Shoichi Yabuta won the competition with his string quartet "Billow". The 32-year-old studied composition at the Tokyo College of Music and won (among numerous other awards) the Vienna Konzerthaus Prize in 2013. He has also studied the traditional arts of Japan intensively.

The Audience Award (1500 francs), the Young Audience Award and the Student Award (1000 francs each) went to 20-year-old South Korean Sunghyun Lee. The Otto and Regine Heim Foundation Prize (3000 francs) was awarded to Aderito Valente from Portugal.

The jury of the 70th Concours de Genève consisted of Michael Jarrell (President), Pascal Dusapin, Luca Francesconi, Dai Fujikura and Wolfgang Rihm.
 

Swiss independent labels and artist management companies such as Two Gentlemen in Lausanne and Bakara Music in Zurich do a lot for the Swiss music scene. However, they are operating in a difficult economic environment. Migros Culture Percentage has therefore been involved in promoting labels and artist management since 2006. The supported labels and management receive contributions of between CHF 10,000 and CHF 50,000. Philipp Schnyder von Wartensee from Migros Culture Percentage explains: "The music managers and agents do indispensable work in the background for artists such as Sophie Hunger, Lo & Leduc or Fai Baba. The aim of label promotion is to strengthen the chances of survival and professionalization of these structures."

The winners will be announced on April 16, 2016 in Zurich as part of the m4music festival.

The Tage Neuer Musik in Weimar is a small but fine festival that bravely flies the flag of new music in the midst of the museum-like comfort of the German capital of classical music. Artistic director Michael von Hintzenstern has been cultivating experimental sound art in Thuringia not only since the fall of the Berlin Wall, which is also reflected in his own ensemble with the programmatic name Ensemble for Intuitive Music, which owes decisive inspiration to his earlier collaboration with Karlheinz Stockhausen. 

This year's edition of the festival once again focused on improvisation, composition and live electronics and was dedicated to "Sound Axes: Switzerland-Germany" from October 28 to 31. The remarkable thing about it: it was mainly young musicians and composers from the Swiss universities who left their mark on the Weimar festival!

The first performance was given by the zone expérimentale Basel ensemble, which is made up of students from the Basel Master's degree program in contemporary music. Hannah Walter (viola), Pedro Pablo Cámara Toldos (saxophone), Carlota Cáceres (percussion) and Haize Lizarazu (piano) performed not only pieces by established composers such as Heinz Holliger, Toshio Hosokawa and Michael Beil, but also more recent works in a colorful opening concert: Jose Pablo Polo staged a new piece in Better out than in (2014) created a percussive noise choreography as "instrumental theater" around the piano; the Basel-based Martin Jaggi knitted a Strata (2010/11), a polyphonic network based on the similarity of the different or the approximation of the instruments' sound colors (through alienation).

The Berlin pianist Frank Gutschmidt had compositional gems from the former GDR and Switzerland in his luggage: filigree-poetic pieces, also involving the piano's interior, which revolved around the poetry of Trakl, Nietzsche and Silvia Plath and left the framework of a conventional "piano recital" far behind. Holliger's Ellis - Three night pieces for piano (1961/62) and Beat Furrer's Voicelessness. The snow has no voice (1986) were juxtaposed with compositions by Christfried Schmidt (born 1932) and Georg Katzer (born 1935). Schmidt's virtuoso Moments musicaux (1976) also made the pianist the reciter of Nietzsche's late work, Katzer's Dialog imaginary No. 2 (1986) entangled Gutschmidt in a dialog with a layer of tape.

The interaction of live electronics and instrumental sound is also an essential aspect of the Ensemble for Intuitive Music Weimar (EFIM), which for over 30 years has dedicated itself to music that is "only created in the moment of performance". Under the title Instant Composing the "hosts" Michael von Hintzenstern (piano), Matthias von Hintzenstern (cello), Daniel Hoffmann (trumpet/flugelhorn) and sound director Hans Tutschku (electronics) teamed up with Hannah Walter, Pedro Pablo Cámara Toldos and Françoise Rivalland to explore the border areas of open form and guided improvisation, which provoked very different results between the poles of two-dimensional silence and eruptive outbursts.  

