A production and design concept for the chamber opera is required White rose by Udo Zimmermann. The technical requirements of the Cologne Opera must be taken into account. Stage plans and technical data will be provided by Camerata Nuova after registration for the competition. Registration deadline is November 30, 2014.

The concept must be submitted to the Camerata Nuova in Wiesbaden in writing and with sketches, possibly with a stage design model, by December 31, 2014. The final will take place in May 2015 as part of the Opera Europa spring conference. The jury is made up of directors and experts from the European opera scene. The winning concept will be performed at the Cologne Opera in the 2016/2017 season.

Every two years, Opera Europa, an association of over 150 European opera houses, and the Wiesbadener Camerata Nuova e. V., an association of opera lovers, announce the EOP - European Opera Directing Prize, a competition for young opera directors. Three prizes are awarded, with prize money of 30,000 euros.

More info:
www.camerata-nuova.com
 

Klaus Hubmann, Managing Director HabitatStephan Schmidt, Director of the Music Academy and Bernhard Ley, Head of the Jazz Department at the Basel University of Music, were clearly delighted when they presented the new jazz campus to a huge crowd of media representatives. Visibly proud, but also modest and grateful, they talked about the advantages of this fairytale building at Utengasse 15/17, right in the heart of Kleinbasel. And the journalists rubbed their eyes in disbelief. What they saw here no longer exists in culture and education today - unless you meet people who are interested and have the financial means to do so. This is what happened when "Mr. Jazz School" Bernhard Ley was supported in his search for new school premises by the Habitat and Levedo was unexpectedly presented with the proposal to realize a new jazz campus as part of the neighbourhood revitalization plans on Utengasse.

In this miraculous way, a small school with a total of 250 pupils, 64 students and 45 teachers was able to enjoy what is essentially an oversized temple to music with an infrastructure that is unique in the world. It was agreed not to disclose the money involved, but the total costs are likely to be in the upper double-digit million range.

The best is just good enough

The initial situation was paradisiacal: in 2008, three years before the start of construction, people began to think about it. Foundation managers, architects, teachers and students went out into the "green field" and thought up the ideal school. They looked at a number of schools abroad and organized brainstorming sessions and seminars with students. Ideas, wishes and "nice-to-haves" were collected. Construction began in May 2011. The old factory and residential buildings were all demolished. Only the protected front building on Utengasse was retained. In order for the construction work to take place at all, parts of a historic adjacent building had to be dismantled and then rebuilt. The architects Buol&Zünd created a new building with a historicizing aesthetic, with parts of the building in light-coloured exposed brick arranged at different angles to each other. The two basement floors, the first floor and the four upper floors of the new school building contain a volume of 23,400m3 and almost 6000 m2 of gross floor area, which corresponds to 30 detached houses. The inner courtyard retains its original slope. Under a brick arbor, an open-air fireplace invites you to linger in comfort.

No savings were made on materials, on the contrary. They were never satisfied with the second-best solution, even if the best was three times as expensive. Acoustically, the best possible concept was realized. Before the 49 music rooms were individually equipped, sound absorbers were installed in a test room to simulate the acoustic properties. Each room was deliberately given its own acoustics; the high, mid and low frequency absorbers were arranged differently to take account of the different sound preferences of the musicians and the special features of the instruments. In addition to two superbly equipped studios with recording rooms, the spacious rooms include a jazz club, a performance hall, a recording hall and a movement hall, each with an area of well over 100 m2.

The extremely high demands on the building acoustics required a solid construction. The optimally insulated outer shell ensures very low energy consumption and has the highest level of sound insulation. The two studios were built as a "house within a house". There is a space between the two walls without sound bridges, so that not even a helicopter can be heard directly overhead. The studios are equipped with both digital and analog recording technology, which is exclusive these days. All rooms are individually connected with separate ventilation ducts to fifteen monoblocks in the second basement. This avoids sound bridges between the rooms. Each room is also electrically autonomous and equipped with its own fuses.

