Peter Sigrist comes from a family of musicians. His father was a teacher and organist and his mother's father also practiced this profession. Peter grew up with four siblings in the Maihof district of Lucerne. His father was responsible for playing the organ at the church there and conducted the church choir, a male choir, as was customary in the church at the time. One day, he called his son into the study and practiced the part of the solo soprano with him. Eventually, the nine-year-old took over this part in the choir. This was repeated until he was twelve years old, when the boy decided to stop singing in public. He feared that his voice would no longer hold up.

After his compulsory schooling, Peter attended the teacher training college and took organ lessons at the church music school with Josef Bucher. At the age of twenty, he taught at the comprehensive school in Ebnet, then as a teacher and organist in Ettiswil, a village with a wonderful baroque church, and later also in Dagmersellen. In addition to teaching, he enrolled at what was then the church music school and continued his training as an organist, conductor and singer. "I did it purely out of a love of music and because I wanted to improve myself. I had no idea what my career would be like."
 

In addition to teaching and studying music, Peter Sigrist performs as a lyric tenor wherever he is asked. At the age of 22, he sings the arias from J. S. Bach's St. John Passion after only a short preparation time. "That must never happen to you again," he says to himself. He resolves to only perform well-prepared at concerts in future. During this time, he also practices on the organ for four hours a day.

At the age of 27, he passes his organ diploma with top marks. He now teaches at the Lucerne Teachers' College (music and organ). He also takes singing lessons and voice training methodology at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. He receives more and more engagements as a singer in all the major cities in Switzerland and also abroad. He often sings with his second wife, the soprano Rosmarie Hofmann, and founds the vocal quartet musica sacra.

In 1972, he founded the choir of the Lucerne Cantonal Teachers' College: When his first class graduated, they wanted to continue singing in the choir. From then on, rehearsals took place outside of school hours, every Tuesday from 6 pm. This is still the case today. Only the name has been changed: It has been called the Lucerne Concert Choir since 2001. Initially there were around fifty singers, but then the choir became better known and performed great works such as Le Laudi by Hermann Suter, Gloria and Stabat Mater by Francis Poulenc, St. Paul and Elias by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. More and more people showed interest and wanted to join in. Today, the choir has 110 members. From 1982 to 2014, Peter Sigrist also conducted the Zurich Young Concert Choir and was a frequent guest conductor in Germany.
 

Peter Sigrist retired at the age of sixty and now works as a freelance singer and conductor. As a choir conductor, he likes to keep at it, be it in terms of intonation, language or dynamics. He can inspire. "I do everything I can to motivate the singers. But if a concert is to be a success, it means hard work: practicing, repeating and rehearsing again and again." It is the progress that fascinates him. "Amateurs sing cautiously at first, but when they are confident, their souls suddenly open up. It's incredibly beautiful."

Peter Sigrist will conduct Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Symphony No. 2 (Lobgesang) with the Lucerne Concert Choir on November 12, 2017 at the KKL. It was his wish to perform this work with the baroque orchestra Capriccio. He is not finding it difficult to say goodbye to the concert choir, says the conductor with conviction. He had been preparing for it for two years. Then he adds cautiously: "We'll see what it looks like after the last concert." His music-making will then be limited to playing the piano. "I want to enjoy my newfound freedom. I've always been committed my whole life. Now I want to be free."
 

The culture card was presented at a media conference in the Klavierwerkstatt Liestal. Government Councillor Monica Gschwind, Head of the Department of Education, Culture and Sport, explained that culture in Basel-Landschaft consists of a number of institutions that are well-known to the general public, but also of a sea of countless smaller, lesser-known cultural players.

It is precisely this versatility that can now be experienced in the new online portal with 560 entries to date. The project was made possible thanks to the collaboration between kulturelles.bl and Baselland Tourismus.

More info: www.kulturkarte-bl.ch

In addition to Josep Planells Schiaffino (28), the British-Chinese composer Jamie Man (30) and Feliz Anne Reyes Macahis (30) from the Philippines are the winners of the competition. The jury, chaired by composer Detlef Glanert, selected them for the scholarship to compose new music theater works.

From 2006 to 2010, Josep Planells Schiaffino studied clarinet with José Cerveró at the Conservatorio Superior de Música in his native city of Valencia, graduating with a diploma. From 2010 to 2014, he studied composition with Arnulf Herrmann at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, where he completed his master's degree with Hanspeter Kyburz.

