With a project orchestra with changing musicians who are hired for specific projects, the existing offer could be maintained with financial savings, writes the municipal council in its "2016+ package of measures" for the financial restructuring of the city for the attention of the city council.

The project orchestra costs less than a professional orchestra, but does not have the quality of the professional orchestra's ensemble, the Council itself admits. The abolition of the professional orchestra would have to be negotiated with the various partners. This would lead to nationwide discussions in the media and with professional associations, and would possibly result in bad press for the city.

The abolition would also result in the loss of internship positions in the orchestra, as the quality of the orchestra would no longer meet university standards. Overall, the abolition would lead to the loss of around 50 permanent positions. However, the municipal council is of the opinion that this measure can still be implemented, as "no direct reduction in services for the population is associated with it".

The proposal has already attracted biting comments in the Biel/Bienne press. For example, the Bieler TagblattThe radical cost-cutting measures that the municipal council is now proposing are like buying new skiing equipment and then not going on a skiing vacation for five years in order to save money. TOBS (Theater und Orchester Biel Solothurn) has also recently undergone a complex reorganization process.

The current 2016-2019 service contracts for Biel's cultural institutions, including TOBS (Theater und Orchester Biel Solothurn), have been approved by politicians for the time being.

Anyone looking for something catchy, rhythmically jazzy and melodically romantic in between saxophone lessons will find it in the Sérénade populaire by Paul Lewis is a pleasure for both teacher and pupil. The moderately difficult piece is easily accessible, musically very varied and doesn't require a keyboard muncher at the piano. Unfortunately, in the Allegro, the Sérénade lapses somewhat into a dialogic sprint between saxophone and piano which, apart from cheerful scale capers, brings few compositional escapades or even surprises: "pop" at its best!

Originally composed for harmonica, there are now versions for clarinet, flute and violin in addition to the arrangement for alto saxophone.

Paul Lewis, Sérénade populaire, for alto saxophone and piano, ED 21381, € 13.50, Schott, 2014

A stage completely lined with cardboard boxes, some brown, others white. At the beginning and end of the hall are two large, transparent cylinders made of plastic packaging in which people appear to be hiding.

This could, or perhaps should, be the starting point for reporting on the third event of Neon&Caffeine, the innovative series of contemporary concerts sponsored by the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana.

Based solely on the immediate impression of this evening, however, it would be difficult to understand the motives behind an event of this kind and similar projects that focus on offering new, sophisticated music. Certainly, but Neon&Caffeine is not just a thematic collection of four annual concerts, but also a destination on the decades-long, winding path that contemporary music has taken in southern Alpine Switzerland. It all began in the middle of the last century with isolated, imported programs linked to personalities such as Wladimir Vogel or Hermann Scherchen. It continued in 1977 with the generation of OGGImusica concerts, which emerged both spontaneously and from their own well-meaning ideological breeding ground, and which ultimately led to the decline of the 1990s, when premieres gradually disappeared from the official symphonic repertoire and the audience for the traditional chamber music events dwindled. A revival around the year 2000 seemed to have a good chance thanks to the synergy between Rete Due and the Conservatory, which founded 900presente (still more rooted in the 20th century than the present) and the creation of La Via Lattea, which was, however, difficult to categorize as a concert in the usual setting. But in the middle of the noughties, of all times, we were faced with two potentially definitive facts: the feared dissolution of the OGGImusica association and the regrettable announcement by the director of the Teatro Sociale di Bellinzona that the Swiss Chamber Concerts were coming to an end. Despite all possible efforts, there no longer seemed to be an audience interested in new music.

What did that mean? What could be done about it? Did it really make sense to continue championing contemporary art or did we perhaps simply have to accept that Italian culture was unassailably resistant to this kind of music?

The most determined and positive answer to these justified doubts was provided by a young composer from Ticino, who had returned home immediately after countless visits throughout Europe and had been awarded various prizes. He was motivated to replant the seed of the dying tree in the parched land of his own origin in order to cultivate it in a new, very loving and less dogmatic way. In fact, we owe to Nadir Vassena the revival of OGGImusica, the creation of a viable composition class at the CSL, the constant dialogue with the most important authors and the most credible institutions of national and international scale, as well as the centralized coordination of all the events that now take place under the Lugano Modern label. Of course, it is not the case that Vassena could have done all this alone. But it is undeniable that without a similar personality - Italian-Swiss at heart and at the same time a true and genuine bridge to the north and south - there would be a completely different story to tell here (a dodecaphonic de profundis?).

