Heil was born in Wiesbaden and grew up in Tübingen. He received piano and organ lessons at an early age. He also studied church music at the Rottenburg (Neckar) University of Applied Sciences and was a member of the Rottenburg Cathedral Boys' Choir for many years. Trained as a pianist and conductor at the Stuttgart and Freiburg music academies, his first engagements took him to the state operas of Stuttgart and Hanover, initially as a répétiteur and choirmaster.

As solo repetiteur and conductor at the Staatstheater Mainz, he was ultimately able to develop a large and wide-ranging repertoire. In 2007/08 Clemens Heil was conductor of the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt. Since then, he has worked regularly with the Ensemble Modern, giving concerts in Germany and abroad as well as radio and CD productions.

Singers intoned the TTIP-critical text "We are not a commodity" to the melody of Schiller's Ode to Joy from Beethoven's 9th Symphony. They called on politicians to "take the serious concerns of the cultural sector seriously" in the negotiations on the various agreements, writes the German Orchestra Association (DOV).

So far, as the DOV quotes its managing director Gerald Mertens, it is not known which regulations will specifically affect the cultural sector. No constructive and critical debate can take place on the basis of completely unclear facts.

Musicians from all professional concert and opera orchestras, radio ensembles and freelance musicians gathered for the event. It was the prelude to the DOV Delegates' Assembly, which runs until Thursday.

The lively and stimulating symposium with speakers and participants almost exclusively from Austria and Germany - only two music academy teachers from Switzerland! - was dedicated to the conference topic in a variety of ways. The question mark in the title was more than just a trademark, as it was at the last such event in 2009, "Learning to make music - even outside of lessons?".

In fact, it was hard to avoid asking a wide variety of questions even before the symposium: If music-making is not at the heart of instrumental teaching, what else is? And why only in group lessons? Is the well-known motto of Keith Swanwick - Teach Music Musically - does not apply to all types of music education? And if this core principle seems to be a matter of course, why is heartfelt music-making still a problem in the classroom? What remains underexposed in group lessons? How and when do musical learning processes unfold? How can pedagogical goals such as musical expression, artistic development and creativity be addressed in beginner lessons? Where can deficits be identified in instrumental teacher training?

Right at the beginning, Ulrike Kranefeld used short, concise video sequences and meaningful statistics from her JeKi research project to show how little use is made of collaborative music-making time in so-called group lessons. It is impressive how young pupils in sequential individual lessons - apparently a widespread form of misunderstood group work - demonstratively go to sleep as soon as the teacher turns their attention to a classmate. Wouldn't there be potential for development here in alternating between plenary sessions and individual support involving all pupils? On the other hand, it was remarkable how the children were able to devote themselves to the musical events in a successful lesson with a JeKi cello group.

Being immersed from the start

This is where the director of the institute and "host" of the event, Peter Röbke, picked up when he argued that there are limits to purposeful didactic action. For him, musical moments are ultimately not available, i.e. they cannot be completely planned rationally. He argued that music lessons should not be conceived as a didactic and methodical production process, but as a moment of surrender and the ability to get involved in spontaneous events; a "tightrope walk between the usual course and that completely different experience". According to Röbke, being immersed, moments of happiness, breaking through emotions, crossing boundaries and other almost spiritual experiences are possible in a special way in group lessons, right from the start. "We should focus on this pedagogically (less didactically ...)!" "Pay attention to fulfilling moments and give them space in the classroom!"

Making music is also a priority for Elisabeth Aigner-Monarth and Natalia Ardila-Mantilla. The two young piano teachers and employees of the institute concretized Röbke's concerns in a bipolar model with eight dimensions (see table). On the left-hand side are the characters of well-planned lessons, on the right-hand side the essences of successful music-making moments.

 According to the two researchers, teaching means sitting down at the mixing desk with the pupils and constantly readjusting the levers of these different dimensions.

The absence of Ulrich Mahlert, whose contribution could only be presented as a substitute, was regrettable. It dealt with the manifestations and conditions of happiness experiences in music-making. It would have been exciting to be able to discuss the significance of this topic and its relation to group lessons with the author himself.

