The collection comes from Rolf Ossenberg. For example, it includes around 300 books in various languages that deal with the band. No less important are the reports from newspapers, journals and magazines collected in 27 files, as well as audiovisual sources, writes the University of Freiburg. The latter are represented in the collection in the form of more than 500 video cassettes, which include recordings of television appearances and concerts by the band. The collection is rounded off by audio recordings, DVDs, press photographs, flyers, posters, merchandise, autographs and concert tickets.

The Pink Floyd collection is the second large fan collection of a major British rock band to be researched at the ZPKM: in 2017, the center had already received the Reinhold Karpp Rolling Stones Collection on permanent loan.
 

The Raff Archive in Lachen was recently able to make a rare acquisition. Thanks to good connections, it acquired a book from 1850 with eight original pencil drawings by the Hungarian painter and sculptor Carl Dosnyai, who lived in Weimar from 1848-1850, from the Bassenge auction house in Berlin. Joachim Raff is among those portrayed. The drawing is the first known portrait of the then 28-year-old composer from Lachen.

Franz Liszt, Raff's mentor of many years, was known for his generous support of young artists. Out of gratitude, Dosnyai dedicated "To his noble benefactor Mr. Doctor Franz Liszt" these portrait drawings. All eight full-page depictions show important artists of the Weimar court theater and the court chapel. They were also good acquaintances of Franz Liszt, who led the "New Weimar artists' colony" at the time.

Of particular significance for the Joachim Raff Society is the fact that it also includes a picture of Raff's father-in-law, the director and court actor Eduard Genast (1797-1866), who served at the court of Duke Alexander under Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The other people portrayed were also known or even friends of Joachim Raff. For example, the rising star among the violinists Joseph Joachim, who was later also a close friend of Johannes Brahms. Similar to Joachim Raff's portrait, this drawing is also considered to be the first known work of art by this later successful violinist. The famous baritone of the time Hans Feodor von Milde (1821-1899), the cellist and composer Bernhard Cossmann (1822-1910) and the pianist, organist and composer Alexander Winterberg (1834-1914) are also among those portrayed. Bernhard Cossmann launched various chamber music works by Raff in Weimar during the Silver Age in the 1850s.

The fact that the Raff Archive now has the earliest known portrait painting of the then 28-year-old Joachim Raff in its collections can be considered a minor sensation. Raff avoided posing for painters or photographers as much as possible. That is why there are unfortunately only a few photographs and pictures of him. And those that do exist show him again and again with the same motif, either as a drawing, photograph, engraving or other printing process from his most successful creative period, the 1870s.

As the illustration shows, the young Raff appears in 1850, when he had just begun his assistantship with Liszt in Weimar, surprisingly as an extremely relaxed, self-confident, almost dandyish young artist with an open jacket and shirt and a cigar in his hand. Only five years earlier, Raff had left Rapperswil as a young teacher and thus left Switzerland. In all later depictions, Raff is seen as a serious, sedate, stern, perhaps even worried and thoughtful older gentleman.

Raff, who was always regarded as a scholar, was the only one of those portrayed to write a personal and highly interesting dedication to Franz Liszt on October 29, 1850: "If self-irony reveals a person's sense of humor, it will have to be said of me that I have not rejected its bitterest demands".

The original drawings, including a dedication by Joachim Raff to Franz Liszt, can now be viewed in the Raff Archive during the usual opening hours on Saturdays or by appointment.

Aldeburgh is a good example of how culture can become an economic driver in a rural area. It was once a sleepy fishing village two hours' drive north-east of London. Then, after the Second World War, the composer Benjamin Britten and the tenor Peter Pears settled here and founded a music festival in 1948. This was the beginning of a unique development. Today, Aldeburgh is a cultural destination with international appeal. To the two and a half week festival in June visitors come not only from all over the kingdom, but now also from the continent.

The spirit of Britten, who died and was buried here in 1976, seems to hover over the place. His operas, which deal with the fate of outsiders, repressive morals and harsh nature, were written here, and his name can be found on memorial plaques and street signs. The country house where the two lived is now a museum and home to the extensive Britten archive and the financially strong Britten-Pears Foundation.

