During the 6-week submission period, a total of 230 composers submitted over 350 works. The submissions came from over 40 countries and all 5 continents. According to the Forum's press release, 18 works were selected from over 350 submissions.

The "remarkable international response and the exceptional quality of the works submitted" prompted the festival management to double the number of entries and to spread the selected works over two concert evenings instead of a single concert.

In alphabetical order, they were: Marc Ainger (USA), Alfredo Ardia (Italy), Marie-Hélène Breault / Martin Bédard (Canada), Stijn Govaere (Belgium), Michael Fuchsmann (Russia), Volker Hennes (Germany), René Baptist Huysmans (Netherlands), Panayiotis Kokoras (Greece), Dimitris Maronidis (Greece), Alain Michon (France), Felipe Otondo (Chile), Andrián Pertout (Australia), Frederic Robinson (Germany/Switzerland), Nicolas Vérin (France), Jaeseong You (Korea).

Their works will be performed at Leuk Castle on May 22 and 23 as part of the Forum Valais festival. The Forum Wallis Festival for New Music is the festival of the Valais section of the IGNM (International Society for New Music) and takes place annually over Whitsun at Leuk Castle. The 2015 program includes Stockhausen's spectacular helicopter string quartet with the Arditti Quartet, André Richard, Air-Glaciers and TPC over the Valais Alps on Whit Sunday.

More info: www.forumvalais.ch/programm-2015arselectronica.htm

On March 20, the finale of the International Bern Organ Competition was held as part of the Bern Museum Night, a joint production of the V. International Church Music Congress, the cantars 2015 church music festival, the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches and the parish of Münster Bern. Samuel Cosandey, Switzerland, Kensuke Ohira, Japan, Maximilian Schnaus, Germany, and Simone Vebber, Italy, played.

The international jury was made up of President Laurent Mettraux, Vice President of the Swiss Association of Musicians, Elisabeth Zawadke, Lucerne University of Music, Bernhard Haas, Munich University of Music, Dominik Susteck, Kunststation St. Peter Köln, and Daniel Glaus, Bern University of the Arts and organist at Bern Minster. As it stated in its report, the jury recommended that the program committee of the V. International Congress of Church MusicMaximilian Schnaus for the opening concert on October 21 in Bern. Samuel Cosandey from Bex, whose playing and visionary programming have received praise, is to perform in another concert. Coïncidences (2013) by Antoine Fachard. The jury was delighted with the performances, saying that all of the presentations were of the highest standard.

The organist and composer Maximilian Schnaus was born in Bad Neustadt in 1986. He studied church music and organ in Hanover and Amsterdam with Pier Damiano Peretti and Jacques von Oortmerssen, among others, and received scholarships from the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation and the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. In February 2014, he passed his concert exam with distinction in Leo van Doeselaar's class at the Berlin University of the Arts. He has been organist at the Sophienkirche in Berlin-Mitte since 2014.
 

Sales of purely digital music offerings increased by 6.9% to 6.9 billion dollars and now account for 46% of global music sales. Total industry sales remained virtually stable at 14.97 billion dollars. Subscription services have increased dramatically by 39 percent, whereas traditional download sales have fallen by 8 percent.

Subscription services (such as Spotify) are now a mainstay of the music business with a turnover of 1.6 billion dollars. They account for 23% of the purely digital market. The industry expects further strong growth in 2015, with YouTube's Music Key, Jay Z's Tidal and a service expected from Apple likely to be the most significant.

According to the IFPI, licensing services and streaming will play an increasingly important role in the near future. New payment models, for example for high audio quality offerings, should further stimulate the market.

Each of the three prize winners will receive CHF 10,000 and a scholarship in the form of participation in this year's Lucerne Festival Academy worth a further CHF 10,000. The prize will be presented on September 6 by Fritz Gerber, Honorary President of the Fritz Gerber Foundation, at the Lucerne Festival in Lucerne this summer.