Wolfgang Lessing spoke about the tension between (music) pedagogical antinomies in instrumental group lessons: for example, the incompatibility of planning and spontaneity, differences in experience and partnership, organization and individualization. It is not possible to go into the individual antagonisms in this short report. However, the idea of using antinomies as opportunities should be mentioned. Especially in group lessons and in the experience of making music together, it is important, according to Lessing, not to see apparent incompatibilities as boundaries, but as thresholds that invite us to cross them.

Cultivating the joy of music-making and expression in instrumental lessons from the very beginning with heart and soul, experiencing the whole of life in every note - Wolfgang Rüdiger embodied this concern with his bassoon, involving the audience: "If you celebrate it, it's art. If not, it isn't."

Unused potential

In further contributions and panel discussions, it became clear how often musical and creative potential is sacrificed in instrumental lessons to the idols of technique and dexterity. The wealth of music-making practices, improvisational games and creativity of elementary music education should be better exploited in teacher training in order to build bridges between early musical education and instrumental lessons. Greater attention should also be paid to the gap between main subject teaching and pedagogical training.

The symposium raised many questions that are worth discussing in depth, even if definitive answers can hardly ever be expected. The rapporteur was pleased to be able to make inspiring encounters in a pleasant atmosphere enriched with a lot of Viennese "charm".

And if it were a matter of preserving a single basic idea, it would be this: Heartfelt music-making is the litmus test for the quality of teaching and learning in all possible modes of expression, forms and settings in music lessons, right from the very first note.

 "Can we imagine a society without music?" asked Maria Iselin at the opening of the celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of the Basel Orchestra Society (BOG) sponsorship award. "No," was the clear answer from the President of the BOG Foundation Board. But with a slight differentiation in the question, the answer becomes more difficult: "Can we imagine a society without good music?" What is good music? And how do you find a good - or even the best - interpreter for it? People have been trying to answer these questions for centuries.

Music competitions already existed in ancient times, as Georges Starobinski, Director of the Basel University of Music, emphasized in his opening speech. The singing wars in the Middle Ages, in which poets competed against each other, are also well documented. But what constitutes a music competition today? Is it good for the musicians, good for the audience? Or - as the title question of the podium put it - "are music competitions just well-intentioned?"

It is a self-critical question that the BOG asks itself. For twenty years, it has been awarding annual recognition and sponsorship prizes to students at the Basel University of Music. The small but prestigious competition has produced such renowned personalities as cellist Sol Gabetta, clarinettist Reto Bieri and soprano Svetlana Ignatovich.

The total prize money of up to 15,000 francs is not lavish, but it is necessary financial support for young students. Because - as the participants in the panel discussion agreed - all young musicians who take part in competitions want one thing above all else: to make good music. To do this, they need space and time, and of course money so that they don't have to pursue other gainful employment.
Another important factor is networking in the international music scene. Winning most major competitions pays off in the form of subsequent concert engagements. Sometimes this happens automatically, sometimes only with a great deal of initiative. This is also a positive and desirable side effect for the individual musician. But is it the same for the audience?

Poison for individuality
Sigfried Schibli, panelist and music critic for the Basler Zeitung, summarized that uniformity has increased in musical life over the last 40 years: "Truly original artists are less common today." He is convinced: "Competitions are filter instruments for nerve power and technique - and a symbol of the fact that we are all competing. There are competitions for every genre today, even for journalists."

For Stephan Schmidt, guitarist and director of the music academies at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, it is clear that music competitions cannot promote creativity: "Competitions are based on a standard. You compare something you already know." Nevertheless, competitions and creativity are not mutually exclusive: It is often the winners of second and third prizes in major competitions who end up making a career for themselves - they have managed to combine technical ability and individuality.
Schmidt is convinced that whether a competition does a young musician more harm or more good depends on their own attitude: "It's always about developing yourself further." Practicing very different repertoire intensively for a competition can greatly promote personal development. For him, competitions were the only way to move out of his village home and into the world. Pianist Carl Wolf, winner of the BOG prize in 2004, also sums up his time at the competition: "You always take something away with you: You get to know new halls, new people, new repertoire, gain lots of experience."