The foundation lives from the worldwide copyright income and is mainly dedicated to maintaining the Britten legacy, but also supports various cultural initiatives. In particular, it is heavily involved in the activities of the Snape Maltingsa cultural center on the outskirts of the village of Snape, a few miles from Aldeburgh. This is also where most of the festival events take place. The Maltings: This is the extensive site of a former malt factory, set alone in the open countryside, between meadows and an extensive reed bed. Nature and culture form a unique harmony.

Back in 1967, Britten had a factory building converted into an acoustically outstanding concert hall; even the Queen attended the opening. Today, the Maltings form a cultural cluster with concert series throughout the year, courses for amateurs and professionals, rehearsal rooms, artists' studios, galleries and an infrastructure with restaurants and stores. The whole thing is managed by Roger Wright, former BBC man and chief planner of the London Proms. He plans to significantly expand the international connections in the coming years.

Britten is not only invisibly present in the institutions, but also concretely musically in the festival's wide-ranging program. This year, the excellent young Castalian Quartet played the second string quartet from 1945, a tribute to Henry Purcell with symphonic dimensions. Britten operates here with historical formal ideas and concludes provocatively with the C major chord - tonality suddenly appears in a new, strange light.

The German avant-garde in particular has always turned up its nose at Britten because of such ideas. On the island, on the other hand, he is regarded as a figure of the century by a wide audience - understandable in view of a work such as this quartet, which appeals directly through its emotional power and musical intelligence. Perhaps it is time to take a closer look at this composer's instrumental oeuvre in this country too.

This thought comes to mind all the more in the case of the Holy Sonnets of John Donne. Britten wrote the song cycle after the memorable concert that he performed together with Yehudi Menuhin right after the end of the war. in front of the liberated prisoners in the German concentration camp Bergen-Belsen. The horror and outrage at what he had seen echo in the songs and combine with the inner turmoil of the poems to create a stirring personal confession. This is great art of timeless topicality. The tenor Mark Padmore, supported on the piano by Andrew West, struck the perfect note, and before the concert he engaged in a knowledgeable conversation on stage with the writer Lavinia Greenlaw and the musicologist Kate Kennedy about the songs and their authors.

Loosely moderated concerts by the artists are a trademark of the festival, which successfully strives to break down cultural barriers. The aesthetic horizon is broad, and there is also room for the unwieldy, from Boulez to Birtwistle. Or, as in Pierre-Laurent Aimard's piano recital, little-known works by Luigi Dallapiccola and the pianistically impressive Shadowlines by George Benjamin. The English vocal ensemble Tenebrae marked the opposite pole with works from the English Renaissance, performed with consummate purity and mixed with vocal movements by James MacMillan, who continues this tradition.

In addition to Padmore and the soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan, Thomas Larcher, born in Innsbruck in 1963, composer and former piano professor in Basel, was invited as artist in residence this time. Among other works, he performed the song cycle A Padmore Cyclewhich he wrote to suit his singer friend. Larcher consistently follows his own path between miniatures à la Kurtág and Schubert reminiscences, musical impressions of everyday life and neo-tonal sprinklings. Also in Poems, twelve pieces for pianists and other childrensuch tones can be heard. He skilfully addresses his alpine origins and closeness to nature, the loss of which he simultaneously laments in a manner critical of civilization. He thus proves himself to be a true romantic of our time.

With the competition for compositions and songwriting, the canton is pursuing the goal of promoting music as set out in its cultural concept, according to a press release. In addition to cultivating the tried and tested, experiments are also to be made possible and artistic musical talents specifically promoted.

We are looking for ideas for compositions and arrangements that expand the repertoire of music formations and bands. According to the canton, the composer should define the style and for which ensemble or instrumentation the composition is to be written. Musicians in the styles of classical music, new music, folk music, jazz, rock, pop, electronica and so on are invited to enter.

Composers are invited to submit their applications to the Office of Culture by August 31, 2019. The submissions will be assessed by a panel of experts. From the applications received by the end of November 2019, they will select the projects that are to be realized and performed by spring 2020.

A total of CHF 30,000 is available for the realization. A maximum amount of CHF 12,000 will be awarded per composition. The amount of the grant will be adjusted to the time required for the composition. Detailed information on the procedure and conditions can be found on the canton's website: www.ar.ch/kompositionswettbewerb.
 

