The Department of Justice and Security has submitted an application to the State Secretariat for Migration for a hardship regulation for those musicians from third countries for whom there was a chance of obtaining a permit, the canton writes further.

The State Secretariat for Migration has assessed 15 applications positively "after a thorough examination of each individual case". Two people will receive a permit as part of family reunification. This means that a total of 17 musicians will be able to stay and work in Switzerland permanently in future.

In October, the Basel Office for Economic Affairs and Labor announced that it was examining a hardship regulation with the Federal Office for Migration for the musicians affected. At that time, it was still said that 20 of the 55 musicians affected would fall under this scheme. Since then, no solutions have been found for 38 musicians.

Four first prize winners will each receive 15,000 francs. These are Beatriz Blanco (violoncello) , Horváth Benedek (piano) , Polina Ushakova (piano) and David Dias da Silva (clarinet). Agnes Vass (flute) , Marco Amherd (organ) , Joachim Müller-Crepon (violoncello) , Sherniyaz Mussakhan (violin) , Raul Calvo Royo (trumpet) and Carlos Tarancon (bassoon) each received a second prize (10,000 francs). Marco Amherd and Joachim Müller-Crepon have been awarded the Prix Collard.

A total of 82 young instrumentalists and singers were invited to take part in this year's KHS competition. Participation requires Swiss citizenship or at least a residence permit in Switzerland. Since 1965, a professional diploma has also been required. The age limits are set at 28 years for musicians and 30 years for singers.
 

What the founders considered a risk in 2011 is now regarded as the most important European festival for young musicians. Festival director Drazen Domjanic and Jürg Kesselring, president of the association Next Generation - Classic Festival Bad Ragaz and Peter P. Tschirky, Chairman of the Management Board of the Bad Ragaz Grand Resort, made the right decision five years ago: very young, excellent musicians perform famous, often virtuoso pieces of music in an atmospheric setting that also attracts a solvent audience. The concept worked, because today the festival is supported by numerous sponsors and patrons. Every year, more and more guests book a stay at the internationally renowned Wellbeing and Medical Health Resort during the festival, where beautiful music and direct interaction with the stars of tomorrow are also part of the care of well-being.

The talented musicians from all over the world, aged between 10 and 28, not only perform as soloists, they can also be heard in numerous chamber music events and now also as an orchestra, the newly founded chamber orchestra of the International Academy of Music in the Principality of Liechtenstein.
This year, 41 musicians from 21 countries have been invited to the festival. Many of them are coming via the Domjanic-led International Academy of Music in the Principality of Liechtensteinsix are finalists in the Eurovision Young Musicians (the European Broadcasting Union's competition for young musicians aged 15 to 19), some of whom were selected for the Swiss Youth Music Competition excellent.
Between February 6 and 13, 15 concerts will take place. Artists in residence are guitarist Petrit Çeku from Kosovo and Russian violinist Yury Revich. The exchange with the next generation of audiences is ensured with special concerts for schoolchildren.

Some of Next Generation's hopefuls have already made the leap to the big stages: cellists Luka Šulić and Kian Soltani and violinist Adrien Boisseau.

The next festival will take place from February 12 to 19, 2016.

Program and further information: www.festivalnextgeneration.com
 

According to the Department of Cultural Affairs and Services of the City of Winterthur, the studio residency includes a contribution towards living costs of CHF 1,000 per month. Artists and cultural practitioners from all disciplines are invited to apply.

Interested parties should send their application by May 15, 2015 to the Department of Culture and Services, Culture Division, reference "Atelier Berlin", Stadthaus, 8402 Winterthur. In addition to the application form, the application should include a short CV, documentation of previous work and details of the intended artistic activities in Berlin. The Culture Department will assess the applications received and propose candidates to the City Council for the studio residency.

Further information from the City of Winterthur, Culture Department:
Phone: 052 267 51 94
E-Mail: kultur@win.ch
Website: http://kultur.winterthur.ch/kulturfoerderung
 

Following the call for applications, the Office for Culture received 21 applications. All genres of contemporary music were represented. After three rounds of deliberation, the jury decided unanimously in favor of Feldermelder's application. The electronic musician Manuel Oberholzer intends to use the grant to produce his fourth solo album, create two video clips, design his new show and launch a Europe-wide advertising campaign.

The expert jury was made up of Yvan Pochon, adjunct at the Office for Culture and president of the jury, René Aeberhard, cultural manager and member of the cantonal commission for cultural affairs, Anya della Croce, program director at Fri-Son, Gilles Dupuis, program director of the jazz cellar La Spirale, and Yann Zitouni, producer at French-speaking Switzerland Radio.

