Probably the most famous haunted house in Bern is on Junkerngasse, while the largest is on the outskirts of the city. Sounds can be heard in its stairwell. The source of the music remains invisible. Individual light projections illuminate the white of the bare walls. Listeners appear - and disappear again. The scenery seems surreal. What sounds like the plot for a ghost movie is in fact the eagerly awaited "flash! (back and forward)" event organized by the pakt bern network in the former Swisscom building. The building has been empty for three years. Now, at the beginning of December, it came back to life for the first time. At least for one evening. For five hours, members of pakt bern and invited musicians performed in selected rooms of the 19-storey high-rise. One of them: the claustrophobic stairwell. Students from Bern University of the Arts (HKB) performed solo works by Iannis Xenakis, the mathematician among composers.

The 200 visitors - more were not allowed into the building at Ostermundigenstrasse 93 for security reasons despite the large crowds - were treated to their first listening experience as soon as they entered, Ending II. This fascinatingly iridescent, viscous installation, which plays with a multitude of loudspeakers distributed throughout the room, was created by students of the SoundArts course at the HKB on the basis of a composition by Tobias Reber. In the midst of the snow flurries, 19 floors higher, on the roof of the 72-meter-high building, singer Franziska Baumann sent a sublime cloud of sound merging voice and electronics out into the icy cold night. Her command center was a gondola, stolen from a ski resort, which added to the audiovisual magic of the performance.

A veritable panopticon of contemporary music unfolded during the five-hour event, demonstrating the pleasing breadth of the pakt bern network, which was founded two years ago to pool forces in the field of new and experimental music. Almost 60 exponents, all of whom have a connection to the city of Bern, have come together in the association, which is organized on a grassroots democratic basis: Composers, performers, concert organizers, mixed generations and genres. In the network, the classical avant-garde of today's septuagenarians meets the young and wild, improvised meets fully composed, electronic meets instrumental music. "The history of pakt bern is long, but the desire is clear: to think and create music outside the box. The network brings together those who are curious and keen to experiment," says Christian Pauli, board member of pakt bern, an association without a president, nota bene.

The "neue musik netzwerk", as pakt bern also calls itself, caused a sensation back in 2016. A "neue musik battle" was organized in the Sternensaal in Bümpliz, based on the boxing and wrestling matches that are regularly held in this traditional hall. Instead of fighting with fists, the participants attacked each other with sounds. For the first time, a broad audience gained an insight into the wide-ranging spectrum of the club, which brings together all the big names in Bern's new music scene. Even after its short existence, the association has made it a tradition to organize a major event at the end of each year. After the boxing ring, it was now the turn of a high-rise building as the venue.

An almost endless glissando, wrapped in the most beautiful mixture of frequencies, can be heard on the seventh floor of the former Swisscom building. This comes from the composition Chronos-Kairos by the Bernese old master Peter Streiff, produced in 1972 on one of the first portable desktop synthesizers, the "Synthi VCS3". The sensual sound journey lasts 25 minutes and puts the musical perception of time into a whole new perspective. When asked about the pakt bern network, Streiff welcomes the solidarity created by this association. "Despite the wide artistic and aesthetic range, there is enough room for individual orientation," he adds as a characteristic feature of the association.

There was a lot to discover at "flash! (back and forward)". Improvised minimalist saxophone sounds by the Konus Quartet, powerful, instrumentally produced "industrial sound" by Hamburg's Felix Kubin, played live to unknown industrial and corporate training films from the period between 1960 and 1990, or a meditative sound massage by Maru Rieben, which you could enjoy as a single guest in a passenger elevator, complemented each other to form a harmonious whole at this feast for the senses. However, no one who wants to immerse themselves in the sounds of Bern's dynamic music scene will have to wait a year. The Soap-Box concert series launched by pakt bern takes place approximately once a month at the Progr. These are parlor concerts between improvised, electronic and installation music.

The Austrian Music Council (ÖMR) writes that the situation at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna shows how urgently an expansion of training capacities is needed: Austria's largest music university can accept around 45 new students per year in the music education teacher training course. However, there is already a shortage of around 300 qualified music teachers for new secondary schools in Vienna and Lower Austria.

As an immediate measure, a new Master's degree course was launched at the Vienna University of Music in October, which trains lateral entrants with previous artistic knowledge and professional experience to become music teachers for secondary schools. However, this is by no means sufficient to ensure the quantity and quality of basic music education at schools in Austria, writes the ÖMR.