The handbook contains articles in German, French and Italian, preceded by summaries in these three languages. The "Handbuch Kulturelle Teilhabe" is available from bookshops and can also be downloaded free of charge as a PDF from the websites of the Federal Office of Culture, the Conference of Cantonal Cultural Affairs Officers (KBK), the Cities Conference on Culture (SKK) and Seismo Verlag.

The National Cultural Dialogue was established in 2011 and brings together representatives of the political authorities and cultural promotion bodies of the cantons, cities, municipalities and the Confederation. Its work is based on an agreement from 2011 and the 2016-2020 work program adopted in April 2016. The political authorities form the strategic steering body of the National Cultural Dialogue with the head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA), representatives of the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK), the Swiss Association of Cities (SSV) and the Swiss Association of Communes (SGV).

Link to download:
https://www.newsd.admin.ch/newsd/message/attachments/57315.pdf

Next Sunday, June 16, the Valais new music duo UMS 'n JIP (Ulrike Mayer-Spohn and Javier Hagen) will perform a concert at the Kunstraum Walcheturm in Zurich together with Eva Nievergelt, soprano, and Walter Prossnitz, piano, to mark the 80th birthday of Zurich composer Maria Porten. Maria Porten is a late-comer: born in the midst of the turmoil of war in Germany, she was initially denied a career as a composer. She worked as a musicologist and professor in the USA, then in Zurich, and finally dared to follow her vocation as a composer at the age of 60. Politically committed, with a sure instinct for catchy and topical texts and a vivid compositional language, she has created a rich oeuvre of over 50 works over the past 20 years. Many of these have been documented by Swiss Radio or recorded on CD. She has been a loyal companion and supporter of UMS 'n JIP from the very beginning: in return, UMS 'n JIP have performed her works in over 40 countries, including at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, at Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart and at the Cairo Contemporary Music Days. UMS 'n JIP are one of the most productive and active new music laboratories of the present day: they have given over 1000 concerts since 2007, performing individual works over 100 times. Their exemplary and sustainable production concept as performers and composers has been recognized with over 20 international awards. With this concert, they are not only presenting a tribute to Maria Porten, but also to the courage to take on new challenges at every stage of life. The concert in Zurich starts at 8 pm.

Further concerts will take place in Basel (today, June 14, Unternehmen Mitte, 8 p.m.) and Bern (June 17, 8 p.m., Ono, das Kulturlokal).
 

The festival attracts around 350 visitors every year "with a unique sound experience", writes the canton. The active promotion of a cappella music enriches the Ausserschwyz music scene, especially as the festival cultivates a cappella singing "in all its different forms and in soundscapes ranging from classical to international folk music to pop and jazz".

For five years now, the "Sing dein Ding" talent competition has also been an integral part of the festival, giving young Swiss a cappella groups the chance to perform in front of an audience for the first time.

The Cultural Commission of the Canton of Schwyz also honored the historian, folklorist, lecturer and cultural mediator Werner Röllin with the 2019 Recognition Award of the Canton of Schwyz. The visual artist and curator Mischa Camenzind also received a sponsorship award. A cultural sponsorship award from the canton is endowed with CHF 5,000.

Tröndle has presented the world's first comprehensive study on non-attendance research. In the study, non-attendees are defined as people who have attended an opera or theater performance or a concert of classical or contemporary music less than once in the past twelve months.

In a first step, Tröndle and his team surveyed 1264 students in Berlin and Potsdam about their leisure behavior, educational background, affinity for the arts and barriers to attending cultural events. In a second step, around 80 participants in the first study, who turned out to be non-attendees, were invited to performances at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Neuköllner Oper and the Schaubühne Berlin. They were interviewed before and after the performance.

According to Tröndle, the results of the study reveal the following rule of thumb: The closer art is to young people, the more likely they are to visit cultural institutions. Closeness must be understood as a multi-dimensional concept: It implies closeness to art through socialization at home, through knowledge about art, through their own artistic activities, through contact with art at school, among friends and when visiting cultural institutions, through their own taste in music and leisure preferences as well as through the range and ambience of cultural organizations.