A rare constellation
What has happened to Bernhard Ley over the past three decades is indeed like a fairytale, a fairytale in which the current Director of the Jazz Department at the University of Music was a key player. As a student of jazz guitar at the Graz University of Music, he was still spinning the threads. When he returned to his home town, he was able to start teaching in the "Jazzcasino" on a purely private basis. In 1991, a supporting association was founded for the purpose of establishing a professional department recognized by the Swiss Music Pedagogical Association (SMPV). Five years later, the center moved to Reinacherstrasse. In 1999/2000, a "to zero" decision in the Grand Council made it possible to integrate the professional department into the Basel Music Academy. The General Department followed suit in 2007. The enterprising director had hardly got the General Department under his belt when he thought one step further. As the premises on Reinacherstrasse were gradually becoming too cramped and the infrastructure no longer met the requirements of an internationally oriented school, Ley set about looking for a new home. As part of the redesign of the Volkshaus on Claraplatz, he evaluated a possible collaboration. The Habitat Foundation got wind of this - and the rest is history.

The Jazzcampus is a school for the ages - the buzzword "sustainability" is just the first name here - which is already causing a stir in the scene worldwide. Bernhard Ley also anticipates a strong internationalization of the student and lecturer body. The Jazzcampus is designed as an open school that is accessible to students and teaching staff 24 hours a day. It will also be open to the city. The jazz club, designed for an audience of 150, is intended to attract the public and get them excited about jazz.

www.jazzcampus.com

As the V. International Congress for Church Music 2015 states in its call for entries, recital programs by organists aged 35 and under are required "that combine creation, interpretation, mediation and research in a new, exemplary way and place contemporary and older music in a meaningful context. The concert should last approximately 50 minutes. The main organ and the wind-dynamic organs of Bern University of the Arts are available as instruments."

For the first round, the detailed concert program and a DVD with a short prelude must be submitted by 31 October 2014. Four winners will be selected from the submissions to perform in Bern Minster on March 20, 2015. The winner of this round will open the V International Church Music Congress with a concert in Bern Minster on October 21, 2015.

Further information:
www.kirchenmusikkongress.ch
 

In a motion, SVP National Councillor Sebastian Frehner from Basel-Stadt is calling for an amendment to the Federal Act on Unfair Competition (UWG), which stipulates that tickets for concerts and sporting events may not be more expensive than the price originally set if they are resold.

In its response, the Federal Council now explains that the free determination of the price is also part of free competition when reselling products and services. The resale itself is an expression of freedom of contract and a legitimate form of exercising property rights.

Anyone who buys a ticket for admission to concerts, sporting events or other events online must also be able to resell their ticket. The resale of tickets by individuals is also unlikely to cause any problems.

On gray markets, on the other hand, professional secondary ticket sellers sometimes offer tickets at inflated prices before the official presale starts or immediately afterwards, either on site or via a platform on the internet. In their general terms and conditions, the organizers stipulate that the tickets cannot be resold. However, this prohibition can hardly be enforced against the end customers.

The traders operating on the gray market usually buy the tickets using sophisticated computer programs or use groups of school-age young people to buy them and then sell them on to a larger number of people at inflated prices. This can trigger an artificial shortage of supply, at least temporarily, which drives up prices. This practice may violate applicable law, in particular the prohibition of deception in the Federal Act of December 19, 1986 against Unfair Competition.

Nevertheless, the Federal Council recommends that Parliament rejects the Frehner motion. In its view, it goes too far.
 

The first prize is endowed with 10,000 francs. Korean bass Jisang Ryu took second place (6,000 francs) and Swiss baritone Alexandre Beuchat third (4,000 francs). The latter has also been awarded the scholarship for the best candidate with Swiss citizenship (CHF 8,000).

The special prizes for a debut concert at the Lucerne Festival and for contemporary song at the Davos Festival go to the German mezzo-soprano Silke Gäng, while the special prize for a concert at the Menhuin Festival Gstaad goes to Juliette Raffin-Gay (soprano).

The jury consisted of representatives from top-class opera houses and festivals as well as the composer Dieter Ammann, the soprano Christiane Iven and the musicologist Stephan Mösch.