Whether music competitions promote not only the prizewinners but all participants depends largely on honest feedback from the jury. But this is exactly where things usually go wrong, as all the musicians on the podium reported. Perhaps because it is not even possible for experienced jurors to recognize differences even after the tenth rendition of the same piece, as violinist Volker Biesenbender once admitted in an article in the Basler Zeitung. But perhaps it is also because there are too many conflicts of interest between teachers and students, colleagues and cliques.

However, the concluding concert with prizewinners from 20 years of the BOG sponsorship award made it possible to forget all competition criticism. A great wealth of musicality, creativity and personality was on display - and how wonderful to experience such a varied concert program, which with its short pieces was more reminiscent of a university event, at the very highest level. There was a world premiere of Maximiliano Amici's chamber music piece Ithaca with the supple soprano Amelia Scicolone, a furious Beethoven sonata with Sol Gabetta, fascinatingly poetic and eloquent Schumann fantasies with clarinettist Karin Dornbusch, a brilliant, wild journey through Schumann's Carnaval with the pianist Paavali Jumppanen. When competitions - even such small ones as the BOG - produce musicians like this, then there is something right about it.

One can no longer cling to the old legal structures, quotes the German Cultural Information Center Magas. A learning process has also begun in the music industry, which is looking at the opportunities offered by a relaxation of copyright law.

Magas is the founder of the Music Tech Fest festival, which offers a platform for musical remix culture. This involves combining parts of existing works in a new context. The traditional remuneration models for the use of intellectual property would be expanded to include new sources, such as participation from advertising revenue on internet platforms. This must be taken into account in the reform of copyright law that the European Parliament is currently discussing.

With new regulations, the interests of "gunks" (a fusion of "geek" and "punk") should also be taken into consideration. Gunks are experimenting with music software and freely available open source programming tools and rediscovering the unencumbered creativity that the traditional music industry has lost. New forms of music are also emerging, such as the fusions of music and software code known as "hackathons" or the "Internet of Music", which is developing from the Internet of Things.

There used to be a lot to do in the Ruhr region. So much that German labor was no longer enough to satisfy the huge demand for coal and steel. Poles, Greeks, Turks - everyone helped with German reconstruction after 1945. Today, things are different in Bochum, Dortmund and Witten. Gone is coal and coal-making. Abandoned winding towers, collieries and mining tunnels are now destinations for excursions - including at the Witten Festival of New Chamber Music, which took visitors to the nearby Muttental valley for a sound hike with twelve stations in the form of installations, sound performances or full-blown concert pieces in the great outdoors.

Those who make installations usually refer to the location, either to its atmosphere or to its history. Franz Martin Olbrisch places a chirping canary at the entrance to a closed mine tunnel. For the miners, birds served as a kind of early warning system against "bad weather". If the dangerous methane gas escaped somewhere in the mine tunnel, the birds reacted first. If the gas was particularly strong, the bird was dead - and so it lies lifeless in another mine tunnel, which Olbrisch uses artistically.

Bursting stones

Barblina Meierhans, born in 1981 in Burgau, Switzerland, is currently studying with Olbrisch in Dresden; she previously studied composition with George Aperghis and Daniel Weissberg, among others, at the universities in Bern and Zurich. Meierhans calls her installation Steinsengen. She places small loudspeakers in the foundation walls of a demolished machine building, which emit the sound of bursting stones. You would think that stable stones would simply burst and bang violently. Meierhans, however, stages the splitting in a discreet, almost introverted manner. She attached contact microphones to stones, which she split with a hammer and wedges. The violent smashing blows can be heard in a tunnel entrance next to the foundation walls. Next to it, in the old machine building, the internal rock forces are expressed in the form of a strange clanking and squeaking from the loudspeakers covered with large iron plates.

Meierhans' sensitive installation invites you to linger. Unlike Olbrisch's work, it only unfolds its effect with time, which unfortunately is almost non-existent, as the sound hike moves too quickly to the next station. Beat Furrer is less familiar with such problems as an "indoor composer". Born in Schaffhausen in 1954, this year he is extensively present in the form of a composer portrait that reveals both chamber music and orchestral aspects in the concert hall. Furrer makes a thoroughly tired impression after two days of rehearsals (and interviews). But he is glad that, in contrast to the usual festival routine, he can show himself from different sides and not just with a world premiere.