Since a reform entitled "PädagogInnen-Bildung Neu", the training of music teachers in Austria is to take place in close cooperation between teacher training colleges and music universities. In practice, however, implementation has been slow according to the ÖMR. The necessary harmonization of curricula and structures made the negotiation of cooperation agreements a time-consuming challenge.

Jazz club Moods, Rote Fabrik, Musikklub Mehrspur and Werkstatt für improvisierte Musik (WIM) may still sound quite conventional as venues. But Museum Rietberg? Küsnacht cantonal school? The Bürgerasyl-Pfrundhaus retirement home? Surprises are part of the concept at the unerhört! festival. A prime example of the efforts to pull music out of its stylistic pigeonholes and place it in new contexts was the concert by the Kukuruz Quartet at Schlosserei Nenniger during the latest edition. Nomen is more than omen here: the Nenniger locksmith's shop is actually an active craft business. It is located in Zurich's Binz district, a stone's throw away from the offices of Intakt Records, the record label that has achieved worldwide renown in the independent music scene. The machines have been rolled up against the walls and made way for chairs. Pulleys hang from the ceiling. There are more benches on a ramp.

All the seats are taken, around one hundred spectators of all ages have gathered to enjoy a rare performance of Julius Eastman's works. The four pianos needed for the performance are arranged like a crescent moon. Behind them is the huge gate of the locksmith's shop, to the right a rack of colored plastic crates. The Kukuruz Quartet - Philip Bartels, Duri Collenberg, Simone Keller, Lukas Rickli - has dedicated itself for years to re-exploring the works of Eastman, who died in 1990 at the age of 49. His talents as a pianist, singer, composer and lecturer were encouraged early on. The bolder his experiments became, the more clearly he acknowledged an Afro-American, homosexual perspective and gave his works titles such as Evil Nigger or Gay Guerrillathe less he was heard in the New York scene. In the 1980s, he lived for a time as a homeless alcoholic in Tompkins Square Park. It was not until eight months after his death that a first small obituary appeared in the Village Voice. For some years now, Eastman has been experiencing a posthumous renaissance. In the Schlosserei, the Kukuruz Quartet impressively demonstrates how well deserved this is. The compositions may belong to the realm of minimalism, but the fact that the various repetitive "riffs" are performed by four pianos gives them a wonderful sonic opulence, not to mention a groove that lies somewhere between Thelonious Monk and Funkadelic. But there is also room for a captivating piece where the barely perceptible sounds are generated by strings pulled across the piano strings. The audience reacts with great enthusiasm. The sad question remains as to what else could have been created if Eastman had not been driven to the brink of existence and beyond by the conventions of his time.

The unerhört! festival has its origins in the weekly improvisation evenings that pianist Irène Schweizer and saxophonist Omri Ziegele once organized at Casablanca on Zurich's Langstrasse. "In addition to the concerts, we also wanted to create a celebration for our music," Schweizer wrote in the brochure published to mark the tenth anniversary. "This wish was the catalyst for unerhört!" Florian Keller from the unerhört! program group cites the educational aspect as a difference to the Taktlos festival, for example: "We work with schools, with an age residence and make sure that different scenes and age groups come together." He cites the example of the young Zurich saxophonist Tapiwa Svosve, who performed alongside bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake at the Rote Fabrik and at the Küsnacht and Stadelhofen cantonal schools. "Those are truly magical moments," says Keller. "I know from Hamid Drake and William Parker that they really enjoyed it. Because in the question and answer session afterwards, there were also political questions, and so they were able to say in front of 200 or 300 young people: 'This is what we do, this is our story'."

Outrageous! 2017 was once again a resounding success. The idea of a tribute to Thelonious Monk, who was born a hundred years ago, was the common thread running through the program. While the works of Eastman Monk could be traced as an influence, both Irène Schweizer and Mike Westbrook each performed interpretations of his pieces. In addition to Svosve/Parker/Drake and Byron/Ortiz, the London Jazz Composers Orchestra, Aki Takase (piano) and Ingrid Laubrock (sax), Michael Arbenz & Big Band of the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, the band Human Feel and the Stephan Crump/Ingrid Laubrock/Cory Smythe trio provided further highlights with and without Monk references.

315,000 francs have been earmarked to support cultural institutions of cantonal importance. In addition to the music institutions, the Appenzell Cultural Conference, the Ausserrhodische Kulturstiftung, Heimatschutz Appenzell Ausserrhoden and the Schlesinger Foundation are also supported. In addition, from 2018 the Herisau chair factory will be supported with an annual operating contribution by means of a performance agreement.