The Swiss clarinettist Mariella Bachmann (*1988) completed her musical training at the Zurich University of the Arts with Fabio Di Cásola and at the University of Music in Freiburg im Breisgau with Jörg Widmann. Rafal Zolkos was born in Poland in 1987 and studied flute in Paris, Strasbourg, Berlin and at the Zurich University of the Arts with Philippe Racine.

The third prizewinner, violinist David Sypniewski (*1990), originally comes from Toulouse and attended the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne with Lihay Bendayan. He is currently studying for a Master's degree at the Hochschule für Musik Basel, specializing in contemporary music.

The Fritz Gerber Award was established by the Fritz Gerber Foundation and Lucerne Festival at the beginning of 2015. Candidates must have Swiss citizenship or have lived in Switzerland for at least five years. The competition is organized by the Lucerne Festival Academy. The jury is made up of Michael Haefliger, the artistic director of the Lucerne Festival, the composer and conductor Heinz Holliger and lecturers from the Ensemble intercontemporain.

After reviewing the application documents and the video material sent in, writes the German Music Council, 24 candidates were invited to Hilchenbach to conduct with the Philharmonie Südwestfalen. A five-member jury chaired by Johannes Schlaefli, who teaches at the ZHdK, assessed the candidates' rehearsal work on various works as well as their accompaniment of a solo concert.

After two rounds, the jurors selected Nuno Coelho Silva (Zurich University of the Arts), Dominic Limburg (Zurich University of the Arts), David Niemann (Hamburg University of Music and Drama), Hossein Pishkar (Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf) and Jiří Rožeň (Hamburg University of Music and Drama).

The new scholarship holders can expect an extensive program of work with professional orchestras under the guidance of renowned conductors at the Conductors' Forum. The focus is on rehearsals and performances in the areas of music theater and symphonic music.

In addition, there are regular collaborations with chamber orchestras and specialist ensembles for early and contemporary music. Assistantships, sponsored concerts, prizes and scholarships round off the Conductors' Forum's sponsorship modules.

The opera "L'elisir d'amore" by Gaetano Donizetti is planned for September 2015. Pereira announced this on Monday at the inauguration of the airport's new premises, writes the Luxembourg trade magazine Pizzicato. Scenes from the Donizetti opera are to be performed in episodes in various areas of the airport; the entire opera is to be broadcast live on television, just as in Zurich.

Swiss television has staged a total of three such productions: After "La Traviata im Hauptbahnhof" in Zurich and "La Bohème im Hochhaus" in Bern, it presented "Aida am Rhein" in Basel. "La Bohème im Hochhaus" was awarded the prestigious Golden Rose television prize.

"The mismanagement by the agency that had been in charge of the orchestra's operations for around two years" had almost ruined it, the orchestra writes. The orchestra's core members, most of whom have been with the orchestra for many years, have now decided to start afresh "with other excellent musicians" and conductor Mario Beretta. Maria Solozobova will act as concertmaster. The Zurich Symphony Orchestra will present itself to the public for the first time at an opening concert on May 16.

The dumping wages offered by the then Zurich Symphony Orchestra during a performance of Aida in Pfäffikon in 2013 made waves and led to fierce protests from the Swiss Musicians' Association and fundamental debates in the media about musicians' working conditions. 

More info: www.zuercher-symphoniker.ch

Iris Reardon-Kofmel has been president of the association in recent years and also held the position of festival director, according to the official press release on the change. She is now handing over the presidency of the association and festival management for professional reasons: She emigrated to the USA with her young family at the beginning of the year.

The festival will now be managed by Peter Kofmel as a long-standing co-organizer. The festival will take place as planned from 17 to 21 June under the motto "World stars in Solothurn", the organizers continue.
 

Heinz Girschweiler studied trumpet at the Zurich Conservatory and choral and orchestral conducting at the Zurich Kantorenschule. He works as a freelance musician and conducts several choirs. In 1994, he co-founded the Orchestrina string orchestra, which he conducted for sixteen years. He is president of the music commission of the Bündner Kantonalgesangsverband and co-director of the Postremise in Chur.