The Fribourg Scholarship for Contemporary Music was introduced in 2013; it amounts to a maximum of CHF 30,000 and is awarded every two years by the EKSD. The 2017/18 scholarship will be announced in fall 2016.

According to the foundation, the Ansgar Bestborn in Malmö in 1981 and living in Norway, completed his studies (2002-2013) with degrees in conducting, composition, piano, music theory and cultural management. His composition teachers were Michael Obst (Weimar), Luca Francesconi (Malmö), Adriana Hölszky (Salzburg), Wolfgang Rihm (Karlsruhe), Hanspeter Kyburz (Berlin) and Beat Furrer (Graz).

In 2010 he won 1st prize at the 55th Composition Prize of the State Capital Stuttgart, in 2011 the ZEITklang Prize 2011 (Austria), in 2012 2nd prize at the Uppsala Composition Competition. He received commissions from IGNM Austria in 2011, from Ensemble intercontemporain in 2012 and for a work for the Acusticum organ in Piteå (Sweden) in 2014. He also received scholarships from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music 2008-12, from the Free State of Bavaria, from the Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt 2012, from the State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the State of Lower Saxony 2014. His music has been performed at festivals in Scandinavia, Central Europe and South America as well as in New York.

In the steppes of Sápmi reflects the repetitive, steppe-like landscape of Sápmi (Lapland) by combining six animal joiks (i.e. Sami folk songs imitating the animals of the region) with vocal preparation, extended vocal techniques and elements of vocal percussion. The work was selected by an international jury of five (Carola Bauckholt, Dorothea Bossert, Luisa Castellani, Roland Moser and Mark Sattler) from over sixty submissions from all over the world.

The composition competition of the Christoph Del Foundationz, based in Basel, was held for the sixth time in 2015; it will continue to take place every three years in future. The foundation established by Swiss pianist and composer Christoph Delz (1950-1993) is thus fulfilling its main purpose. This year's competition is being held for the third time in collaboration with the Lucerne Festival. The prize is endowed with 50,000 Swiss francs. The Christoph Delz Foundation is also supporting the world premiere of the work by the SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart under the direction of Marcus Creed on September 13, 2015.

Previous winners were Thomas Amann (Austria) in 2012, Hans Thomalla (Germany) and Michael Pelzel (Switzerland) in 2006, Sam Hayden (Great Britain) in 2003 and Nora Elsa Ponte (Argentina) in 2000.

www.ansgarbeste.com
www.delz.ch
 

In its proposal to the Grand Council, the Government Council proposes a continuation of the state contribution to Theater Basel in the amount of CHF 40,638,645 per year for the 2015/2016 season, of CHF 40,463,645 for the 2016/2017 season and CHF 40,338,645 for each of the 2017/2018 to 2018/2019 seasons (in each case a good CHF 30 million basic state contribution, CHF 1,000,000 structural contribution, CHF 2,600,000 assumption of employer costs for staff pensions, CHF 6,574,789 contribution for orchestra services). This results in a total state contribution of CHF 161,779,580. The state contribution thus remains at the current financial level.

The current renewal of the contract coincides with the appointment of the new theater director Andreas Beck, who was elected in October 2013 and will officially take over the management of the theater at the start of the 2015/2016 season. His ideas regarding content and operations are outlined in the council proposal and are in line with the content of the current Basel-Stadt cultural mission statement, the canton writes further.

Following the lost vote in the canton of Basel-Landschaft in February 2011, the Grand Council approved an additional structural contribution of CHF 1 million to Theater Basel for the 2011/12 season. It was decided to continue the additional structural contribution for the remainder of the current subsidy period. The Government Council is of the opinion that this situation has not changed in view of the unchanged contributions to Theater Basel and therefore requests that the structural contribution be continued.

According to a press release from the canton, the canton is maintaining its support where "its contribution as one of the main patrons is significant, but is reducing it where it is secondary". This has a particular impact on the promotion of music.

Only "concerts with professional orchestras consisting mainly of musicians and/or soloists who maintain regular, significant and sustainable relationships with the Valais and who promote the development and charisma of amateur formations at a high level" will be supported. Particular attention is paid to "the professionalism of the various parties involved, including the organizers, as well as the support provided by the municipalities and the musicians' fees".

In the performing arts, the staging or choreography of amateur productions by a professional director or choreographer will no longer be supported. In order to receive long-term support, the ensembles must demonstrate that they are capable of "performing their productions in professional circles". From now on, support for the programming of a professional theater in Valais will be announced as part of the annual budget.

