Citizens in Germany can upload sounds to a large sound map, share them with others and show what their own city, neighborhood or home village sounds like. All uploaded sounds will be entered into a prize draw at regular intervals.

In addition to the campaign itself, the campaign website provides interesting facts about current sound and noise research in cities. Special topics include psychoacoustics and noise research, animal noises in the city, favorite places and favorite sounds, city hits and city music as well as children in the city.

In Basel, the exhibition "KlangRaum - RaumKlang" is focusing on the sound of cities until December 10. It aims to sharpen our understanding of the acoustic qualities of places and spaces. And in Lucerne, the composer Tod Machover has called on citizens to collect sounds, noises and background information in order to compose a sounding portrait of Lucerne. The symphony will be premiered on September 5 with the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra and Matthias Pintscher as part of Lucerne Festival im Sommer.

Website of Stadtklang 2015: www.stadtklang2015.de
 

According to Bahram Jamali, the ministry's music commissioner, the occasion for a performance by the Vienna Philharmonic would be the state visit of Austrian President Heinz Fischer to Tehran in September. Neither the Vienna Philharmonic nor the Berlin Philharmonic have confirmed any such talks.

The last time the Berliner Philharmoniker performed in Iran was in 1979. With the Islamic revolution, the situation for music became increasingly difficult. Extreme interpretations of Islamic scripture generally prohibit music for religious reasons in Islam. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disbanded the Tehran Symphony Orchestra, a decision that was reversed by his successor Hassan Ruhani.  

The winners of the Young Artist of the Year category are Bryan Hymel (vocals), Sonya Yoncheva (vocals), Florian Noack (piano), Sophie Pacini (piano) and Nemanja Radulović (violin). The prize for promoting young talent goes to Classic Scouts and the Freie Grundschule Wernigerode. The Klassik-für-Kinder prize goes to the recording The Emperor's Nightingale by Helbling Verlag with Uģis Prauliņš, Michala Petri, Malte Arkona, Klaas Stok and the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart.

According to the German Music Industry Association (BVMI), other award winners include Jonas Kaufmann (Singer of the Year), Joyce DiDonato (Singer of the Year), Elīna Garanča (Solo Recording of the Year/Vocals), Lang Lang (Instrumentalist of the Year/Piano) and Andreas Ottensamer (Instrumentalist of the Year/Clarinet).

The official award ceremony will take place on Sunday, October 18, 2015 as part of a gala at the Konzerthaus Berlin. The evening will be broadcast by ZDF on the same evening.

The complete list: www.echoklassik.de

The sub-subject "Musical Culture" can be combined with any second subject from the canon of digital philology, German studies, history, philosophy, political science, sociology, computer science, sports science or economics. The course, which is run jointly by the University's Institute of Philosophy and the Darmstadt Academy of Music, combines artistic practice, social reflection, music theory, aesthetics and music philosophy.

According to Cord Meijering, the academy's director, the course is a fully-fledged university music degree, with which students should achieve a multiple qualification in the tradition of the ancient Seven Liberal Arts. Preparation for the challenges of new modern professions in the cultural sector is achieved through a combination of practical music-making and education in the humanities.

Study requirements are the general higher education entrance qualification or entrance qualification for universities of applied sciences as well as proof of artistic aptitude to be completed at the academy.
 

The DOV is threatening "massive resistance to the Thuringian State Chancellery's plans to cut orchestras and theaters in the Free State of Thuringia, which have become public". According to media reports, the German National Theatre in Weimar is to give up its opera division, the state orchestra in Eisenach is to be dissolved and the Thuringia Philharmonic Orchestra in Gotha is to be merged with the orchestra in Erfurt and downsized, writes the association in a press release.

The current downsizing and merger plans of Minister Benjamin-Immanuel Hoff are unacceptable, explains DOV Managing Director Gerald Mertens. The way in which Thuringian artists and their associations are being treated is unworthy.

According to the DOV, it had offered the Thuringian State Chancellery a dialog on the situation and future of orchestras and theaters. Now, as a professional association, it is being presented with a fait accompli. According to the DOV, in the past 25 years, more than 400 of the 1,000 musician positions in Thuringia have already been cut.

Located to the north of Bavaria, Thuringia is one of the smaller federal states in Germany and was formerly part of the GDR. It includes culturally rich cities such as Erfurt, Jena, Weimar, Gotha, Eisenach, Rudolstadt and Meiningen.
 