The performance agreements with the four institutions outside the canton, which are of particular importance for the cultural life of Appenzell Ausserrhoden and for which a total of CHF 24,000 is spent annually, will also be continued. These are the Museum im Lagerhaus St. Gallen, Nextex St.Gallen, art-tv.ch and bandXost.

The existing service agreements for the libraries will be renewed. CHF 60,000 is available annually for this purpose, which will be divided equally between the four libraries in Herisau, Teufen, Speicher-Trogen and Heiden/Grub.

A total of CHF 638,000 per year flows into the museums from the Cultural Fund. The following institutions are supported with an operating contribution: The Appenzell Customs Museum in Urnäsch, the Appenzell Folklore Museum in Stein, the Herisau Museum, the Grubenmann Museum in Teufen, the Henry Dunant Museum in Heiden and the Museum of Life Stories in Speicher. The service agreement with the Foundation for Appenzell Folklore will also be renewed, while funding for museum coordination will be reduced slightly.
 

Doctoral candidates who completed their doctorate between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2017, including the defense, are eligible to apply. The application deadline is March 20. Details on the application conditions can be found at www.smg-ssm.ch/de/smg/News-2018/03-01-2018.html

In 2009, the Swiss Music Research Society awarded the prize named after the Moscow-born Swiss musicologist and organist Jacques Handschin (1886-1955) for the first time. The first winner was the Belgian musicologist Bruno Forment. Giovanni Zanovello won it in 2011, Dóra Kiss in 2014 and Angela Fiore in 2016.

The prize is financed by funds bequeathed to the SMG in her will by the Basel music historian Marta Walter (1896-1961). This legacy also allows the creation of the Glarean Prize for Music Research, which was awarded for the first time in 2007.

We creative artists - musicians, actors, authors, literary translators, filmmakers, cabaret artists, speakers, dancers - whether amateurs or professionals - stand up for a culturally diverse Switzerland.

We want a diverse cultural landscape
The No Billag initiative wants to break up the SRG. The existence of 13 regional television stations and 21 local radio stations would also be threatened. This not only calls into question the free formation of opinion, but also Switzerland's cultural tradition: from folk music to techno, from "Bestatter" to feature films, from crime thrillers to humor festivals.

One thing is crystal clear: purely advertising-financed stations have a massively smaller share of Swiss music than SRG and other fee-financed private radio stations. Genres such as classical music, folk music, jazz or rock would no longer take place. SRG is also an existentially important partner for film and documentary production in Switzerland.

With 146 projects, the music category leads the ranking of funding areas represented, followed by the society/socioculture (65 projects), visual arts (56 projects), stage (49 projects) and film (44 projects) categories. The campaign with the highest contribution was an album production by the band Bianca Story, which raised 91,662 euros from 625 supporters.

Of the 361 projects listed on the channel to date, 273, or 76%, have been successfully funded. This is well above the overall average for all Wemakeit projects, which is 63%. The average amount raised through crowdfunding for the Basel channel is 8942 francs. The average contribution per supporter is CHF 146, which is above average by national and international standards.

In 112 projects, the initiators even managed to raise more than 110% of the original target amount. The city attributes the fact that the Basel region was able to achieve such a top position in the statistics to the cantonal start-up support and advice.

Nadja Räss graduated from the Zurich University of the Arts with Kathrin Graf in 2005 as a singing teacher and has since taught mainly in the field of folk music, since 2009 in her own Yodel Academy. She not only interprets new - mainly her own - compositions, but also sings various types of Swiss natural yodel and yodel songs that have been handed down orally and in writing. From the 2018/2019 academic year, she will be teaching the new major subject "Yodelling" at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

Sarah Buechi completed her jazz studies at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in 2007 with two distinctions. She studied Indian music in Bangalore for one and a half years. From 2008 to 2012, she worked as a lecturer at the Newpark Music Center in Dublin and studied at the Complete Vocal Institute in Copenhagen from 2012 to 2015. She is currently active with her quartet, the duo "Animata" and the "Christoph Stiefel Septett".
 

The completely revised Cultural Promotion Act, which comes into force on January 1, 2018 together with the new Cultural Heritage Act, anchors the division of tasks between municipalities and the canton in line with current practice, clarifies the cantonal priority funding by means of cantonal cultural locations (e.g. Lokremise St.Gallen, Werdenberg Castle) and defines the canton's funding instruments and principles, including cantonal contributions for the direct promotion of creative artists.