The area of cultural promotion, under the responsibility of Axel Roduit, has been reorganized. The various divisions are now divided as follows: Axel Roduit, cultural advisor for music (MusikPro, music education), film, interdisciplinary projects and artist residencies; René-Philippe Meyer, from 1 March 2015, cultural advisor for visual arts (ArtPro) and performing arts (TheaterPro); Nicole Grieve, responsible for mediation, cultural advisor for literature, science and cultural assets, mediation programs and the Kulturfunken institution; Jacques Cordonier, head of service, responsible for the Culture and Tourism Fund in collaboration with the Economic Development Department.

During the guided tour through Oh Yeah! Pop music in Switzerland advises pop chronicler Sam Mumenthaler: "Plug in your headphones and listen, by all means." The exhibition at the Museum of Communication in Bern is accessible to visitors not least thanks to extensive audio documents - the organizers have compiled almost 420 minutes of audio material. You can immerse yourself in pop history at numerous stations. You can listen to forgotten Swiss singles such as Honolulu Rock (1960) by the Honolulu Girls or Be Bop A Lula (1963) by Les Faux Frères from French-speaking Switzerland. Or listen to the comments of radio presenter François Mürner - nicknamed FM - who insists, among other things, that the pop of the nineties was particularly creative.

Make audible

Spread over two rooms and more than 350 square meters, the show also features original objects. You will come across an amplifier by Jimi Hendrix, Hazy Osterwald's trumpet called "Susy" and a bloodstained setlist by Züri West. Mumenthaler, drummer with the Bernese dialect rockers until 1986, remembers the circumstances: "At a concert in Schaffhausen, singer Kuno Lauener jumped up, hit the low ceiling, tore his rind and had to go to hospital briefly." However, the aim of the two curators, Kurt Stadelmann and Sam Mumenthaler, was not just to collect countless memorabilia, but to focus on pop, rock and punk. Unlike the special exhibition presented last year by the Basel Museum of Music pop@basel (see SMZ 12/2013, S. 26), the focus in Bern is not local, but national - and extremely broad. "We didn't want to make an exhibition about any stars," emphasizes Stadelmann. Oh Yeah! Pop music in Switzerland lives from the sound and the video clips shown. "We want to trigger emotions."

The question of how to show music proved to be the biggest challenge during the preparations, says Mumenthaler. The technical solution that would allow visitors to simply plug in their headphones without having to press a start button was not available on the market. Nevertheless, the Museum of Communication managed to pull it off.

Twenty years ago, such a show would not have been feasible, Stadelmann is certain. Probably also because the media hardly ever took a serious look at the subject of pop until well into the 1980s. When private radio stations emerged in Switzerland 30 years ago and both DRS3 and its counterpart in French-speaking Switzerland, Couleur 3, were founded, a breath of fresh air arose. This led to a professionalization of the music scene - at all levels. A letter like the one written by the Honolulu Girls, Switzerland's first girl group, in 1960 would have been unthinkable 25 years later: The four girls from Basel asked the radio studio in their home town - almost submissively - if they could play on the station one day.

Set accents

Because the topic of pop is almost immeasurable, it was important to make choices and set accents. "We deliberately didn't set out any theses in advance," says Mumenthaler. Although these did emerge in the course of the preparations, they were never brought to the fore. The musicians' point of view was also omitted. "We don't want to convey how a pop song is created, but rather to work through it historically." Because a little bit of local color is allowed Oh Yeah! Pop music in Switzerland and the Bernese scene. While Mani Matter had a difficult time with rock fans for a long time, Polo Hofer knew how to use the boost from the Zurich Minstrels and their hit Grüezi wohl, Mrs. Stirnimaa to use it: He succeeded in making dialect acceptable in rock. Subsequent artists such as Stiller Has, Patent Ochsner and Gölä have benefited and continue to benefit from this pioneering work.

But whether in Bern, Zurich or Basel: "Pop has to do with youth. You don't talk about songs, you make them," says Mumenthaler. Of course, pop is no longer just the prerogative of young people. This can be seen from the fact that Kuno Lauener has been in the business since 1984 and Stephane Eicher even four years longer. Oh Yeah! Pop music in Switzerland doesn't judge. Musical lightweights such as DJ Bobo or Peter, Sue & Marc can be found alongside Yello or the Young Gods, who are among the few ground-breaking pop artists that our country has produced to date. The exhibition does not conceal the fact that Switzerland is a hotbed of copyists. Trends are not created in this country, they are imported.