Anush Hovahannisyan began her training in her home country. From 2010 to 2013, she studied in Patricia Hay's class at the Royal Conservatory of Scotland, where she obtained her Master's degree. Since 2013 she has been a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Program at the Royal Opera House in London, Covent Garden. In 2012 she won the Clonter Opera Prize, the Margaret Dick Voice Award and the Ye Cronies Opera Award as well as 3rd prize in the Les Azuriales singing competition (France).
 

The conference will open in Hildesheim. Speakers include Bernd M. Scherer, Director of the House of World Cultures Berlin and Basma El Husseiny from the Egyptian cultural research institute Al Mawred Al Thaqafy in Kario. The congress will continue in Berlin on September 12 and 13.

A total of 400 experts from around 60 countries are expected to attend. In 75 parallel forums, they will discuss cultural policy and transformation processes, cultural education and participation. Registration as a visitor to ICCPR2104 is possible via the conference website, but the number of places is limited.

Contributions from Switzerland come from Iolanda Pensa from the Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana (SUPSI) and Lisa Marx from the University of Geneva.

More info: www.iccpr2014.de

The Austria Baroque Academy offers master classes in Gmunden, Moscow and Belgrade for graduates of music academies and conservatories. Students in higher semesters can be admitted with the recommendation of their teacher. Its partner organizations include the Tchaikovsky University in Moscow, the Gnessin Academy of Music in Moscow and the music universities of Vienna, Prague, Belgrade and Warsaw.

Isablle Stettler graduated from the Hochschule für Musik Main in 2012 with a diploma as a singing teacher. She has been studying at the HKB since September 2012. The Aargau mezzo-soprano Madeleine Merz began her vocal training with Regula Grundler and has been studying at the HKB in Christian Hilz's class since 2010. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with distinction in summer 2013.
 

Madeleine Merz. Photo: zvg

Participants will receive individual and chamber music lessons from the following professors and lecturers at the university: Markus Würsch (trumpet / cornet), Immanuel Richter (trumpet / cornet), Thomas Rüedi (euphonium, baritone, E-flat horn), Simon Styles (tuba), Markus Wüest (trombone), Lukas Christinat (horn), Olivier Darbellay (horn).

Thomas Rüedi explains why he is taking part in the Brass Academy as a lecturer, what sets these two Academy days apart from other courses and who can take part:

• For a long time, we brass teachers at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts have been keen to intensify contact with young musicians in Central Switzerland. The "Konsi", as it is still traditionally called, should not be an elitist castle high above the city.
• The young musicians are given the opportunity to gain an insight into musical life at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts over the course of two days. The focus is also on personal contact with the lecturers. Our aim is to give young, talented brass players a boost on their musical path and to pass on our passion for classical music to them.
• All brass instruments are welcome without exception. Registration should be supported by a verbal or written recommendation from the music teacher or conductor of the brass band. It is very important to us that music teachers and/or conductors in the region draw the attention of their pupils to this brass festival.

Short public concerts by the lecturers will take place during the academy. The final concert, also open to the public, will take place on January 18, 2015 at 6 pm.

Registration deadline: October 31, participation fee including two lunches: CHF 40.
Exceptions to the geographical limitation of the group of participants may be granted. Contacts for further information: Lucerne School of Music (Reimar Houtman: 041 249 27 12) or Immanuel Richter (immanuelrichter@hslu.ch).

Registration via: www.hslu.ch/brass-academy

The Startup Weekend (October 3-5) is a non-stop entrepreneurship event that focuses on targeted input, networking and work. Participants go through the entire process of creating a startup in one weekend, from Friday to Sunday evening, and are supported by a professional team and renowned experts in terms of financing, marketing, strategy and feasibility. At the end, they present their business models to a jury of investors and experts. 

The participants are supported by a team of students, who implement the event operationally, and an advisory board. Sponsors include Migros Engagement and Pro Helvetia, as well as the canton and city of Zurich's location promotion agency, representatives of the universities and various cultural entrepreneurs. Gebert Rüf Stiftung also makes a financial contribution.