The Heinrich Danioth Foundation for Art and Culture in Uri was founded in 1981. Since 1982, it has awarded annual grants and recognition to artists and cultural workers in the following fields: visual arts, music, literature, dance, theater, film, photography, new media. CHF 24,000 is available for the grants (excluding studios).

A four-month studio residency in Berlin and in New York (residency 2017) are also available. Artists can also apply to purchase an artwork.

Eligible to participate are professional artists who live in Uri, grew up here or are entitled to reside here and are connected to Uri. For further information see: www.ur.ch (search term: art and cultural foundation).

Applications should be sent by October 16, 2015 to: Office for Culture and Sport, Daniothstiftung, Klausenstrasse 4, 6460 Altdorf, Tel. 041 875 20 96, E-Mail: josef.schuler@ur.ch

The City of Thun's "Kulturstreuer" prize, endowed with CHF 5,000, goes to Sabine and Tuomas Kaipainen for their services to the promotion of culture and art. The musician Jonas Tschanz, who grew up in Steffisburg, is being honored with a 10,000 Swiss franc prize to promote culture. The 2015 Art Prize of the City of Thun in the amount of CHF 10,000 goes to the visual artist Stefan Guggisberg, who grew up in Thun. The visual artist Tanja Schwarz also receives a sponsorship award.

The musician couple Sabine and Tuomas Kaipainen are now in their ninth year of co-directing the concert series "Im Rathaus um 4". Both have already taken part in numerous recordings and concerts, for example at the festivals in Moscow and Helsinki. They have taught at numerous master classes, including at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.

The classical saxophonist Jonas Tschanz completed his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel in 2014. In his still young career, he has already won various Swiss music prizes. His concert activities have already taken him all over Europe, to China and Japan, both as a soloist and as a member of ensembles.

The Lucerne-based Marianne and Curt Dienemann Foundation, which has set itself the task of promoting training and further development in the fields of jazz, classical music and literature, dedicated its ninth music competition to chamber music. 25 ensembles applied to take part in the audition.

A first prize of 15,000 francs went to the Made In Trio with David Dias da Silva, clarinet, Rute Fernandes, flute, and Petralia Sinforosa, piano. A second main prize of CHF 10,000 was awarded to the duo Damien Bachmann, clarinet, and François-Xavier Poizat, piano.

Recognition prizes in the amount of 4,000 to 8,000 francs were awarded to: Saxophone quartet Strax Bravura, Trio Aeterno, Trio Saitenwind, Duo Graf-Gregor. A special prize (CHF 3,000) was awarded to cellist Gunta Abele from Duo Art.
 

Last December, the board of the Stanser Musiktage association decided to pause the festival in 2015 due to the financial situation, according to the event's website. Instead, a successful two-day charity event took place.

In recent months, the Board of Directors, with the help of an external specialist, has been able to raise funds of around CHF 250,000 to achieve the renovation goal. The donors include private donors, the canton of Nidwalden and the municipality of Stans.

Esther Unternährer and Marc Rambold are the new co-festival directors. Lucerne jazz musician Marc Unternährer is the new program director on a mandate basis. The Stanser Musiktage 2016 will take place from Tuesday, April 5 to Sunday, April 10.

The village square becomes the new festival center with bars and a live stage. The food on offer will be centralized on the Steinmättli. As usual, the program in the various venues in Stans will be characterized by stylistic openness - world, jazz and pop sounds will come together.
 

The current cultural ordinance of the Canton of Obwalden dates back to 1985 and is in need of fundamental reform. The areas of cultural promotion and cultural institutions are to be newly regulated in the KuG. The other areas (preservation of monuments/archaeology, protection of cultural assets, libraries) will be transferred unchanged to the KuG.

According to the cantonal constitution, the promotion of culture is the responsibility of the canton and the communes. This principle is enshrined in law in the new KuG. The law also regulates cantonal contributions to cultural institutions that are important to the canton. Finally, the new KuG contains a regulation on cantonal contributions to cultural institutions of supra-regional importance in other cantons. In practice, the KuG does not result in any new tasks or significant additional costs.

With the new KuG, the canton has been given the task of maintaining a historical museum. However, it is the intention of the cantonal government to delegate the management of the museum to third parties on the basis of a service agreement. The Historical Museum has been run by the Obwalden Historical Association since its foundation. However, the canton could manage the Historical Museum itself should no sponsor be found one day.

The new article on the Historical Museum and the proposed tasks of the municipalities in the promotion of culture were subjected to a second consultation procedure from mid-January to mid-April 2015. The changes made were generally welcomed. Parliamentary discussion of the Culture Act is scheduled for the Cantonal Council meeting on October 22, 2015.