For the first time, the study shows a differentiated correlation between personal artistic activity and attendance at a cultural institution, as well as the effects of education and social background. Parental education also has a clear effect on attendance at opera, theater, ballet and classical concerts, with the effect being greatest if one parent is a humanities scholar and the other an art or cultural studies scholar or artist. The study also shows that playing an instrument has a positive but not a resounding effect on later attendance.

Time is not the main factor in deciding whether to visit a cultural institution. The opportunity to visit a cultural institution in the company of someone they know is a decisive factor. Personal recommendations and the internet are also key factors in young people's decisions; the traditional daily newspaper feature, on the other hand, has almost no influence. Only 25 percent of respondents were even aware of cultural institutions and their offerings - for 75 percent, cultural institutions and their channels were not anchored in their lives.

For Tröndle, the acceptance and attractiveness of cultural institutions is therefore not about breaking down barriers, but about building proximity. Cultural policy and cultural institutions should develop an interest in attracting every non-visitor to their establishment at least once a year.

According to the German Music Industry Association (BVMI), this is the first time that this has been decided in proceedings on the merits. The ruling is in line with the current case law of the Munich Higher Regional Court, according to which Vodafone must block access to the illegal website kinox.to.

According to the BVMI, structurally infringing websites generally have no legal notice and no address that can be delivered. The operators are interested in offering infringing content in order to generate high internet traffic and advertising revenue by placing banner ads and so on.

With the exclamation Hear it New! as a subtitle, National Sawdust, an organizer from Brooklyn, opened this year's Classical:NEXT. Industry representatives met for the eighth time in the De Doelen concert hall in the city of Rotterdam for four days of intensive exchange. This mixture of international trade fair, conference and concert formats offers the diverse "classical music" sector topics and space. Personal contact, intensive networking and the opportunity to discover new initiatives are what make this conference so attractive for the more than 1,300 participants, regardless of whether they represent institutions with small or large budgets. The joint "Swiss Music" stand offered a large number of Swiss labels, ensembles, festivals and associations the opportunity to present themselves internationally. As in previous years, it was organized by the Fondation Suisa, Pro Helvetia and the Swiss Performers' Cooperative.

For the first time, a Higher Music Education Pre-Conference with representatives of the music industry, one of the rare encounters between education and market providers in the classical music sector. The involvement of universities is essential; the network meeting of the European Association of Conservatoires (AEC) was chaired by John Kieser, New World Symphony (CAN).

The dense conference program included in-depth discussions about the ongoing challenges of the digital market. For example, many institutions and ensembles are still faced with the question of how to achieve successful digital marketing. Streaming the live concert (London Symphony Orchestra)? CD production or a monthly track for fans (National Youth Choir GB)? Podcast, app, rehearsal videos or professional multi-media presence including curated backstage offerings? Clever communication should reach new (younger) listeners, support fundraising (good storytelling is essential for successful crowdfunding) and not neglect the loyal fans.

The goal of all communication efforts is still undisputed: The "live concert" should remain the centerpiece in the future. Critical voices on issues relating to the dark social web or algorithms that cannot be influenced were not heard here.

One focus was on panels on diversity and gender equality. The exchange format "Women in Music Breakfast" (Southbank Centre London) was very much focused on the topic of gender equality. Composers Brigitta Muntendorf and Anna Meredith spoke with Gillian Moore about the obstacles to professional development and ways to overcome them. Both musicians work as multimedia artists, have developed their own ensembles and formats due to a lack of other opportunities and rely on established groups of fans and supporters.

Lydia Connolly (HarrisonParrott) asked whether equality was already in sight on the concert platform. Even though success stories such as those of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Alondra de la Parra and Simone Young are now familiar to a wider audience: In the UK, 5.5 percent of all classical concert programs (listed by the Royal Philharmonic Society) have been and still are conducted by female conductors - a frustrating finding. James Murphy rightly emphasized that it is not time for a change and that those responsible must finally get out of their comfort zones and act if they do not want to continue to push the same old products and programmes onto an oversaturated market as relics of a patriarchal system.

According to Australian conductor Nathalie Murray Beale, rejecting attributions (for example as a "black female composer") is not expedient and costs too much energy. Role models are essential, women should talk about how (difficult) the path to success is - keeping quiet does not help, the public should be sought and used to repeatedly name the inequalities.