More info:
www.sw-creativebusiness.org
 

The site where Riom Castle has stood in the Oberhalbstein and Surses since the 12th century and dominates the Savognin valley basin was once the location of a royal court, which the penultimate Carolingian emperor Arnulf of Carinthia owned and then gave away. It is therefore conceivable that it had previously served the Carolingians and that Arnulf's great-great-grandfather Charlemagne once stayed at this court on a journey through his vast empire. He is said to have actually visited the region. Two valleys further on, in Münstertal, he is said to have narrowly escaped a snowstorm and founded the monastery of Müstair. And even if this is just legend, Riom and Müstair are likely to have been bases in his vast empire.

For ten years now, Riom Castle has been home to one of the most original and unique Swiss summer festivals, which manages without stars and repertoire hits and is entirely tailored to the region: "Origen" (Origin, Origin, Creation), founded and directed by Giovanni Netzer, has been attracting an enthusiastic audience since 2006 with a daring Origen program, as the themes are often taken from the Bible (Samson, Messiah, Paradise or the Flood). Smaller event cycles are grouped around a main musical-theatrical production: theater and dance productions, chants in one of the old churches, performances and radio plays in the trains of the Rhaetian Railway. Art-historical guided tours and exhibitions complete the program. There is a summer café in the Sontga Crousch house in the village of Riom, and the barn next door is currently being renovated so that performances can also take place in winter in future, as Origen is expanding and wants to extend its operations.

As central as the castle is: Time and again, the festival leaves Riom and seeks out other unusual locations for the theater performances: Solomon and the Queen of Sheba met high up on the Julier Pass in 2010, for example. In 2014, a stage was also set up for Noah and his ark on the dam wall of Marmorera, in a place where an entire village sank into the reservoir sixty years ago to generate energy. Another time, the festival made a guest appearance at Zurich main station. Origen works with what it finds on site, as only the Rümlingen New Music Festival does. And just as he transfers biblical stories to Graubünden, Netzer changes them further, enriches them with variations from other sources, lets his imagination run wild - in order to extract a dramatic core. In recent years, he has in any case begun to rework the themes several times. Each time, they are also expanded into comedy: the small cast of "Commedia", consisting of former students of the (Clown) Scuola Dimitri, travels through the countryside with a traveling stage and plays in the villages. This year, they took on an old Zurich legend of Charlemagne with a brilliantly cheeky version, as Charlemagne was the focus of the festival in the 1200th anniversary year of his death.

Origen once again expanded in terms of space and time. Most of the events took place during the summer months in Riom and the surrounding area. However, the festival opened at the end of March in the Upper Engadine on frozen Lake Silvaplana. The golden cuboid of the temporarily rebuilt "Festspielhaus" shone in the white snowy landscape, illuminated by the evening sun. The audience sat in the warmth on ascending rows of seats, with the stage in front of them, looking out into the snow from where the dancers performed. The story was about Karl, the "King in the Snow", who gets lost in a snowstorm, arrives with his wife and children in the realm of the Prince of the Dead and is confronted there with his past misdeeds, the murder of his brother Karlmann and his family. This fictional story is certainly only based on conjecture and not on historically proven facts, but it gave Giovanni Netzer the opportunity to explore some of his main motifs: Domination, conflict and violence. The dark side of power becomes visible, as Charlemagne rarely appears in all these productions only as the glorious emperor, but above all as a wild and cruel, power-hungry upstart.

The story was told in the snow without words, only through dance and with electronic music by Lorenz Dangel. The landscape provided an impressive backdrop, but it would have been too superficial if the production had relied on this alone. This performance reached deeper, into the existential, and went to the heart of the matter. This was revealed on several levels. Because of the cold, the dancers were unable to move in the usual way. They wore heavy shoes and were wrapped in thick robes. Nevertheless, the virtuosity of their gestures unfolded. This gave the dance a new intensity, the bodies wrestled with each other and sometimes did not let go of each other. It had an oppressive effect. We almost breathed a sigh of relief when Karl and his family were released back into life at the end.