Vassena's most ingenious invention, more unpredictable, atypical, syncritical and therefore more critical of the times, was to bring concerts to life as true spectacles and to present new music in a completely unfamiliar setting. The problem to be solved was to win back a curious and demanding audience, which over the years had been disappointed (perhaps even betrayed?) by the contemporary music presented in the usual frontal concerts. With the Lanterna Rossa festival in 2010, a mode was found that did not simply place the new music brightly in the center (quasi as a totem of aesthetic experience to be revered a priori), but gave it a perfectly coordinated environment that embraced you during the performance, drew you in and never let go. This was created through lighting effects, video, theater, installations or dance, always in a thematically coherent concept (also thanks to the flourishing inventiveness of director Fabrizio Rosso). In this way, it was indeed possible to reach a large audience anew and bring them into contact with the boldest works of contemporary art.

This predecessor was finally replaced last year by Neon&Caffeine, another festival where new music asserts itself in a quasi-subliminal way. Instead of the characteristic themes, a personality is now at the center of each episode. Preferably not an artist, never a musician, but in any case a person who lives a relationship to creative themes in their daily activities. Last March 5, for example, was the evening of Giosè Casalotto, owner of Finser Packaging. In the video interview, alternating with the musical pieces, he dealt with fundamental themes for both the company and the art of sound, such as invention, risk, confrontation, finance and passion. The works of Steve Reich, Mathias Steinauer and Yves Daoust, as well as the guest protagonist of the event, have been integrated into the stage set made from packages, which also explains the strange decor described here at the beginning. A different and certainly unusual way of offering a functional approach to the most advanced works of musical art and creating a rich, genuine experience for the audience that was thought to have been lost. So let's hope that it will not be lost again.

The prize, awarded by the Credit Suisse Foundation, recognizes outstanding achievements by lecturers. It serves to promote the quality of teaching at university level. It is awarded every three years at one of the three sub-schools of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences.

Born in 1963, Burkhard Kinzler has been teaching music theory, aural training and chamber music at the ZHdK's Department of Music since 2003. He convinced the jury, which consisted of five lecturers from various ZHdK departments and a representative of the student organization, with his high level of expertise and his interactive dialogue with the students, among other things. In a climate of mutual appreciation, Burkhard Kinzler spurs his students on to top performance, according to the statement. 

In addition to his work as a lecturer, Kinzler leads various ensembles and projects, mainly in the field of new music. He founded and directed the vocal ensemble Chroma and was artistic director of the Meersburg Summer Academy. Since 2007 he has been artistic director of the Winterthur Museum Concerts, and since 2009 he has directed the Winterthur Chamber Choir. He is also active as a composer.

The new mission statement cites film-making and the opera house as international attractions. However, artists whose work radiates from Zurich beyond the country's borders would also contribute to this. Financial resources have been reserved for regional associations and cultural life in the municipalities from 2015. The canton intends to support interested regions with advice and networking services.

The future cantonal promotion of culture will also focus more on the entire creative process, from the artistic idea to its realization. The experience of culture is also a right to which all sections of the population are entitled, the canton continues. In future, cantonal cultural promotion will therefore also strengthen culture as a bridge between generations, regions, traditions and cultures.

The culture department (www.fachstellekultur.zh.ch) intends to present the new mission statement at two public information events. They will take place on March 24 in Zurich and April 1 in Winterthur.
 

Mayor Christophe Girard and city councillor Karen Taieb want to prevent the commemorative plaque because they accuse Henri Dutilleux, who died in 2013, of collaborating with the Nazis. The reason they give is that the composer wrote the music for an alleged propaganda film, the 1942 documentary "Forces sur le stade", which propagated the benefits of sport for the Vichy regime.

Henri Dutilleux worked as a teacher and musician in Paris during the occupation and directed the choir of the Paris Opera from 1942. From 1945 he was head of the music department at Radio France. His friends included Mstislav Rostropovich and Isaac Stern.

In a Online petition prominent French musicians defend themselves against what they see as an unfounded allegation. They accuse Girard and Taieb of historical incompetence and emphasize that Dutilleux was actively involved in the resistance against the National Socialists and their French collaborators during the Paris occupation.

After studying economics at the University of Bern, Christoph Schäfer studied music at the Lucerne School of Music and the International Music College in Fribourg. He is currently studying for a Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy at the Bern University of the Arts, majoring in jazz piano. He also works as a music teacher at the Gymnasium Biel-Seeland in Biel and as a freelance artist.

The European School Music Prize (ESP) is awarded to teachers and schools who know how to "inspire young people to actively make music with new ideas and great concepts". The ESP also aims to "document outstanding and exemplary examples of creative work with musical instruments in schools and make them accessible to the public". The ESP is awarded in six categories and is endowed with prize money totaling 21,000 euros. The prize is awarded at the Musikmesse Frankfurt.