Photo: saTo2015

Françoise Rivalland explains cymbalom techniques to the audience

Françoise Rivalland presented a rousing solo program in which the percussionist, vocal performer and director, who is currently a professor of musical theater at the Bern University of the Arts, pulled out all the stops of her wide-ranging skills. In addition to arrangements for cymbalom of pieces by György Kurtág and John Cage, Rivalland delighted the audience with super-precise, explosive performances of several vocal pieces by George Aperghis, with whom she has a close musical-theatrical collaboration. Also enchanting was a bundle of various Schwitters texts, in which her self-made "Esperou" was used, a mixture of string and metal instrument, which is capable of merging amazingly different timbres (including almost electronic ones); Schwitters also Ursonata has not been heard for a long time in such a nuanced and rhythmically gripping way. 

The inclusion of the Bauhaus University's Studio for Electroacoustic Music (SeaM) under the direction of Robin Minard is a welcome tradition at the festival. This time, the students themselves were also allowed to take to the controls and, together with their "colleagues" from the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) and the Zurich University of the Arts, presented their latest works. It would be unfair to single out any of the multi-layered pieces by Kenn Mouritzen, Ursula Meyer-König, Carlos Hidalgo (Zurich), Paul Hauptmeier, Martin Recker, Mikhail Yarzhembovskiy and Andreas Vorwerk (Weimar). It was striking that the works from the Swiss studios were mainly based on the transformation of analog sound objects, while the Weimar-based artists took a more "narrative" approach and presented hybrid soundscapes made up of digital sound, voice and field recordings. 

Photo: saTo2015

Hans Tutschku

The activities of the ICST, which aims to bring aspects of scientific and artistic research, digital technology, media art and musical practice into a fruitful dialog, were also the focus of the remarkable final concert. Germán Toro Pérez (current director of the ICST), Carlos Hidalgo, Hans Tutschku, Karin Wetzel and Florian Bogner had conceived pieces that transformed virtuoso solo parts with live electronic real-time processing into multidimensional sound spaces. This took place as particularly impressive, heterogeneously vibrating "spatial music" in Pérez' Signos Oscilantes - confused and wavering (2012) thanks to a great, incredibly accentuated performance by Alejandro López (saxophone). But Hugo Queirós (bass clarinet) also proved himself in the complex lineaments of Hans Tutschku's Interlaced 1 (2014) as a totally present acoustic sculptor of a jagged soundscape in productive exchange with the sound direction. It was precisely the indifferent intermediate areas of sound and noise, electronics and instrumental gestures that opened up spaces for a sound poetry beyond tangible categories.

With the honorary doctorate, the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cologne is recognizing "Haas' special academic and scientific achievements", according to a statement from the University of Basel.

Born in 1943, Max Haas studied musicology, medieval church and dogmatic history and Slavic philology in Basel and Heidelberg. He received his doctorate from the University of Basel in 1970 with a thesis on Byzantine and Slavic notation. Seven years later, he habilitated with studies on the relationship between medieval musicology and scholasticism. At the University of Basel, he was head of the microfilm archive of the musicology department and, from 1982, associate professor of musicology.

In the 1990s, he was a guest lecturer at Bar Ilan University in Israel and at the Graduate Department of the City University of New York in the USA. Until his retirement in 2005, he worked as a research assistant and lecturer at the Department of Musicology at the University of Basel. His most recent monographs deal with forms of perception and thought in music (2002) and musical thought in the Middle Ages (2005).
 

For twenty years, Robert Kolinsky has been organizing the Martinů Festival in Basel, with which he aims to raise international awareness of the work of Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959). In 2015, the 125th birthday of the Czech composer, who lived in Switzerland at the end of his life and died in Liestal, was and is being celebrated not only in Basel but also elsewhere. In February, for example, the Zurich Opera House staged a new production of the opera Juliettethe Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich the Rhapsody-Concerto for viola and orchestra or the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande Les Paraboles.

The 21st Martinů Festival from November 15 to 29 will be held under the patronage of Federal Councillor Alain Berset, conductor Mariss Jansons and Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State. It will open with a concert by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tomáš Hanus, which will give Bohuslav Martinů's Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5 their Brahmsian Academic festive overture in front. The Basel Marionette Theater has shows for children aged eight and over Who is the most powerful on earth and the Hagen Quartet combines works by Mendelssohn, Kurtág and Martinů in a chamber music concert. There will also be cabaret (Duo Calva) and jazz. The festival is rounded off with the traveling exhibition Bohuslav Martinů - Life and work by Sibylle Ryser and Gabriele Jonté.

Further information and program: www.martinu.ch
 

In the end, the performance of the young MKZ band from Zurich's Seefeld district stood out from many very good performances, writes the city of Zurich in a press release. With their slightly melancholy original compositions and their extremely compact playing style, the four teenagers won over both the audience and the jury.