In 2017, he took part in master classes in conducting at the Lucerne Festival Academy with Heinz Holliger and Matthias Pintscher, and in 2015 and 2016 also with Peter Eötvös, Helmut Lachenmann and Peter Rundel. Josep Planells has already received numerous awards and commissions, including for Les Vents Français and Eric Le Sage as well as the Roche Young Commissions 2019 of the Lucerne Festival. He gained his first musical theater experience with Franck Ollu at the Theater Basel and at the Staatsoper Berlin with Wolfgang Rihm's Jakob Lenz.

Christoph Simon was born in Langnau im Emmental in 1972. He initially graduated from the Swiss Jazz School in Bern. He became Swiss Poetry Slam Champion twice in a row in 2014 and 2015. In 2015, he won the "Sprungfeder" award at the Olten Cabaret Days, and from 2018 he will be touring Switzerland and Germany with his third solo program "Der Richtige für fast alles". He has now also published five novels, children's books and poems.

The Salzburger Stier, endowed with 6000 euros each, is the most prestigious cabaret prize in the German-speaking world. It was awarded for the first time in 1982. The prize is backed by the public radio stations in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and South Tyrol, which have joined together to form a radio association. The Swiss jury unanimously declared Simon the winner.

Pezzotti graduated with distinction from the Zurich Conservatory with Claude Starck in 1981. In the field of classical music, he has a busy international concert schedule as a soloist and chamber musician. From 1986 he was a member of the Zurich Opera Orchestra. He was also active as a jazz musician.

As a friend of the Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal, he performed with Pascoal's group in Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Florence, Geneva and Zurich in 1992. This joint work developed into a duo with Carlos Malta, the flautist and saxophonist from Pascoal's group. He has also recorded several times with Andreas Vollenweider and Thierry Lang. In Rio de Janeiro, Pezzotti is a guest lecturer at the International Cello Encounter. He teaches cello at the Zurich University of the Arts.
 

According to a statement from the canton of Uri, Jonny Gisler has played an important role in the Central Swiss folk music scene for decades. He is comparable to the late Otto Truttmann, whose virtuoso recorder playing became famous throughout Switzerland. Jonny Gisler's harmonious compositions, reminiscent of his role model Albert Hagen, find a large audience far beyond the canton of Uri. His humorous character, his modesty and his great musical ability explain his success.

Jonny Gisler has supported the initiatives of the House of Folk Music in Altdorf since its foundation. He has performed prominently at the Alpentöne and the Altdorf Folk Music Festival. With challenging pieces and his melodious, delicate playing style, he has shaped the new dynamic in Swiss folk music.

The "Golden Uristier" badge of honor was awarded for the first time on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Uri Art and Culture Foundation in 2011. It is awarded to personalities or institutions who have created a lasting work and have rendered outstanding services to cultural life in Uri.

Born in Bern in 1924, Huber studied violin with Stefi Geyer and composition with Willy Burkhard and Boris Blacher. From 1964 to 1973, he led the composition class at the Basel Academy of Music. In 1969 he founded the International Composers' Seminar in Boswil and from 1973 to 1990 he was head of the composition class and the Institute for New Music at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg/Breisgau.

His students included Brian Ferneyhough and Hans Wüthrich in Basel, Wolfgang Rihm, Younghi Pagh-Paan, Toshio Hosokawa, Michael Jarrell, Günter Steinke, Dieter Mack, Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, Johannes Schöllhorn, Richard Nikolaus Wenzel and a handful of other now renowned composers.

On the website klaushuber.com, Brian Ferneyhough praises Huber's work as being rooted in both medieval and serial compositional practice. Unlike some of his contemporaries, however, he has avoided "being pinned down to a marketable collection of stylistic characteristics, because each of his works is a highly individual response to a clearly focused and technically precise set of circumstances and at the same time a precise, constantly renewed reflection on the relationship of contemporary musical languages to the real, imperfect world in which they are embedded."

From 1979 to 1982, Huber was president of the Swiss Tonkünstlerverein. In addition to countless other important prizes, Huber was also awarded the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 2009.

On September 29, the Association of German Music Schools (VdM), together with the Federal Youth Ministry, awarded the Media Prize for Good Music for Children for the eleventh time at the WDR Funkhaus in Cologne. A jury of experts had previously selected 15 music recordings from over 150 applications for the list of recommendations. Four productions have now been awarded the coveted Leopold Media Prize, the VdM's seal of quality for particularly "good music for children".