The entrance is controlled in a very earthly way, no unauthorized persons are allowed in. The concerts at the opening festival of cantars in Basel are tightly organized and yet everything runs smoothly, not to say heavenly. At twelve o'clock on March 14, the church sound festival opens in Basel Minster with a spiritual spectacle. This will be followed by more than 20 concerts lasting a maximum of 40 minutes every hour until midnight, some of which will take place simultaneously in five different churches. This event model will be followed within three months by around 440 concerts with 12,000 participants on 36 occasions, each under the care of its own organizational team. A total audience of around 100,000 is expected.

In 14 cantons

Cantars is now taking place for the second time not only in the diocese of Basel as in 2011, but on a larger scale in the cantons of AG, BE, BS/BL, FR, GR, LU, SG, SH, SO, SZ, TG, VS and ZH. The Swiss Catholic Church Music Association, supported by the Swiss Church Choral Federation, is organizing this remarkable event.

The preparations took three years under the direction of Sandra Rupp Fischer. On the evening of the first day of the event, they culminated in a first highlight, the ceremony in Basel's Predigerkirche. The simple and at the same time impressive celebration was entirely in keeping with the cantars motto: diverse - connecting - cross-border - forward-looking. There were baroque brass sounds, songs in various styles including the cantars jingle by Christoph Honegger and keyboard improvisations, young and old, choirs from different cantons and guests sang together, and Catholics and Protestants met in the Christkatholiken church, fluttering Balinese prayer flags.

Diverse church music

The guest speakers (Bishop Markus Büchel, President of the Swiss Bishops' Conference, Pastor Gottfried Locher, President of the Council of the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches and Pastor Michael Bangert, host Predigerkirche and representative of the Swiss Christian Catholic Church) emphasized the extraordinary importance of church music, which is practiced in so many different ways, for culture in general and the church in particular, while keynote speaker Anita Fetz (SP/BS) emphasized the ecumenical background to our national anthem, the Swiss Psalms, brought to the fore.

Conclusion

A visit to some of the events revealed the broad spectrum of contemporary church music. For example, classical and baroque music thrilled the audience under the energetic leadership of a capable conductor and polished in sound by professional instrumentalists and soloists. Or a cleverly put together program almost made the unmistakable weaknesses of another choir forgotten. One would have wanted to listen to an excellent male voice ensemble for a long time, while elsewhere the performance lasted far too long after the first few bars. Of course, these concerts were only a tiny fraction of all the performances that will be heard during cantars 2015. Nevertheless, a summary statement is permitted: choral music - regardless of style - sounds most beautiful where it is competently conducted, i.e. where the potential of an ensemble is recognized and optimally developed.

Cantars (from Latin cantare - sing and ars - Art) now offers the opportunity until the beginning of June to get to know the most diverse aspects of church culture in concerts, exhibitions, lectures, encounters, readings, guided tours ... Some of the main themes from the 36 events are highlighted here:

The Schweizer Musikzeitung is a media partner of cantars.

The so-called otoacoustic emissions of the ear have been known since the late 1970s, but their origin has remained a mystery until now. The new study now compares the emissions of human ears in detail with those of barn owls and green anole lizards and suggests a uniform mechanism of origin across genus boundaries.

According to Köppl, the sensory cells in the inner ear are the common element. In the course of evolution, this has developed into a spiral-shaped cochlea in mammals and a long banana-shaped inner ear structure in birds.

In normal everyday life, ears very rarely emit sound themselves; this is usually virtually suppressed by the incoming ambient noise. In a soundproof chamber, however, spontaneous emissions can either be measured after about ten minutes of absolute silence or they can be elicited by means of acoustic stimuli. If these otoacoustic emissions - which are somewhat more frequent in women for unknown reasons - were amplified, they would sound like a whistle and would even be polyphonic in some people.

According to Köppl, otoacoustic emissions are very prominent in infants and young children and therefore also form the basis of newborn hearing screening. A better understanding of otoacoustic emissions could also enable more differentiated diagnostics in the future.

Original article:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/03/02/1418569112
 

Spoerri had initially reported the plagiarism to Suisa, which represents the rights of Swiss musicians. Suisa blocked payments and informed other companies about the dispute. Because Jay Z and his producer Timbaland initially ignored the complaint, Spoerri went public with it a year ago.

The Americans subsequently offered a settlement and, according to the online portal Watson 25,000 dollars in compensation. Too little for Spoerri. After the latter called in American lawyers, Jay Z, who had already lost a similar lawsuit once before, relented.

According to the agreement that has now been signed, Spoerri will receive half of the authorship in one piece. As Spoerri told the Basler Daily Week the trial also had indirect consequences for him. He has received a whole series of engagements, from festivals in Geneva, Brussels and Hamburg. The indirect benefit is therefore greater than the direct one.
 