The prize money is provided by the MKZ Foundation and is tied to a musical use, be it for training or to finance recording sessions. Although no sponsorship prize was awarded in the solo category, foundation and jury president Andrea F.G. Raschèr saw only winners on the stage of the Kanzlei-Club: "It is fascinating to see how high the standard is in the various categories of popular music at MKZ."
 

Arthur Lourié (1892-1966) is one of the great unknown composers of the 20th century. He belonged to the Russian avant-garde, later worked for Igor Stravinsky and was enthusiastic about Debussy and Busoni. His music combines the traditional (and archaic) with experimental, sometimes even post-modern concepts in an original and personal way. Many of his vocal works, most of which are still unknown, breathe the rich spirit of the "Silver Age", the artistic epoch in the early 20th century when Russia entered the threshold of modernity.

The highlight of this year's Lourié Music Days in Basel is the concert on November 6 at the Gare du Nord. Sasha Boldachev will be playing the Cinq préludes fragileswhich he arranged for harp. The Asasello Quartet then performs the 1st String Quartet, composed in 1915.

Robert Koller, bass-baritone, and Saori Tomidokoro, piano, perform six late songs for the first time worldwide. These are the following works for baritone and piano: Two Poems (1941/after James Joyce), Ave Atque Vale: Three Dionysus dithyrambs after Fr. Nietzsche (1948) and Serious hour (1959/after Rilke). The concert is rounded off with a suite based on the ballet music from The Moor of Peter the Great (1949-61) arranged for harp by A. Boldachev, also a world premiere.

The Arthur Lourié Society Basel has been committed to the dissemination and understanding of the works of the composer Arthur Lourié since 2005. The artistic director of the 9th Music Days, which will take place from November 2 to 6, is Stefan Hulliger.

www.lourie.ch
 

The final of the competition organized by HypoVereinsbank took place on November 2 on the big stage of Hamburg's Mehr! in front of 1500 spectators. The jury awarded two first prizes: one to the vocal quartet Dezibelles and the other to the six singers of the Leipzig ensemble Sjaella. While Sjaella represented the classical genre, Dezibelles impressed, according to the jury, "with folkloristic sounds, classical singing and pop elements as well as their refreshing choreography". Other finalists were the vocal ensembles HörBänd from Hanover, [SYʼZAN] from Mannheim and Blended from Berlin/Dresden/Stuttgart/Hamburg.

At the preliminary round in Berlin on September 29, Dezibelles won both the jury and the audience award. The four singers Andrea Fischer, Rebekka Bräm, Mélanie Lacroix and Anna Liechti met in the Zurich Youth Choir and have been pursuing a solo career since 2009.

HypoVereinsbank's Jugend kulturell program has been in existence since 1981, and the Jugend kulturell sponsorship award, which is endowed with 20,000 euros, has been awarded annually in the categories "Musical", "A Cappella", "Cabaret & Co." or "Pop Music" since 1994.
 

The bow is said to have once belonged to the violinist Bronislaw Huberman, the founder of the Israel Philharmonic. It is marked with his initials. It was sold by an unnamed violinist.

The Frenchman Tourte, who died in Pars in 1835, is regarded as the "Stradivarius of the bow". He holds a similarly prominent position for the bow as the legendary violin maker does for the violins themselves. He shaped the nature of the violin bow with technical innovations that still puzzle historians today. Tourte must have had very unusual mathematical knowledge and measuring skills for his time.
 

The organizers are looking for new ideas for church services and churches. The competition tasks also require two presentations, which will be uploaded to the website as a video. www.klangundgloria.ch The following are to be uploaded: the arrangement of a hymn and the creation of a text. The style can be freely chosen. The competition is aimed at committed amateurs and aspiring professional musicians as well as performers of other arts aged 18 and over.

With the competition, the organizers want to "draw attention to the diverse artistic and professional opportunities in church music. The ZHdK and other Swiss universities offer various attractive study programs in the field of church music. The parishes and parishes of the two regional churches offer interesting career prospects in the field of choir conducting and organ, as many positions are being filled due to retirements."

Beat Schäfer presides over the jury, which includes Burkhard Kinzler, Eugenio Giovine, Lislot Frei, Meinrad Furrer and Fabian Müller.

The website www.klangundgloria.ch provides information about the competition tasks and conditions of participation. Participants should upload their competition entries there by March 31, 2016 at the latest. The winners' concert will take place on May 28, 2016 in the lecture hall of the ZHdK.

www.klangundgloria.ch
 

The Grand Council Committee for Education, Culture and Sport (BKS) discussed the 2016-2019 task and finance plan and the relief measures in the BKS area in detail. In addition to the funding cuts for the board of trustees, the committee rejected the reduction in the number of independent lessons at elementary school and instead wants to cut the three lessons of early English in Year 3 at elementary school.