Girschweiler "deserves the recognition award for his versatile and great commitment as a musician and choir director as well as for his interdisciplinary and networking work". The band From Kid with Andrin Berchtold and Gian Reto Camenisch is being honored for the national breakthrough of their independent and harmonically convincing electro pop.

The recognition prizes are awarded in recognition of at least ten years of cultural work that is of importance to the city and its immediate region. The prizes are endowed with CHF 4,000 each and will be presented by City Councillor Doris Caviezel-Hidber at a public ceremony on May 6, 2015.
 

The duo has been "exploring the fibers of melancholy with impressive passion for eight years now", writes the canton. With each of its pieces, it weaves "atmospheric worlds of sound without constraint and without haste, in which Natasha's gently glowing voice combines with David's softly throbbing synthesizer to create moving stories". 

The St.Gallen Cultural Foundation has awarded the prize in recognition of the duo's artistic work. It would like to contribute to "adding many more chapters to their sensual story".

The Wattwil arthouse cinema Passerelle is being supported by the Cultural Foundation with a recognition prize of 20,000 francs. A further sponsorship prize (7500 francs) goes to Madame Tricot from Wil for applied art.

Rahel Kraft studied jazz singing and improvisation in Lucerne and completed a master's degree in music education. In 2011, she founded the experimental ensemble Stimmorchester, which consists of seven professional singers and cultivates free improvisation. It was awarded a work grant from the canton and city of Lucerne in 2013.

In 2015, the five grants from the Canton of Thurgau will go to artists from the fields of theater, music and visual arts. In addition to Rahel Kraft, the expert jury selected the following artists from 55 applications: Joëlle Allet (visual artist), Philippe Glatz (visual artist), Gabor Nemeth (actor) and Meinrad Schade (visual artist).

Music experts on the jury included music critic Anja Bühnemann, Dominik Deuber (Managing Director Lucerne Festival Academy), musician and recording studio supporter Pat Kasper and cultural journalist and musician Martin Preisser.

The first work of this concert in the Kreuzkirche Will was the Concertino by Karl Christian Hoyer ((1891-1936). The composer had labeled his work "in the old style". In the three movements, however, he does not "copy" the Baroque style one-dimensionally, but contrasts it with the tonality and harmony of the early 20th century. Antonio Vivaldi's Concerto for two violins, strings and basso continuo is not yet really a solo concerto, as the two violins are still very much oriented towards the continuo. Esther Böck and Brigitte Mayer harmonized wonderfully, with the second movement, Larghetto e spirituoso, standing out in particular.

The main work of the concert, however, is certainly the Sinfonia concertante by the organist and composer Bernhard Sieber, who lives in Oberuzwil. Sieber based the four movements on quotations from the Bible. The words of Isaiah "The people who walk in darkness see a great light" were placed above the first movement. The composer drew this movement with a muffled organ bass in the lowest register, accompanied by dry string pizzicati, while the bright light contrasted the darkness with sharp organ tones.

In the scherzo movement, the music describes the liberation from the yoke of oppression: martial sounds ended with extatic convulsions in a blaze of fire. The turbulent scherzo finally ends abruptly in a single, high violin note when all enemies have crumbled to ashes.

The third movement answers the question of why all the roar of war ends in fire with the coming of the Prince of Peace: the oboe (Christian Voss) stands out conciliatory from the sound of the strings. The magnificent fugue of the fourth movement depicts the immeasurably glorious justice and everlasting reign of the Prince of Peace. Bernhard Sieber says of his work that it is not really program music: "The constructive elements predominate by far." However, the audience could not help but place the imagery of the music in the context of the biblical quotations on which it is based; indeed, it literally demanded a confrontation with them and thus testified to the composer's deep faith.

In the dispatch on the promotion of culture for the years 2016 to 2020, the Federal Council is requesting funding of around CHF 1,126 million. In the co-report to the Committee for Science, Education and Culture (WBK-N), the majority of the Finance Committee (FK-N) requested that the funding be reduced by around CHF 65 million.