The Winterthur City Council welcomes the fact that the law allows music schools to offer extracurricular music lessons for children, adolescents and young adults up to the age of 25. In principle, the City Council does not question the high quality requirements for music schools.

What the city council finds objectionable about the bill, however, is that the canton sets high quality requirements for the recognition of music schools, but at the same time is only prepared to make a minimal contribution to the costs. In the consultation responses, the municipalities and music schools demanded a cantonal contribution of twenty percent, writes the city of Winterthur. In addition, infrastructure costs were not classified as eligible for a contribution.

The bill stipulates that music schools must guarantee a minimum offer and access to an extended musical offer, have a qualified school management and ensure that music lessons are taught by music school teachers with a university diploma or equivalent training.

The bill also does not do justice to the constitutional mandate to promote gifted pupils, the city council continued. It does state that musical talents and particularly talented pupils should be supported. However, the canton is not prepared to make an appropriate contribution to the costs incurred and to the expenses of the support centers (special music schools).

The City of Winterthur suggests that the canton's share of costs be raised to at least twenty percent during the deliberations by the cantonal parliament and that the passage "infrastructure costs are not considered eligible operating costs" be removed without replacement.

Photo: Machine park of the nail factory in Winterthur. Roland zh/wikimedia commons

According to the University of Bern, 26 doctoral students from the fields of design, dance, conservation and music are currently enrolled on the Bern doctoral program. 16 of them are students or employees of the HKB, ten come from different universities - from Bern to Zurich to Harvard in the USA.

For graduates of universities of applied sciences, access to the three-year doctoral program is via a special Master's course at the university. This one-year course makes it possible to fulfill the formal requirements and make up for deficits in the scientific and methodological area.

The GSA is intended to give new impetus to both research and art and open up new perspectives and fields of research. "Initially, there were prejudices against the GSA - from both sides," explains Beate Hochholdinger-Reiterer, Professor of Theater Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy and History at the University of Bern and Deputy Director of the GSA. In the meantime, the skepticism has faded.

The Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF and the Commission for Technology and Innovation CTI have also become aware of the hybrid model: The GSA has already acquired third-party funding of four million Swiss francs.

Kathleen McNurney will remain Artistic Director of the "Tanz Luzerner Theater" company. Brigitte Heusinger, currently Opera Director at the Saarländisches Staatstheater Saarbrücken, will manage the music theater division together with Benedikt von Peter and assist him in artistic matters as Deputy Director.

Kathleen McNurney has led the "Tanz Luzerner Theater" company since the beginning of the 2009/10 season and can thus continue her development work. According to the theater's press release, she has brought both renowned choreographers and up-and-coming talents to the Lucerne Theater and shown audiences a variety of contemporary dance languages.

Brigitte Heusinger from Hamburg was an opera dramaturge at Theater Basel from 2006 to 2012. There she worked with Christoph Marthaler, Hans Neuenfels and Philipp Stölzl, among others. She has been opera director at the Saarländisches Staatstheater Saarbrücken since 2012.

The 6th International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition took place from February 28 to March 4. Following a pre-selection process, a total of seven string trios and six string quartets from all over the world took part in the competition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In the string quartet category, the Pacific Quartet Vienna and the Abel Quartet were each awarded first prize. In addition, the Pacific Quartet Vienna won further prizes, namely the prize for the best interpretation of a composition by Joseph Haydn and the audience prize in the string quartet category.

The Pacific Quartet Vienna was founded in November 2006. In addition to its concert activities, it promotes cultural exchange between Japan and Austria and Switzerland respectively. Here, for example, it will be performing on March 27 at 7.30 pm in the Lavatersaal in Zurich or on June 3 as part of the Dachkammer concerts in the Violin making school Brienz.
 

In 1996, Jenny established the Gartenflügel Foundation to promote (inter)cultural issues, according to the press release from the canton of Glarus. With the foundation, he provides decisive impetus to cultural life in the Glarus region, supports cultural exchange and also promotes projects in Nepal, a country to which he is particularly attached. The centerpiece and flagship of the foundation is the Gartenflügel gallery on the family's factory premises in Ziegelbrücke.

The Glarus Culture Prize, endowed with CHF 20,000, is awarded every two years. The last winner was the actor Herbert Leiser from Obstalden.

The Braunwald Music Week has been held once a year since 1936. The event, which was founded on the initiative of Nelly Schmid and Antoine-Elisée Cherbuliez, began with lectures. National and international artists played the examples requested by the speakers to demonstrate their explanations.

A novelty is the excursion introduced by Robert Jenny, called the school trip, down into the Linth valley. The participants explore the surrounding area, and there are concert opportunities in completely unfamiliar places.