The LAC's concert and theater hall is clad entirely in wood. Its stage consists of an acoustic shell with modular sliding elements. In addition to the hall, the LAC also houses the Museo d'Arte della Svizzera Italiana, which brings together the Museo Cantonale d'Arte and the Museo d'Arte della città di Lugano.

The LAC will be inaugurated in September with three renditions of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony by the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana and the RSI Choir under the direction of Vladimir Ashkenazy, as well as nine performances of "La Verità" by Compagnia Finzi Pasca.

The 2500 square meter museum houses a permanent collection and a modular space over two floors for temporary exhibitions. It brings together works from all over the world. The opening exhibition "Orizzonte Nord-Sud" features 150 exhibits - including works by Giacometti, Segantini, Klee and Turner.

Website of the center: www.luganolac.ch

As the population grows, urban space becomes scarcer and sound spaces become denser. Despite this, architecture and urban planning pay little attention to acoustic changes to spaces and places, with visual aspects taking center stage. Yet it is important for our well-being that visual and auditory sensory impressions are given equal consideration in the design of indoor and outdoor spaces.

Experience shows that negative room acoustics are often only corrected retrospectively with aesthetically questionable and costly measures. If the sound qualities of existing places and new spaces were taken into account at an early stage and suitable forms and materials were chosen for the design, the acoustic facets of a city could be positively influenced in a targeted manner. Ideally, places and spaces worth listening to would be created - a city that sounds good and can contribute to a higher quality of life in urban areas.

The exhibition "KlangRaum - RaumKlang" aims to sharpen our understanding of the auditory perception of space and materials. It presents sound installations by experts from the fields of audio design, corporate sound and acoustic spatial staging. The program of the lecture evenings includes twelve presentations by renowned architects, acousticians, authors and musicians, who will address the topic of spatial sound from various specialist perspectives.

Info:
KlangRaum - RaumKlang. Auditory perception of space and materials, lecture series and panel event at schauraum-b, Austrasse 24, Basel. August 20 - December 10, 2015, Mon - Fri, 8 am to 12 noon and 2 pm to 5 pm. Admission free.
 

At the end of 2014, the special-purpose association decided to fund the Lucerne Festival and the Swiss Museum of Transport from 2015, in addition to the existing funding for the Lucerne Theater, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Lucerne Art Museum. The Cantonal Council already approved this further development of the special-purpose association in March 2015 - in conjunction with an amendment to the Culture Promotion Act. The referendum deadline expired unused in May 2015.

In accordance with the Culture Promotion Act, the decision of the special-purpose association as to which institutions are to receive contributions is also subject to approval by the City of Lucerne. The City Council submits a report and motion to the City Council to approve the special-purpose association's decision. This further development of the special-purpose association will save the city around CHF 0.9 million per year, as envisaged in the 2020 cultural agenda.

In the term of office from 2015 to 2019 (beginning July 1, 2015), City Councillor Ursula Stämmer-Horst and Rosie Bitterli Mucha, Head of Culture and Sport, will continue to represent the city's interests in the special-purpose association as delegates. Councillor Ursula Stämmer-Horst will hold this office until she steps down as a councillor on August 31, 2016.
 

Musik Olar AG and its resellers had agreed that the price list published by the general importer for stringed instruments and accessories of various brands was binding in nature, subject to the discount policy communicated. According to the Federal Administration's press release, this constituted an unlawful agreement on minimum prices.

These agreements prevented resellers in Switzerland from engaging in genuine price competition. As a result, competition in this sector in Switzerland was significantly impaired from the beginning of 2010 until mid-2013. As part of an amicable settlement, Musik Olar AG has undertaken not to exert any direct or indirect influence on the sales prices of its retailers in future. The decision can be appealed to the Federal Administrative Court.

The winner, Po-Cheng Tsai from Taiwan, will be able to work on a contemporary piece with the Lucerne ensemble in the 2016/17 season. The entire jury also awarded the young choreographer 1st prize for his piece "Hugin/Munin".

Kathleen McNurney was elected to the jury of the Copenhagen International Choreography Competition (CICC) in 2013, writes the Lucerne Theater. The CICC aims to discover and promote new talent in contemporary choreography. It was launched in 2008 and has been held annually ever since.

With over 200 applicants each year, the CICC has already hosted performances from more than 35 countries. This year's competition took place on August 7 and 8, 2015 at the Dansehallerne Copenhagen in Denmark.