stocksund, the sound now spreads more easily to the other teaching rooms. As the East Wing is an old building, it was difficult for acousticians to guarantee that expensive soundproofing would work well enough. This has forced us to make the difficult decision to stop drumming lessons in order not to disturb the other students.
Together, all these factors have led to the lowest number of students in 20 years!
We are grateful for your support during these challenging times and hope that you will continue to be part of Nordenfeltska Musikskolan's development. Our goal is to be a vibrant and inspiring place for all residents of Danderyd, and we look forward to
to grow together with you.
Big or small - every
contribution makes a difference!
SWISH 123-179 83 54
Suggest partnerships (e.g. with schools) or sponsors that can help us
continue to grow!