Dig yourself

There is no in-depth examination of the last 15 years of music. The reason for this is the lack of distance, say the two exhibition organizers. Instead, they have limited themselves to 42 music videos from this period, from King Pepe to Heidi Happy. Visitors should make up their own minds. Oh Yeah! Pop music in Switzerland is like a well-stocked treasure trove in which you can rummage to your heart's content. Golden records, music magazines and concert posters bring the past to life. You discover, see and hear - and the planned hour-long visit turns into three in no time at all. After 60 years, pop may have lost its subversive power and social relevance, but it continues to fascinate. Or as François Mürner says? "Pop culture is simply sexy."
The exhibition can be seen until July 19, Tuesdays to Sundays from 10 am to 5 pm.

As the museum announced on June 4 Oh yeah! extended until August 30, 2015. The reason for this is the extraordinary success of this exhibition.

www.mfk.ch

"The Mizmorim Festival owes its name to biblical songs and psalms, the Mizmorim, which represent the musical form of prayer and the exchange of ideas in the Jewish faith." This is how the website explains it www.mizmorimfestival.com. A group of dedicated musicians led by the renowned clarinettist Chen Halevi, with the active support of the Jewish Community of Basel, realized a high-quality, enjoyable music festival with music worth listening to.

In his welcoming address, the President of the Jewish Community of Basel, Guy Rueff, who is also the festival's Chief Financial Officer, hoped that Mizmorim would have the same significance for Jewish music in Basel in a few years' time as the Swiss Indoors has for tennis: "Everyone started small once." - This statement suited the modest audience attendance, but not the performance, which deserved a much larger audience.

The "New Jewish School" as a national style
While the national schools of music in Russia, the Czech Republic, Spain and Norway, for example, were able to develop unhindered and take root in the cultural consciousness, the development of the Jewish school was forcibly ended after just three decades, first by Stalinism and then by National Socialism. In 1908, Jewish composers began to take an interest in the sources of their music - as a result of the newly awakened national consciousness that was consolidated at the first Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897. Russia became the center of the Jewish national movement in music. The "Society for Jewish Folk Music" was founded in St. Petersburg. At the beginning, the focus was on collecting, editing and publishing Jewish folklore. Hundreds of concerts at home and abroad, readings and ethnological expeditions were organized. Many composers were given a platform to present their works. In the first phase, the composers Joseph Achron, Michail Gnesin, Alexander and Grigori Krejn as well as Alexander Weprik played an important role. At the end of the 1920s, the company's headquarters were moved to Moscow. Increasingly imbued with communist ideas, it had to cease its activities in Russia completely at the end of 1929.

In the meantime, however, activities had spread throughout Europe and also to Switzerland. Vienna became the new center. The most important composers here were Israel Brandmann, Joachim Stutschewsky and Juliusz Wolfsohn. In 1938, it was finally National Socialism that prevented the groups from continuing to exist. Stutschewsky fled to Switzerland and, on the eve of the Second World War, organized concerts of Jewish music in Zurich and Basel together with his friend and fellow musician Alexander Schaichet. As Russian Jews, the two had already been forced to flee to Switzerland for the first time in 1914. While the violinist Schaichet established himself in Zurich, Stutschewsky went to Vienna in 1924. The two had already performed a number of concerts during this first stay.

In addition to established members of the Swiss scene such as Zurich drummer Charly Antolini or the masters of classical jazz Beat Baumli and Jürg Morgenthaler, the nominees include representatives of a new generation, Bernese singer Myria Poffet, who brilliantly celebrates jazz standards with her trio, and 25-year-old Raphael Jost from Thurgau, a singer, pianist and songwriter who moves between swing, pop and hip-hop. Also nominated is the Lucerne band Piri Piri, which has dedicated itself to gipsy swing, a style of music that is also very popular in Switzerland today.

Members of the expert jury are Sai Nobel, music editor at Radio Swiss Jazz, Andrea Engi, president of the Jazz Club Chur and member of Swiss Jazzorama, Mirko Vaiz, Migros Culture Percentage Jazz, Stewy von Wattenwyl, director of the Swiss Jazz School Bern and winner of the Swiss Jazz Award 2014, Beat Blaser, music editor at Radio SRF 2 Kultur/Jazz, bandleader and musician Pepe Lienhard, Markus Hauser from the St. Moritz Jazz Festival and Jazz Ascona director Nicolas Gilliet.

The Swiss Jazz Award has been presented by Radio Swiss Jazz and Jazz Ascona with the support of Migros Culture Percentage since 2007. Last year's winners: Nicole Herzog and Stewy von Wattenwyl (2014), Chris Conz Trio (2013), Christine Jaccard & Dave Ruosch (2012), Alexia Gardner (2011) and the Dani Felber Big Band (2010). Hazy Osterwald (2009) and Pepe Lienhard (2006) received a Swiss Jazz Lifetime Achievement Award.

