According to the study, only around half of all adults attended high-culture events in 1995; by 2013, this figure had risen to 58%. Demand for popular cultural offerings such as jazz and pop concerts or music and film festivals developed in a similar way.

According to the current economic accounts, private households in Germany spent an average of EUR 144 each on cultural events in 2011, i.e. a total of EUR 5.7 billion - around a quarter more than in 2003.

In 2009 - the most recent year for which corresponding data is available - state cultural expenditure totaled 9.1 billion euros. Although this was 1.6 billion euros or 22 percent more than in 1995, the general price level increased by 23 percent in the same period. All in all, this means that although state spending on culture is stagnating in real terms, more and more people are taking advantage of the corresponding offers.

According to the DIW study, women are more likely to attend high-culture events than men. The older a person is (up to the age of 75) and the higher their level of education, the more likely they are to visit operas, theaters and museums. Unemployed people are less likely to attend cultural events than those in employment, and people living in rural areas are less likely to do so than the urban population. However, if one takes into account the fact that fewer cultural events take place in rural regions, tax revenues are lower and average incomes are lower, the demand for culture no longer differs from that in cities.

The German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) is the largest and longest-running multidisciplinary long-term study in Germany. The SOEP at DIW Berlin is funded by the federal and state governments as part of the research infrastructure in Germany under the umbrella of the Leibniz Association. Every year since 1984, the survey institute TNS Infratest Sozialforschung has interviewed several thousand people for the SOEP.

More info: www.diw.de

What makes a person human? How can an object or a "simple living being" be shaped into one? With the piece My Square Lady after George Bernhard Shaw's play Pygmalion and Frederick Loewe's musical My Fair Lady the German-British performance collective Gob Squad, the Neurorobotics Research Lab at the Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin and the Komische Oper Berlin are looking for possible answers.

Gob Squad take Myon on a journey of discovery through the Komische Oper Berlin. Myon is to explore the "powerhouse of emotions" that is opera in all its facets and learn what it means to feel human emotions, express them and evoke them in others. At the end of the season, Myon will be able to prove on the big stage whether he is suitable to become a human being or even an opera star.

An interview with Myon: www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWlWUrxLhrk

Organizers and musicians throughout Switzerland have become aware of Basel's new bass regime. Their reactions made it clear that with the rules defined by the Office for the Environment and Energy (AUE), Basel no longer has any parties to celebrate, writes City of Culture Nowan association that is supported by the Basel Pop Promotion and the Basel Youth Culture Festival, among others.

The new rules defined by the AUE to restrict bass frequencies would amount to a ban on contemporary electronic music, writes Kulturstadt Jetzt. Events such as Open Air Basel, Beat on the street/Jungle Street Groove, Imagine, JKF and others are under threat. And new club foundations are no longer possible. Artists and fans of a variety of genres are affected: dub, techno, electro rock, hip hop, trip hop and all other styles that thrive on bass.

The AUE is presented in a Media release surprised. The licensing practice regarding noise protection has "essentially" not changed in the canton of Basel-Stadt. The limit values according to the guidelines of the Cercle Bruit, the cantonal noise protection experts, still apply.

Basel is also one of the most liberal cities in Switzerland when it comes to authorizing outdoor music events, the AUE continues. Music concerts up to a volume of 100 dB(A) are even permitted in the city center, with the recommendation that a difference between dB(C) and dB(A) of 14 be maintained. In Zurich, for example, the limit for open-air events in the city center is dB(C) 100, which means that for bass-heavy music with a difference between dB(C) and dB(A) of 14, a maximum volume of 86 dB(A) is permitted.

Brigitte Waridel began her public service in 1976 as an employee of the Cantonal and University Library, which she co-managed as Directrice adjointe from 1981 to 1993. In 1995, she took over the management of the "Service des activités culturelles", which later became the "Services des affaires culturelles (SERAC)".

According to the canton, her commitment to culture led to the term "culture" being incorporated into the name of the department "Département de la formation, de la jeunesse et de la culture" in 2009.

She played an important role in the founding of the Haute Ecole de théâtre de Suisse romande in Lausanne, the Welschschweizer Filmstiftung and the Label+ Théâtre romand.
 

The jury for the music category was made up of Thomas Demenga, Dieter Ammann, Alexander Lonquich and Willy Merz.

Cyrill Schürch was honored for his work Soirée for chamber ensemble. According to the Fondazione Merz, the following qualities led the jury to award the prize to the Lucerne composer, who was born in 1974: "high lyrical sensitivity", "efficiency of instrumental composition and a wise balance between innovation and knowledge of tradition".
In addition to Schürch, Paolo Boggio (Vercelli 1964), Arturo Corrales (El Salvador 1973), Vassos Nicolaou (Cyprus 1971) and Vito Zuraj (Maribor 1979) were also nominated for the prize.

The Egyptian artist Wael Shawky was awarded 1st prize in the art category.

The Fondazione Merz in Turin has been managing the estate of the artist Mario Merz since 2005. Awarded every two years, the Mario Merz Prize recognizes talent in the field of contemporary visual art and music composition. It aims to create a new artistic network between Switzerland and Italy through exhibitions and music initiatives.
The registration deadline for the second round is June 1, 2015 at midnight.

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."

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.

 "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.

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).

 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 other festival activities, he can show himself from different sides and not just with a world premiere.

Photo: Andreas Oertzen

Beat Furrer

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.

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.
 

 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.