As in the past, the amount of the work grants is also flexible in the current call for proposals, can be CHF 10,000, CHF 20,000 or CHF 30,000 and is determined by the artists themselves. In total, a maximum of CHF 260,000 is available for the work grants.

The cultural apartment in Rome will now be advertised jointly with the Canton of Graubünden and the Principality of Liechtenstein every two years. In return, the Cultural Promotion of the Canton of St.Gallen can offer a cultural apartment in Berlin for three months every second year. Graubünden pays a corresponding contribution for the six-month use of the Rome apartment.

The Office of Culture is accepting applications until February 20, 2018. The final decisions on the awarding of work grants and studio residencies will follow in May 2018. Detailed information and the application form are available on the website www.kultur.sg.ch or can be requested by telephone, as can the 2018 funding guide (Amt für Kultur, St.Leonhard-Strasse 40, 9001 St.Gallen, 058 229 43 29).

GfK Entertainment will continue to compile the official Swiss music market data as well as the weekly single, album and compilation hit lists. The Planet Music online tool developed by the company will provide IFPI Switzerland with a comprehensive overview of current trends and developments in the Swiss music industry with immediate effect.

The contract follows a whole series of innovations such as the expansion of the single hit parade from 75 to 100 positions and the introduction of the Number 1 Award in the Official Swiss Hit Parade. Many more innovations are planned for 2018.

GfK Entertainment determines the official Swiss charts and market research data on behalf of the industry associations. At the beginning of 2017, the collaboration with the Swiss Booksellers and Publishers Association (SBVV) was extended until 2020. Other partners include the Swiss Video Association (SVV) in the film sector and the Swiss Interactive Entertainment Association (SIEA) for the video games segment.

Hardly noticed by the general music public, the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) regularly organizes prominent conferences on composers who have shaped modern music and who, ideally, are also guests themselves. The symposium in the presence of Vinko Globokar followed on from conferences on Alvin Lucier, Jannis Xenakis and Gérard Grisey and once again brought together a group of profound connoisseurs and confidants of the composer.

"It's all coincidence," said Vinko Globokar in conversation with Jörn Peter Hiekel, director of the symposium, and Jens Schubbe, artistic director of the Collegium Novum Zurich, about his career. The humorous tone and lightness of touch were surprising. Globokar, a composer, trombonist and improviser, is immediately associated with archaic physical strength or political and social impetus. As a fundamentally political person, he consistently questions the institutional structure of the classical music business, the concert format and the hierarchies of the classical music system in his compositions. Central aspects here are the relationship between body and instrument, composition and improvisation or individual and group. Legendary works such as Corporel (1985) or Res/As/Ex/Inspirer (1973) are devoted entirely to the body or the breath and take performers to the limits of their capabilities.

Globokar likes to quote his close composer friend Heinz Holliger's description that "as a composer, he is like an architect who constructs complicated buildings and at the same time lays bombs to destroy them again". Max Nyffeler (Munich) related this in his symposium contribution and concluded: "Building a precarious situation that can collapse at any time runs through his entire oeuvre." He also emphasized that Globokar's composing is never about exclusive knowledge, but that he composes "inclusively". Many of his works call for participation. Consequently, he is always present during rehearsals wherever possible, for example during rehearsals for Discours II for five trombones, whose performance by ZHdK students set the mood for the symposium.

Jörn Peter Hiekel emphasized Globokar's significance for contemporary music in terms of his world-relatedness towards cultural and political events. This manifests itself in anarchic power, performativity, the inclusion of space or in the essential contribution to the relationship between composition and improvisation.

Sabine Beck (Frankfurt) then went into more detail about this interplay between composition and improvisation. A time factor and an action factor are decisive for the methodological distinction: in improvisation, one decides on the procedure at the same time, whereas in composition, the decisions are made beforehand. Globokar said of the improvisation ensemble he co-founded in 1969 New Phonic Art"Everything that happens now happens on stage; we don't talk about it beforehand, we don't talk about it afterwards." According to Beck, Globokar needs a holistic, self-responsible type of musician who is always also a singer and performer and critically examines the concept of music and society.

Finally, Matthias Arter on lupophone and Vladimir Blagojevic on accordion gave a lecture performance based on excerpts from Septuor par treize sources (2017) presents Globokar with specific challenges for the performers. Globokar's latest chamber music piece, which was performed at the pre-art soloists' evening concert, dispenses entirely with improvisation, demands full performative commitment and uses the instruments almost as an extension of the body.