The prize will be awarded at the closing evening of the Jazz Ascona summer festival on Sunday, June 28, 2015. The online voting runs until April 12, 2015 on www.swissjazzaward.ch.

According to several media reports, the musician died shortly after collapsing. The concert by the Junge Philharmoniker, which featured Richard Strauss' Alpine Symphony op. 64, was part of the "Szenenwechsel" festival, which opened at the weekend.

Yinon studied conducting, music theory and composition at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv and at the Academy of Music in Jerusalem. He has conducted numerous renowned orchestras as a guest conductor, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic London, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Antwerp, the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin.

The STV writes in an official letter that the tightening of the AWA's administrative practices would not only be a bitter setback for the freelance musicians living in Basel, but would also be tantamount to a cultural impoverishment of Switzerland.

In the letter, the management of the Swiss Association of Musicians pleads "in particular for an industry-appropriate application of the so-called Foreign Nationals Act to highly qualified Swiss music academy graduates from non-EU/EFTA countries". It would be simply unacceptable if musicians had to leave Switzerland based on an undifferentiated view of "overall economic interest" that is far removed from the industry.

More info: www.asm-stv.ch

The background to the conference was the HKB research project Growing Up - The Emancipation of Jazz in Switzerland 1965-1980which runs until the beginning of 2016. Researchers from all over Europe exchanged ideas and contributed to regional jazz-specific research questions. In a thoroughly productive and positive atmosphere, the long-established jazz researchers reported on their experiences and in turn served as role models for the next generation of researchers, doctoral students from various institutes, who presented their dissertations and projects. Presentations were given in German, English and French, constructive discussions were held, new suggestions were made, research questions were raised and new results were achieved.

Institutes for jazz research from the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, the University of Lucerne, the Bern University of Music, the Amsterdam Conservatoire, the University of Leeds and Salford as well as the Université de Paris, University of Stavanger, Siena, Dortmund and Budapest were represented at the conference. In total, there were seven panels on different topics, with the European research project Rhythm Changes had submitted two complete panels. This was initiated by the University of Salford and cooperates with the universities of Graz, Birmingham City, Stavanger, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Lancaster. The project's research focuses on national concepts of jazz and their identities through international comparison.

The conference Growing up - Jazz in Europe 1960-1980 began with a lecture by the German musicologist, author and musician Ekkehard Jost, who was invited as keynote speaker and asked in his presentation whether there is a European identity for jazz at all. The second keynote speaker was Swiss musician Bruno Spoerri, author of the book Jazz in Switzerlandwhich has already been the subject of a SRF documentary series. He reported on his experiences with jazz in Switzerland and was delighted that this conference was being held, which would provide a new impetus for jazz research in Switzerland.

The first panel dealt with new styles and musical aesthetics in jazz from 1960 to 1980, followed by one on the training opportunities on a professional basis at the time. Other panels dealt with national identities and Swiss perspectives, jazz during the Cold War and jazz from the perspective of gender research. The final panel Changing Identities on the last day of the conference.

The concerts during the conference are particularly worth mentioning. There were two lecture concerts, the first with Pierre Favre on drums and the second with Thomas Mejer, who spoke about the music of Mani Planzer and was accompanied musically by three students. The evenings were spent in the Jazzkantine Lucerne, where concerts with students from the three music academies of Lucerne, Bern and Lausanne took place and on the last evening the Swiss jazz pianist Irène Schweizer performed with the Swiss drummer Pierre Favre.

In summary, it can be said that a very productive exchange between jazz scholars, musicologists and musicians from all over Europe took place over the three days, which not only consisted of theory, but was also put into practice through the concerts. The developments of jazz in its two most eventful decades were illuminated and the conference - at last since Bruno Spoerri's book - got the ball rolling in Swiss jazz research.
 

The participants can qualify for the final via two preliminary rounds, where they will have the opportunity to win the title of "Best Young Band 2015" at the Openair Altendorf. The winning band will be sponsored by Migros Culture Percentage for one year. They can record their own songs in a professional studio and receive various concert support as well as professional tips for their career as a band.

The preliminary rounds will take place in Freienbach and Brunnen, the final at the Openair Altendorf on Saturday, August 22, 2015. Verbal feedback will be given at the preliminary rounds. The bands will be notified in writing if they have qualified for the final.

More info: www.bandXsz.ch