The Leopold was presented by VdM Chairman Ulrich Rademacher and the State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Ralf Kleindiek. Rademacher said: "From the very beginning, the idea behind the Leopold Media Prize was to bring even more 'good music' into families and thus make music accessible to children as early as possible as a lifelong asset. In the current, eleventh competition cycle, producers and publishers, composers and artists have once again convinced and inspired us with their ideas, their commitment to the cause and the quality of their productions. We hope that this enthusiasm is infectious and has an impact."

The Leopold Media Prize has been awarded every two years by the Verband deutscher since 1997. It is considered one of the most important German awards for children's music media.

The winners:

The orchestra mice - A musical fairy tale
From 5 years; Hug & Co. Music Publishers, Zurich

Born in 1989, Roswitha Gobbo is a graduate of the Zurich University of the Arts and works with very different media, combining them in ever new ways. Klanglandschaften is a blog (klanglandschaften.wordpress.com), which regularly publishes recordings of soundscapes from South America. They consist of "acoustic phenomena that occur in one place". These can be natural sounds, speech, work and machine noise as well as music.

Since 2000, the Innerrhoden Art Foundation has been awarding work grants at irregular intervals to promote contemporary art. At its meeting on September 18, 2017, the Board of Trustees unanimously decided to award this year's work grant of CHF 10,000 to Roswitha Gobbo, Appenzell. The prize will be awarded on November 18.

Two of the five projects are cross-cantonal: The four-year pilot project "Book and Literature East+", which is supported by all the cantons of Eastern Switzerland, and the juried exhibition "Heimspiel", which takes place every three years. The other sponsored projects are "Unter Artgenossen" by Kathrin Bosshard's Theater Fleisch + Pappe and Philipp Langenegger's musical reading entitled "Vo Heeme" about Jakob Hartmann, one of the most important Appenzell dialect poets.

In the first half of the year, the canton's Department of Education and Culture also awarded a total of CHF 114,376 to 52 applications. The supported projects are listed in the cantonal cultural journal Obacht Kultur No. 28.

Musically overstretched teachers no longer sing or make music with the children or there are no music lessons at all, the Council explains further. The current education policy debate focuses far too much on the Pisa subjects (reading, mathematics, science). However, the artistic and creative subjects also impart indispensable skills such as creativity, social interaction and creative ability.

The ÖMR calls for a qualitative and quantitative safeguarding of music lessons, the realization of a flexible subject teacher principle for musical-artistic subjects at elementary school, the expansion of music lessons in elementary school to two hours per week, the expansion of cooperation between schools and music schools and the establishment of a music education coordination office in the Ministry of Education.
 

The city of Chur supports cultural projects related to the city. This could be a radio play, short films, reading evenings or a book of poetry. Anyone who launches a crowdfunding campaign on wemakeit and reaches 33% of the funding target will receive the second third (maximum CHF 3,000) from the city of Chur.

The final third must again be raised via the crowd. Romansh projects are additionally supported by the Lia Rumantscha with CHF 1000. The Lia Rumantscha promotes and supports the Romansh language and culture throughout Switzerland.

Wemakeit and the city of Chur are inviting all interested cultural professionals to an information event on the project. It will take place on Thursday, November 9, 2017, at 5 p.m. in the Municipal Council Chamber at Chur Town Hall, Poststrasse 33. Registrations must be sent by Tuesday, November 7, 2017, to caroline.morand@chur.ch or by telephone on 081 254 44 10.

According to the canton, Carena Schlewitt "as a personality has had a unifying and integrative effect with the Kaserne Basel on the barracks site and in the city". She achieved the establishment of a nationally recognized independent theater and dance scene and the preservation of the Kaserne Basel as the most important concert hall for popular music in north-western Switzerland, as well as positioning the Basel Theatre Festival as an important international festival in Switzerland.

Carena Schlewitt, born in Leipzig, studied theater studies at the Humboldt University in Berlin and worked at the Academy of Arts in East Berlin and at Podewil as well as at the Theater der Welt festival in Berlin. She worked as a dramaturge and deputy artistic director at the Forum Freies Theater Düsseldorf and as a theater curator and deputy artistic director at the Theater Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin. In 2018, she will take over the directorship of Hellerau - European Center for the Arts Dresden.

The Basel Culture Prize will be awarded for the 45th time this year. The jury for the 2017 award is made up of Peter Bläuer, Director of Liste Art Fair Basel; Vadim Jendreyko, filmmaker and producer; Marc Krebs, Culture Editor, bz Basellandschaftliche Zeitung; Ellinor Landmann, Art and Society Editor, Radio SRF2Kultur; Felix Meyer, Director, Paul Sacher Foundation; Manuela Waeber, freelance editor, Jeannette Voirol, Head of Cultural Institutions, Department of Culture (Chair).
 