Controlled explosion

Even the duet lotófagos I for soprano and double bass shows that Furrer can make something out of very unusual instrumentation. Contrary to expectations, the highs and lows nestle together. Furrer himself is surprised, he says, "how it mixes", adding that the advantage is that "you don't have any dynamic problems" and that the "harmonics of the double bass go very well with the soprano". Furrer is a sensitive sound explorer and instrumentalist. He talks a lot about "formants", "sound structures", "filter effects" and "movement models". The 1998 Track for piano and string quartet primarily brings the latter to the fore. A sparkling, circling figure in the piano gives the piece a good dose of propulsion. The strings of the outstanding KNM Berlin ensemble accentuate the action with plenty of pizzicati and harsh, penetrating strokes. In its motoric density Track far removed from both the intimate duets and the orchestral Two studiespremiered by the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne under the direction of Titus Engel.
There is no "Furrer system", nor is there a distinctive personal style. But in these Two studies but there are elements that emerge more frequently. Furrer is certainly not a radically exalted, raucous composer. In the first study, dissonant blocks of brass and low strings engage in a loud duel. However, control is too important to Furrer to leave the drama to fate. He always remains in control. There is no need for a canary warning of explosions here. The composer tames the energies himself - also with the help of the second study, which penetrates the subject matter, i.e. the music, in a broodingly deep yet highly skillful manner.

In addition to taking turns playing the instruments, the children will talk to each other about their everyday school life. In New York, André Schaller, Swiss Consul General in New York, and Thomas Schneider, Head of the Culture and Education Department at the Consulate General, will translate the questions and explain differences and connections.

On the Zurich side, City Councillor Gerold Lauber, Head of the Department of Education and Sport, will take on this task and will be supported by Sharon Kim Soldati, teacher of classroom music at MKZ. She previously worked in the ETM program in New York and is one of the main initiators of this exchange project.

The string class program run jointly by the elementary school and the Zurich Conservatory of Music (MKZ) has established itself in the city of Zurich over the past few years. Currently, 74 classes (around 1600 pupils) are taking part, and this number will rise to 80 in the coming school year. In the USA, the program has long been an established name in music education at primary school level under the name ETM (Education Through Music).

The project entitled "The early mass setting between liturgical function and artistic aspiration" deals with the early mass setting as a central musical genre of the 15th and 16th centuries. Until now, its scholarly exploration has taken place from a predominantly philological, work- and style-historical research perspective.

The researchers in Mainz and Weimar now want to undertake a systematic reassessment of the early polyphonic masses. The aim is to consider the connections between musical texture and liturgical purpose and to develop methodological approaches that combine perspectives from the history of ritual and piety with those from the history of composition.

Two doctoral students and four research assistants are working on the project for three years. The two project leaders will compile a monograph on the subject. In addition, the doctoral students Franziska Meier and Kirstin Pönnighaus will write qualification theses on settings of the Requiem and the tradition of the early L'homme-armé masses.

A core element of the project work is the further development of the MassDataBase database, which was set up in advance of the application using funds from the Johannes Gutenberg University's research funding and the research focus on historical cultural studies. It is also planned to organize several supplementary, interdisciplinary workshops.
 

The nominees are Philippe Albèra (Geneva), Nik Bärtsch (Zurich), Malcolm Braff (Vevey / Le Mont Pelerin), Markus Flückiger (Schwyz), Joy Frempong (Bolgatanga (GH)/Zurich), Marcel Gschwend aka Bit-Tuner (St. Gallen/Zurich), Heinz Holliger (Basel), Daniel Humair (Geneva/Paris), Joke Lanz (Basel/Berlin), Christian Pahud (Lausanne), Annette Schmucki (Zurich/Cormoret), Bruno Spoerri (Zurich), Cathy van Eck (Zurich), Nadir Vassena (Lugano) and Christian Zehnder (Basel).

The aim of the Swiss Grand Prix Music is to "honor outstanding and innovative Swiss music creation and bring it to the public's attention". The Swiss Grand Prix Music is endowed with CHF 100,000, the nominations with CHF 25,000 each.

Each year, the FOC mandates a team of ten experts consisting of music journalists, musicians and music experts. This team selects candidates from all regions of Switzerland and from all musical genres to submit to the Federal Music Jury.