The Aargau Board of Trustees is the specialist body appointed by parliament and the cantonal government to decide on funding measures and awards in the field of current artistic creation in the canton of Aargau. It "promotes the diversity, quality and vitality of artistic creation, supports the creation of outstanding works and the examination of them, creates space for creative processes and the exchange between artists and the public as well as between artists".

The results of the Commission's deliberations and the proposals will now be forwarded to the Commission for Task Planning and Finance (KAPF). As the lead committee, the KAPF will examine the task and finance plan, including all relief measures, from a financial policy perspective. The KAPF is authorized to adopt amendments to the commission's proposals or further proposals for the attention of the Grand Council.

The Grand Municipal Council of the City of Winterthur has reduced the 2015 global credit of the Neighborhood Development Office by twenty percent or around CHF 408,000. To help implement this decision, the Neighborhood Development Office has decided to increase the rents for the 41 music practice rooms it manages as of mid-2015. The announcement of this increase has sparked protests from musicians, according to a press release from the city.

In April 2015, the mayor met with the musicians concerned for a discussion. Following a review of the situation, the Department of Cultural Affairs and Services has now decided to waive the planned rent increase. The city thus acknowledges that it has acted incorrectly in some cases.

Despite the waiver of the announced rent increase, the Department of Culture and Services sees a need for action with regard to the music practice rooms, the press release continues. On the one hand, there are differently structured rental contracts. The aim here is to standardize them. Secondly, the rental prices are currently different.

The latter is to be adjusted - with the aim of "adapting the prices to the quality of the premises". The associated adjustments to the rental prices should be moderate, and the bottom line is that there should be no significant additional burden for the musicians. The Department of Culture and Services intends to tackle the adjustment next spring together with the tenants of the music practice rooms.

The Neighborhood Development Office is implementing the savings mandate of the Grand Municipal Council in the current year with numerous large and small measures. For example, one employee had to be made redundant and various support services for neighborhood activities were reduced or cancelled. The measure now being discontinued for the music practice rooms is to be compensated for with various savings in day-to-day operations.

Michel Roth was born in 1976 and grew up in Lucerne. He studied composition in Basel with Roland Moser and Detlev Müller-Siemens and completed his studies in composition and music theory with honors. In 2002 he was appointed Professor of Music Theory and Composition in Lucerne. In collaboration with the Lucerne Festival Academy, he set up a Contemporary Art Performance course.

In 2011, he was appointed Professor of Composition and Music Theory at the Basel University of Music. He teaches composition and music theory at the Hochschule für Musik and is a research assistant in the Research and Development department.

Every year, the municipality of Kriens awards a cultural prize worth at least CHF 5,000 or a sponsorship prize. The prize is awarded to individuals who have "rendered outstanding services to art and culture in Kriens".

The Afro-Pfingsten association is over-indebted. According to a press release from the city of Winterthur, the company Fairmeetings AG, which organized the festival on behalf of the Afro-Pfingsten association, is no longer in a position to carry forward the event's losses and must also make a debt reduction. The city of Winterthur does not want to make a restructuring contribution for the accumulated debts of around 700,000 Swiss francs.

In a meeting between the mayor, the head of the City of Winterthur's culture department and the Afro-Pfingsten association's restructuring officer, it was determined that the Afro-Pfingsten association will not be restructured. It will probably have to file for insolvency as creditors have already taken legal action. The current financial, structural and legal situation should first be resolved before the future of the Afro-Pfingsten festival is considered.

The festival will not be held in 2016. Under the current circumstances, it is not possible to establish a viable and sustainable organizational structure in the remaining six months that can guarantee solid financing, the city writes further. However, both sides have signaled their interest in continuing the festival.

Hedy Graber, Head of the Culture and Social Affairs Directorate at the Federation of Migros Cooperatives, was presented with the European Cultural Manager of the Year award in Berlin. Other nominees were Chris Dercon, Director of the Tate Gallery of Modern Art London, and Annemie Vanackere, Director of the Theater Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin.

The Kulturmarken Award 2015 honors committed cultural mediators, creative forms of investment and successful cultural providers. A jury of experts from the worlds of business, culture, science and the media selects the winners in seven categories. One of the reasons given by the jury for its choice was the great significance for the national activities of Migros Culture Percentage, which Graber has developed over a long period of time in her field of activity.