In the panel "Composer Gender Equality", Claire Edwardes, Artistic Director of Ensemble Offspring (Australia), also explained that there is simply no reason not to design contemporary music formats and programs in a balanced way. But here, too, reality shows (see Donne Women in Music 2018) that the leading orchestras and concert halls consistently perform only around 5 percent works by female composers.

The conference was complemented by show cases (touching: "Duets with Jim" by Dutch singer Andrea van Beek; full of verve: the Stegreif-Orchester Berlin), evening concerts (special: "Stalin's Piano" with Sonya Lifschitz and Robert Davidson) and club programs (including a Swiss act: reConvert).

This year's Innovation Awards went to the PRS Foundation for its international "Keychange" initiative to achieve a 50:50 situation in music institutions and festivals, Umculo, a Berlin-based initiative for opera productions with South African communities, and the Chilean collective Resonancia Femenina.

The next Classical:NEXT will take place from May 13 to 16, 2020.

From July 20 to 23, 2019, the StradivariQuartett invites you to attend the StradivariCLASS for the second time. What began a year ago with over 30 young musicians taking part will be extended next summer. The members of the renowned Stradivari Quartet Xiaoming Wang and Sebastian Bohren (violin), Lech Antonio Uszynski (viola), Maja Weber (violoncello) and Per Lundberg (piano) will teach masterclasses tailored to the needs of professional and amateur musicians. In addition to the instrumental subjects, solo singing can also be studied. This year, master classes for string chamber music ensembles will be offered for the first time. All master classes take place on the premises of the cantonal school "Kollegi Schwyz".

Participants in the StradivariCLASS will have the opportunity to be judged by a jury on July 18 and 19, 2019 as part of the StradivariCONTEST. They can look forward to attractive prizes and the opportunity to perform at the prizewinners' concert at the Seehotel Waldstätterhof Brunnen. All participants in the StradivariCLASS will also receive a pass for 5 concerts at the StradivariFEST Gersau.

Following the StradivariCONTEST and the StradivariCLASS, the StradivariFEST will take place in Gersau and the surrounding area from July 24 to 28.
 

In the first round of calls for proposals, three calls for proposals were carried out in the area of selective production funding in 2019: in the fields of music, theater/dance and programs by cultural event organizers. A jury of experts from within and outside the canton assessed the applications received and awarded a total of CHF 230,000. The grants go to the following projects:

Theater/Dance (8 applications)
- BAZOOKA BANDI: "Raffzahn Jack und die Rächer der Gartenbausiedlung", 40,000 francs. Patric Gehrig, Julia Schmidt. With: Jürg Plüss, Blind Butcher, Saskya Germann, Michael Eigenmann, Corinne Odermatt, Madleina Cavelti, Sonja Eisl, Bureau Substrat

- Dlaboha and the rope team: "Cytology 1/3 - the performative primal cell", 40,000 Swiss francs. Damiàn Dlaboha. With: Christine Glauser, Moritz Achermann, Lion-Russell Baumann, Judith Florence Ehrhardt, Timo Keller, Gilda Laneve, Elke Mulders, Jules Gisler

- I-Fen Lin: "takes place now", 40,000 Swiss francs. I-Fen Lin. With: Beatrice Fleischlin, Sebastian Elias Kurt, Kim Emanuel Stadelmann, Patrik Zosso, Kevin Schneeberger, Laura Ritzenfeld

Music (21 applications)
- Alois: Release and promo, 20,000 francs. Martin Schenker, Florian Schneider, Lukas Weber, Pascal Eugster. With: Dominik Meuter, Moritz Flachsmann
- GeilerAsDu: Album "Fyre Festival Diaries", 20,000 francs. Luzian Rast, Mike Walker, Fabrizio Zihlmann, Jwan Steiner, Raphael Fluri
- Tanche: Album "Tanche", 20,000 Swiss francs. Christian Zemp, Jonas Albrecht, Elischa Heller, Chadi Messmer