The jury consists of Graziella Contratto, Annelis Berger, Thomas Burkhalter, Zeno Gabaglio, Michael Kinzer, Florian Walser and Carine Zuber. In April 2015, they selected the 15 finalists from 53 proposed musicians. The winner of the Swiss Grand Prix Music will be announced at the award ceremony.
 

The ISCM World Music Days are the annual festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music, founded in 1922, and will take place in Slovenia in 2015 from September 26 to October 1. The works to be selected are submitted by the respective national sections. The submissions of the Swiss Society for Contemporary Music SGNM/SSMC were coordinated by its Vice President Nicolas Farine.

Winkelman studied composition with Roland Moser and Georg Friedrich Haas. In 2013 she was Composer in Residence at the Musikdorf Ernen in Switzerland and in 2014 at the Lockenhaus Festival in Austria. She has received commissions from the Harvard Musical Association Boston, the Basel Sinfonietta, Musikfabrik Köln and the Lucerne Festival, among others. Her works have been performed by the Ensemble Phoenix and the Arditti Quartet. Helena Winkelman lives in Basel.
 

 A symposium for Steinklang music took place in June last year. The wish was expressed to make this music accessible to a wider audience. Following an intensive weekend in the fall of 2014, composition commissions and improvisations for Lithofone (lithosGreek: stone) for the performance.

These concerts are organized by the Förderverein für Steinklang-Musik (www.steinklanginstrumente.ch). According to its own statements, the association aims to "promote research and development in the field of stone-sound music. This has its origins in prehistoric times."

Felix Perret, Mathias Steinauer, Christian Dierstein, Matthias Brodbeck and Dominik Dolega form the board of the association.
The association works with the instrument makers Beat Weyeneth and Rudolf Fritsche together. With the latter, the Swiss Music Newspaper In December 2013, as part of the thematic focus "How does the earth sound?", a Interview led.

According to the official press release, the foundation is a "joint cultural sponsorship without entry barriers". It enables "a clear, personal commitment to culture". Anyone - regardless of origin, gender, status or wealth - can voluntarily donate one percent of their personal inheritance to culture. They can thus become part of an intergenerational project and play an active role in shaping the cultural landscape, the initiators continue. A handwritten promise of inheritance is sufficient.

The Government Council of Appenzell Ausserrhoden has pledged a contribution to the start-up phase. Forty people, including well-known personalities, are said to have already submitted a declaration of intent.

The foundation is intended to promote culture in and from all over Switzerland in its diverse forms. In a two-year start-up phase, the funding principles will be developed in a participatory manner with the involvement of those who promise to be heirs. In open forums, the foundation intends to ask fundamental questions about its profile and develop new forms of funding instruments and processes. From 2017, funding can be awarded - presumably still on a modest scale. The foundation expects to reach the double-digit million mark in the first ten years.
 

According to a report by the Kleine Zeitung University Director Oliver Vitouch has sought talks with the protesters and promised to "continue to ensure the academic debate on art".

The Department of Musicology at the Alpen-Adria-Universität was affiliated to the Institute of Cultural, Literary and Music Studies at the University of Klagenfurt. It has not been possible to enrol on the course since the 2012/13 winter semester. The program director was Daniel Ender, who also works as a freelancer for the NZZ and has published the Austrian Music Magazine together with Daniel Brandenburg and Frieder Reininghaus since 2013.
 

Hermann Scherchen (1891-1966) expected a great deal from the development of radio for a democratic musical education of the people. He was involved right from the start: his first radio concert for Schönberg's 50th birthday in 1924, musical director of the Königsberg "Ostmarkenrundfunk" in 1928, musical advisor to the Reichsrundfunk-Gesellschaft in Berlin in 1932. From 1945 to 1950 he was head of music at Radio Beromünster and conducted the Zurich studio orchestra. In 1950, his study Music for everyone - dedicated to the unknown radio listener.

In a "Confession to Radio", he sees the new medium as "the most significant upheaval in the life of nations since the invention of printing". Like others in the early days of the medium, he also hoped that radio would mobilize listeners to become active themselves - both artistically (musically) and intellectually (politically). In 1930, at the Baden-Baden Music Festival, he conducted the world premiere of Brecht's Lindbergh flight, a "radio teaching piece". The audience should be involved.