The proposal aims to reduce expenditure in the area of culture to the level envisaged in the financial plan of August 20, 2014. The proposal of the FK-N thus deviates from the decision of the Council of States, which even increased the Federal Council's proposal by 3 million.

As part of the parliamentary co-reporting procedure, the Finance Committee drafted numerous co-reports to legislative committees, according to the federal government's press release. In these reports, it draws attention to the new fiscal policy situation, which foresees considerable structural deficits in the coming years. This new starting position is caused by a sharp drop in tax revenue.

Nine concerts will take place in the acoustically outstanding Andermatt parish church from April 2 to 12. Five are so-called prizewinners' concerts, which offer young ensembles and soloists the opportunity to perform in a sophisticated setting (Nexus Reedquintet, April 4; Belenus Quartet with Pablo Barragàn, April 5; Ensemble Batida, April 6; Trio Rafale, April 10 and Duo Cámara-Köhnken).
The Festival Strings Lucerne, together with soloist Reinhold Friedrich and presenter Sabine Dahinden, will open the festival on High Thursday. On Good Friday, the Lucerne Boys' Choir and the Collegium Musicum Lucerne will perform Johann Sebastian Bach's St. John Passion. On April 8, the horn quartet Ivo Gass & Friends will play and the final concert on April 12 will feature Brasssurround, the brass quartet of the Karlsruhe University of Music.

The date for the first concert series was deliberately set over the Easter holidays so as not to interfere with the Lucerne Festival at Easter. A sponsorship association and a patronage committee support the Swiss Chamber Music Circle, which aims to support young musicians from Swiss music academies at the start of their careers. Together with Pro Helvetia, it also brings the work of Swiss composers to the fore, whether through the premiere of commissioned compositions or through the performance of other works by Swiss composers.

The Swiss Chamber Music Circle project was launched in fall 2014. It is headed by artistic director Jörg Conrad and cultural manager Danièle Florence Perrin. The plan is to expand the festival on a modular basis throughout the year. The following cycles are planned:

Swiss Chamber Circle (April/May, starting with the Easter Festival from April 2 to 12, 2015)
Swiss Organ Circle (December, from December 2015)
Swiss Jazz Circle (January/October, planned from January 2016)
Swiss Folklore Circle (February/June, planned from June 2016)
Swiss Baroque Circle (July, planned from 2017)
Swiss Symphonic Circle (March, August, September, November, from September 2017 at the earliest)

www.swisschamber-musiccircle.ch

"I hope for a nationwide discussion about values that are important to us in Switzerland and that we therefore want to sing and hear in the future national anthem," says Jean-Daniel Gerber, President of the Swiss Society for the Common Good (SGG) and the person responsible for the anthem project.

According to the SGG, the text of the competition entries is based on the preamble to the Federal Constitution. The preamble contains central values such as democracy, diversity, freedom, peace and solidarity. A jury of 30 experts selected six entries from a total of 208 submissions. A section of the Swiss Youth Choir interpreted the six new anthems and will also perform the three best at the final.

From March 30 to May 15, 2015, the six new hymns will be available online at www.chymne.ch for the election. The contributions can be listened to and viewed in all four national languages (German: www.chymne.ch; français: www.hymnenational.ch; italiano: www.innonazionale.ch; rumantsch: www.imninaziunal.ch)

The first online vote will select the three finalists. These will be announced at the end of May and will enter the second online voting from June 8 to September 6.

On September 12, 2015, from 6.10 p.m. to 7.15 p.m., the public can watch the TV show Potzmusig can watch the final on SRF1 and choose the winning entry by text message and telephone. The votes from the second online voting and the final votes will be added together. The authors of the competition entries, who will remain anonymous up to this point, will be announced after the vote.

As soon as the winning entry has achieved the necessary popularity among the population, the relevant federal authorities will be asked to select the winning entry as the new national anthem.

The Swiss Society for the Common Good (SGG)which has been committed to a Switzerland of solidarity and cohesion between the language regions since 1810 and manages the Rütli, among other things, wants to use the new anthem text to promote Switzerland's core values and popularize the preamble, which forms the guiding principle of modern Switzerland.