Programs from cultural event organizers (10 applications)
- Konzertkeller im Schtei: "im Schtei im Exil", 20,000 francs. Marco Sieber, Erich Brechbühl, Remko van Hoof, Marcel Gabriel. With: Helen Sieber, Miriam Wicki, Markus and Cornelia Brechbühl, Cyrill Bühlmann, Silvia Fleischlin, Andreas Steiner, Roger and Claudia Bühlmann, Lukas and Martina von Dach, Denise Gabriel, Maria Joller
- aha Festival Association: "aha Festival", 30,000 francs. Christoph Fellmann, Ana Matjasevic. With: Patrick Brigger, Cornelia Kazis, Valentin Groebner, Mikael Krogerus, Julia Reichert

Calls for tenders for selective production funding in June 2019
The second round of calls for proposals for 2019 has already begun and concerns the fields of music, theater/dance, annual programs of publishers as well as contributions to the fine arts and applied arts: graphics and design. A total of CHF 350,000 is available, distributed as follows:

- Grants under the Music call for proposals are awarded for publications that appear from January 2020 and the associated costs for promotion and distribution. A total of CHF 60,000 is available.

- Contributions totaling CHF 120,000 from the call for proposals in the area of theatre/dance are intended to support professional theater and dance professionals and their productions, which will be staged for the first time from January 2020.

- The call for annual programs from publishers serves to promote annual programs from publishers with a cultural focus (in the fields of literature, music, art, design, comics and photography) in 2020 and 2021. A total contribution of CHF 40,000 is available.

- Grants totaling 70,000 francs can be awarded in the call for proposals for fine art. The Applied Arts call for proposals awards work grants totaling CHF 60,000 to artists in the fields of illustration and animation.

A breathing noise, a few flickering sounds, a suppressed scream, an expressionist ostinato figure: Giorgio Battistelli is a master at creating an unmistakable atmosphere with just a few sounds, and in his music theater piece I Cenci announces in the very first bars something of the oppressive feeling that will spread through the auditorium over the next five quarters of an hour. The plot of the four-person play, which premiered in English at the Almeida Theatre in London in 1997 and has now had its Swiss premiere in Lugano, is as succinct as it is brutal. It is set in Renaissance Rome and centers on the corrupt and morally depraved Count Cenci. He rapes his daughter Beatrice, who murders him with the support of her mother and fiancé and is ultimately executed. The evil story is based on real events from 1599, when there was a laughing third party, the Pope. He took advantage of the family's ruin to get his hands on Cenci's fortune, with whom he had business connections.

The material inspired Shelley to write a play in 1820 and Stendhal to write a novella in 1837 in his Chroniques italiennes. Antonin Artaud based his four-act play on these two sources in 1935 Les Cenciand this in turn served Battistelli as a model for his libretto. Artaud exaggerated the story to monstrous proportions, and the fragmentary, short sentences that Battistelli distilled from the original text sometimes seem like stabs to the living flesh. Artaud's idea of a "théâtre de la cruauté", which is intended to bring out the affects in their raw state and freed from all conventions, remains omnipresent in Battistelli's artificial reading. Count Cenci, portrayed by Roberto Latini as a coolly calculating monster, is a libidinous egomaniac who imagines the rape of Beatrice (Elena Rivoltini) as the destruction of her ego. When he monologues about his feelings, he takes over the narrative perspective and we descend with him into the deepest abysses of his psyche. It is at such moments that Artaud's terrifyingly precise view of the evil in man comes to the fore.

Battistelli has artfully split the stage narrative into text, music and scene. By dispensing with singing - the four performers have pure speaking roles - he has created a melodrama that is given a spatial dimension through the use of microphones and live electronics. While the speaking roles distance the action, as in epic theater, the emotional potential of the drama unfolds primarily in the music. It comments on and deepens the spoken word in an effective way, but without any overheating. Battistelli has also included image projections as a further element.

Carmelo Rifici's production benefited from the conceptual openness of the original and tended towards multimedia theater. In Francesco Puppini's video projections, which ran simultaneously on several screens, the actions mentioned in the text and only hinted at in the play were shown as film sequences in black and white. We followed the camera through long corridors, staircases and corridors of rooms in a deserted palace - a clinically clean, nightmarish scene in which the master of the house wandered around like Minotaur in his labyrinth, stalking his daughter and finally hunting her down like a frightened deer. To brighten up the dark perspective at the end, a solo dancer (Marta Ciappina) was allowed to dance her poetic circles as an epilogue in Lugano - Beatrice was not supposed to die.