Being the resident orchestra at the Lucerne Culture and Convention Center sounds very good and has inspired the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra (LSO) for years. In everyday rehearsals, however, the musicians feel little of this glow. The rehearsal room is dark, the air is bad and the acoustics are completely inadequate. The orchestra has therefore been looking for a suitable home for years. Now it has come very close to achieving this goal with this project: A rehearsal house is to be built in Kriens, right next to the new Lucerne School of Music building and the Südpol cultural center, which also houses the Lucerne School of Music and the Lucerne Theater. The rehearsal house will also serve as a center for "children's and youth projects and a kind of competence center for inclusive music education", provide rehearsal rooms for LSO musicians and be open to other institutions. Now, as Numa Bischof Ullmann was delighted to announce at the press conference on September 26, the Foundation for the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra will sign the building lease agreement with the City of Lucerne and the Südpol condominium owners at the end of the week, the building application should be submitted by the end of the year, the ground-breaking ceremony is expected in spring and the new "workspace" should be ready by the end of 2019. A kind of "music campus" will be created at Südpol, where different generations will meet, training, professional life and amateur music-making will cross-fertilize each other and musical styles will merge.

The winners of the architectural competition were Enzmann Fischer & Büro Konstrukt AG, Lucerne, the same team that is also realizing the new HSLU building. The focus is on the functional character of the orchestra building. It stands on stilts in order to preserve the parking spaces. On the first level there are 10 individual rehearsal rooms, on the second 3 register rehearsal rooms and finally on the third the rehearsal hall with an average height of 10.5 meters and a cubic volume of 3900 cubic meters. There will be no other room of this size on the campus, making it very attractive for other users. Applied Acoustics GmbH from Gelterkinden is responsible for the acoustics. The schedule roof not only fits in well with the industrial environment, but also has a positive effect on sound distribution thanks to the ceiling sails.

Image: LSO / Enzmann Fischer & Büro Konstrukt AG, Lucerne

Rehearsal room

It is therefore intended to be a functional building that optimizes the orchestra members' rehearsal and practice routine, provides a home for the orchestra and creates space for the versatile educational work. Details of the operating costs will be announced at a later date. Private patrons and benefactors have already pledged 5 million towards the total construction costs of 8 million - a wonderful sign of the extraordinary solidarity of the people of Lucerne with their orchestra. Numa Bischof Ullmann, who is responsible for fundraising, is very grateful to them all. A crowdfunding campaign is also planned, which will culminate in the "Every seat - a building block" benefit concert on June 8, 2018. 75% of the tickets have already been sold and 100% of the proceeds will go to the new building. Should the public sector wish to contribute financially to the LSO building project, it would be welcomed with open arms.

So the days of rehearsing in stuffy, poor-sounding halls should soon be numbered. And not only that. It will be interesting to see how the relationships in the South Pole develop. As we all know, 1+1 makes more than 2 - may the Südpol triad develop into a polyphonic harmony.
 

Martin Maria Krüger, President of the German Music Council, explains that the importance of digitalization for culture and music in particular must be brought further into the focus of public debate. The joint interjection with Austria and Switzerland is an important impulse for the socio-political positioning of music and cultural life in the digital age.

Behind the interjection are Harald Huber, President of the Austrian Music Council, Stefano Kunz, Managing Director of the Swiss Music Council, Irène Philipp Ziebold, President of the Swiss Music Council, Martin Maria Krüger, President of the German Music Council, Christian Höppner, Secretary General of the German Music Council, and Paul Hertel, Vice President of the Austrian Music Council.

The interjection:
1. opportunities and challenges: the digital age offers both fascinating opportunities and fundamental challenges for our societies.
2. the digital age is first a cultural challenge and then a technological challenge.
3. media literacy is above all a cultural competence. At present, digitalization is treated almost exclusively from a technological point of view. It is not enough to equip classrooms with computers.
4 Artificial intelligence, the increasing virtualization of living environments and technological developments harbour potential for change for individuals and for coexistence in our societies. This includes changes in our own perception, in the perception of others, in communication and in reception behavior.
5) The digital age offers new opportunities to promote awareness of the immaterial and material value of creative work (oxygen of society). This also includes the transformation of analog business areas into the digital world.
6 The digital age inspires analogue life and vice versa: The fascinating possibilities of digitalization are giving rise to a new desire for analogue discovery.