At the Collegium Novum Zurich concert the evening before, which Globokar presented alongside Mauricio Kagel and Bernd Alois Zimmermann, even somewhat older pieces seemed surprisingly contemporary. In Dialogue about earth for solo percussion (1994), for example, congenially interpreted by Julien Mégroz, is all about water. All kinds of rattles are heard outside and inside a transparent Plexiglas container filled with water, whereby the resonance of various elements is brought before the eyes and ears both visually and sonically, undermining the expectations associated with the title.

In La Prison for eight instruments (2001), on the other hand, Globokar uses grill grates as sound bodies that are visually reminiscent of prison bars. He does not allow the performers to play a single "normal" note appropriate to their instrument. "A piece like La Prison rejects all conventional criteria such as beauty of sound and sound organization," Schubbe said.

"It's the first time that someone has looked at my work with a magnifying glass. I was always happy that some friends found what I do interesting," Globokar said jokingly at the end of the symposium. There is a hint of truth in his subtle humor. His importance for the musical avant-garde has often been acknowledged. However, the ZHdK event is unparalleled in terms of both scope and depth.

Mauch presented Bosshard with the award on the occasion of the Schlippenbach Trio's concert at the Rote Fabrik. The Stadttaler is the City of Limmat's medal of honor and has previously been awarded to Elmar Weingarten and Peter F. Weibel as representatives of the Zurich Festival, as well as to the singer Udo Jürgens.

Fredi Bosshard, long-time president of the Fabrikjazz Zurich association, organized countless top-class jazz concerts in the city of Zurich - including as part of the Taktlos festival, which he directed for the 34th time in 2017. According to the city's press release, he always put art at the heart of his work and managed to ensure that the focus of Zurich as a city of culture was on this sometimes uncomfortable and constantly evolving music for a few days every year.

Bosshard made a significant contribution to the fact that the Zurich jazz scene today enjoys an excellent reputation far beyond the country's borders. He has a large international jazz network, which he has repeatedly put at the service of Zurich's culture.
 

Elmer earned his musical spurs in the canton of Glarus as a conductor and music teacher with the Harmoniemusik Glarus, the Con Brio orchestra and several choirs. He went on to study at the Lucerne University of Music, where he graduated with great success as a conductor.

Mathias Elmer's career continues to soar, the canton of Glarus explains, adding that he is at a decisive point in his career. The canton wanted to support him in these next career steps with the 2018 grant.

For cultural purposes, 36 individuals or organizations were granted contributions totalling CHF 168,000 from the canton's cultural fund by the Culture Commission or the Government Council, or were granted as deficit cover. Three applications were rejected and three were suspended. The cantonal government approved contributions and deficit contributions of 78,900 francs, including for the main concert of the Glarus Singing Society (11,100 francs).

Choirs wishing to participate study Jansson's work Mary IV (Bärenreiter BA 7412), make a video of it, upload it to YouTube and send the link to wettbewerb@baerenreiter.com The closing date for entries is October 31, 2018, and an international jury of choreographic experts will review the entries and select the winners. Three prizes will be awarded:

1st prize: A composition by Mårten Jansson tailored to the winning choir with the possibility of a world premiere, plus a music voucher for €500
2nd prize: music voucher for €300
3rd prize: €200 music voucher

Mårten Jansson (*1965) has made a name for himself in sacred choral music. For over ten years he was the director of Carmen, one of Sweden's best-known female vocal ensembles. The inspiration for his early compositions for female choir came from his work with this choir: "Knowing that what I had written during the night would be rehearsed the next day was a strong motivation for me. Other composers would be happy to have such an opportunity."

Mary IV (Här är din himmel) for mixed choir (SATB) was commissioned by the Swedish Royal Family for the feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. The text is by the Swedish poet Einar Askestad (premiere on March 17, 2013). The music describes Mary's sorrow as the mother of a child who does not belong to her, but to all of humanity.

According to Suisseculture, the adoption of the initiative would not only mean the end of the existence of all SRG media, but also of numerous local private broadcasters that convey and enrich regional cultural life thanks to fees. This clear-cutting would mean "a direct attack on the foundations of our democratic and pluralistic society".

According to Suisseculture, radio and television represent an important forum for cultural creation and are "a vital source of income for cultural professionals and artists from all sectors and from all language regions of Switzerland". Art and culture are dependent on independent, non-profit media with a wide range of offerings such as those provided by the SRG media.