The spatial sound carefully modeled by Fabrizio Rosso (sound direction) and Alberto Barberi and Nadir Vassena (live electronics) made a decisive contribution to the dramatic intensification and spatial expansion of the action. It arched over the entire auditorium, with a total of over two hundred settings pre-programmed. The voices and instruments were discreetly amplified, transformed in places and moved around the room. Cenci's ominous footsteps in the empty palace circled above the rows of spectators. Francesco Bossaglia at the conductor's desk kept the complex musical progressions firmly under control at all times.

The very well-attended performance in the large hall of the new LAC was a co-production of the LuganoInScena theater association, which had engaged the professional actors, and the Concert series 900presente. The Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana which is celebrating its twentieth anniversary this year, provided the sixteen instrumentalists, all advanced students, as well as the extensive technical team involved in the sound and visual realization.

With Battistellis I Cenci The project was a challenging one, especially when it came to the delicate room acoustics. The fact that it was so successful and that a performance of impressive cohesion was ultimately achieved is due not least to the harmonious cooperation and great commitment of all those involved.

Such public performances of contemporary works have been a significant enrichment of musical life in Ticino for several years. The Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana is continuing the series this year with a performance of Shostakovich's Seventh in a co-production with the Zurich University of the Arts. This will be followed next April by a staged performance of Luciano Berio's Coro for forty voices and instruments, followed by a tour of western Switzerland.

The City of Zurich has set four cultural policy priorities for the years 2020 to 2023: It wants to improve framework conditions, make cultural funding more flexible and test new forms of funding, strengthen the overall view in funding and improve cultural participation.

For example, the city wants to provide more affordable rehearsal rooms for musicians. Individual institutions are to receive higher contributions so that they can continue to fulfill their mission in the future. In order to gain greater scope for attracting private funding, the Tonhalle Gesellschaft Zürich is to be transformed into a non-profit public limited company.

According to the city's press release, cultural promotion also wants to be able to react more quickly and flexibly to new developments. Flexible and contemporary funding instruments should "stimulate innovative, creative thinking and action". Cultural promotion must also review its funding instruments, processes and criteria. This will take place in the next mission statement period with the participation of young artists in a process with an experimental and laboratory-like character. The aim is to test new forms of funding quickly and easily.

The City of Zurich wants to strengthen the overall view of the funding landscape. Institutional and project-related funding are combined and complement each other. The "Dance and Theater Landscape Zurich" project, which the culture department carried out in 2017/18 with the broad involvement of stakeholders, is a model for this. As a result of the project, the City Council intends to introduce a new funding system for dance and theater in the 2020-2023 period. At its heart is concept funding, which will be used to award grants with different durations. This will give new initiatives better opportunities and strengthen the independent dance and theater scene.

The focus on "Strengthening participation, living diversity" from the last mission statement period 2016-2019 will be continued: cultural offerings in Zurich should appeal to as many different groups in society as possible. Among other things, greater promotion of cultural initiatives in the outer districts is planned.

The municipal council will decide on many of the planned measures, and in some cases a municipal vote will be required.
 

The building is planned as a timber construction. The spatial program includes four sound rooms that can be tuned like an instrument. There are also two outdoor stages for outdoor music experiments. The Klanghaus is to be built on the current site of the Seegüetli Hotel on Lake Schwendi above Unterwasser. Compared to the hotel, the Klanghaus will be built further away from the lake. The demolition of the hotel and the special architecture will enhance the landscape conservation area on Lake Schwendi.

60 to 80 participants can use the sound house per course day. Three groups can work undisturbed at the same time. The general public will be able to experience the Klanghaus as part of guided tours. Workshop concerts are also planned, and it will be possible to use the rooms for educational, club and company events on the subject of sound.

The canton is planning the Klanghaus as the client. Klangwelt Toggenburg will operate the house at its own expense. The total cost of the project is 23.3 million francs. Klangwelt Toggenburg will finance CHF 1 million of this. A credit requirement of 22.3 million francs remains for the canton. In 2016, the first project to build the Klanghaus Toggenburg failed in the final vote of the St.Gallen cantonal parliament.