In an essay Broadcasting in its relationship to music cultivation and music education Scherchen reflected in 1930 on the "music-interpreting, meaning-creating word"; it was available in the form of "the poeticizing presentation of a musical work", but also "as a work analysis strictly limited to the musical processes". He does not believe in extensive introductory lectures; instead, he prefers the "musical announcement" - "from the briefly headlined report to the anecdotal recording of a contemporary milieu, or a sensitive message that leads directly into the emotional sphere".

Around 1930, Scherchen considered radio plays with music as a "form peculiar to radio" and Stravinsky's L'histoire du soldat, Hermann Reutters Saul and Milhaud's Le bœuf sur le toit realized in this way. In the 1940s, he envisioned "novel but immediately comprehensible combinations of music and words", like Dostoyevsky's Grand Inquisitor with music by Tchaikovsky. He also turns to classical-romantic stage music in arrangements as an "audio theater": Egmont, A Midsummer Night's Dream, L'Arlesienne, Peer Gynt. In addition, a poetic interpretation of the Prometheus-Beethoven's ballet and Schumann's "dramatic poem" Manfred after Byron, compressed. By limiting each episode to three quarters of an hour, he has a cyclical broadcasting slot in mind.

Recordings of the "Hörtheater" already on Radio Beromünster; but the series was recorded in its entirety at Leipzig Radio from November 25 to December 1, 1960. Scherchen, who had been closely associated with Leipzig since the 1920s and was also twice appointed Gewandhaus conductor after the end of the war, was twice guest conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Gustav Mahler year 1960. This brought his radio arrangements to the fore and the recording date was arranged at short notice. An unparalleled tour de force: orchestral rehearsals in the morning, rehearsals with the soloists and choir in the afternoon and recordings in the evening from eight o'clock to eleven or even until midnight. According to Myriam Scherchen, he was so enthusiastic about the result that he considered a record edition - but this never materialized. His daughter has fulfilled his legacy: an exemplary edition, including all of Scherchen's texts, in a three-part CD cassette Musique et litterature on the "Tahra" label installed by her (TAH 103-105).

Scherchen's intention with his "Hörtheater" was to draw attention to music for stage plays which, as a result of changes in theatrical practice, is hardly ever heard any more, at least not in connection with poetry. He also pursued music education interests: Musical understanding should be created through the interplay of words and sound. As he explains to the Leipzig music editor Klaus Richter: ways and means must be found "to turn listeners who are not yet interested into interested listeners in the most diverse ways". Forms of broadcasting should be sought "that put listeners in a state of psychological tension, that allow them to approach the music with openness and excitement, that place them in an educational frame of reference in which they can place the music they are listening to."

Due to the limitation to three quarters of an hour in each case, interventions in the scores - cuts - are necessary. But Scherchen takes liberties in general, even reassigning musical numbers. He either lets the commentary speak in the pauses - even self-deprecatingly placed in the music! -or he overlays the notes with words in the manner of melodrama. Some of it is reminiscent, in a good or bad sense, of the methods of film music. Scherchen may have meant this when he refers to the "aesthetic contestability" - but accepts it for the sake of the pedagogical intention.

Myriam Scherchen calls her father's arrangements a "truly new creation". The selection is to be understood as quasi autobiographical. The focus is on the "almost Faustian struggle of man with his desires" and redemption through love. Her father led the life of a man "who wanted to know everything, an autodidact who believed in man and his omnipotence, but who needed love to give his own overarching activity a spiritual meaning".

Six times "Hörtheater"

The 53-year-old Peter Erismann has made a name for himself nationally as an exhibition manager and curator at the Swiss National Library / Swiss Literary Archives and for the Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel as a cultural manager, project manager, curator and editor. He has also been involved in the sponsorship of the Kunstmuseum cinema in Bern for ten years.

The trained bookseller completed the Master's program in Cultural Management at the University of Basel between 2003 and 2005, graduating with an MAS in Arts Management. Erismann will take over the management of the Aargau Board of Trustees on September 1, 2015.

In this role, according to the canton's press release, he will manage the office from a technical, organizational and personnel perspective and advise the members of the Board of Trustees on technical issues. This also includes the preparation and implementation of the Board of Trustees' decisions, budget responsibility and the organization and coordination of the application process.