Origen almost always presents a kind of sacred music theater, not only in terms of its themes, but also in terms of its form, which derives less from opera than from a mystery play or a staged oratorio. This is as unique and fascinating as it may seem strange at first: certainly not a typical program for summer visitors. Giovanni Netzer has moved away from dramatic singing. He usually focuses on dance and the movement of the bodies, with music from a computer or sung by a vocal ensemble. This can become enormously charged, as in the King in the snowbut it can also lead to a liturgical performance in ritual stages, as was the case this summer with the production David was also shown at a suitable location, in Müstair near the border with South Tyrol. There - on a stage recreated from the Carolingian church next door - it was all about the coronation of Charlemagne. The latter, an actor who only appeared occasionally, remained silent; a narrator led through the chronicle. From the vocal ensemble, which performed Gregorian chants and responsories by Carlo Gesualdo in between, six soloists broke away one after the other to portray a person from the life of Charles in a new aria composed by Edward Rushton: Pope Leo III, who performs the coronation again willy-nilly, the prophet Samuel, who appeared as a kingmaker from the Old Testament; the scheming Byzantine empress Irene and her weak son Constantine, Charles's neglected wife Luitgard and a mistress of Charles. Each time, the emperor appeared in a different light - not exactly positive. The whole production was coherent; the vocal ensemble, rehearsed by Clau Scherrer, has been working at a high level for years; the magnificent costumes, created by textile designer Martin Leuthold from the St. Gallen textile company Schläpfer, are one of the attractions of the festival. And yet: this "David" (as Karl called himself at his court) remained a sequence of images that did not intensify or build up. This is in stark contrast to the dance production Emperor in the bathwhich was shown at Riom Castle. There again, a very physical, expressive dance took center stage: the life of Karl passed by, and in combination with the percussive sounds of Peter Conrad Zumthor and Lukas Niggli and the motets of Francis Poulenc, an abstract and yet very moving biography was created.

The construction of the building was made possible in particular by the Habitat Foundation, while the expansion for the jazz school was made possible by the Levedo Foundation: both foundations are largely funded by Beatrice Oeri. The architects Buol&Zünd have combined historical substance and modern architecture and integrated the jazz campus into the neighborhood context.

The Basel Music Academy and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland have secured the maintenance contract. The campus has a public club for 150 people, a performance hall in the basement for 120 people, another hall on the upper floor for 100 people and a total of 49 music rooms.

There is also a café bar, a music store, a library, a residential building with shared student apartments and a guest apartment, as well as an inner courtyard with a fireplace. The Jazzcampus Basel on Utengasse in the Old Town will open its doors to interested parties from September 19 to 21, 2014.

How the Marianne and Curt Dienemann Foundation from Lucerne writes in its press release, the participants played at an exceptionally high level this year. The foundation awarded a total of 66,000 francs to nine young wind players.

The saxophonist Patrick Stadler from Basel was awarded a year's work, while the Basel flutist Jin-Ah Lee and the Bernese oboist Bruno Lucas Pérez received two extra prizes.

Further prizes went to Claudiu Marius Danciu, clarinet, Basel; Calogero Presti, clarinet, Basel; Niklaus Egg, trumpet, Rothrist; Wong-Ji Hwang, flute, Lucerne; Isaac Makhdoomi, recorder, Basel; Ana Teresa Herrero Bordell, bassoon, Basel.

Established in 1986, the foundation's main aim is to promote training in the field of music (jazz and classical) and the development of literary works. It is aimed at young (up to the age of 40), talented literary artists, musicians and composers of Swiss nationality or artists who live in Switzerland.

The Wölfli&Musik association was founded in 2012 with the aim of supporting cultural projects with a musical connection to Adolf Wölfli and his life's work. To date, the association has commissioned a composition every year, for example to Jost Meier (2012) and Christian Henking (2013). Several textual-musical events are now planned to mark the 150th anniversary of the artist's birth. Further compositions have been commissioned and a composition competition for students at music academies has been held.

Under the title 150Wölfli the weekends from August 29 to 31 and October 3 and 4 will be dedicated to the "Musik-Diräkthor" and "Riesen-Theaat'r/Diräktohr", as Wölfli called himself. Wölfli's place of residence, the former cantonal insane asylum Waldau and today's Psychiatric University Hospital, will be included as a venue. Other venues include the Kunsthalle and the Dampfzentrale Bern. The program includes a twelve-hour reading from Wölfli's From the cradle to the grave, a homage to Wölfli for children, the world premiere of the prize-winning pieces from the university competition, further world premieres by Kjell Keller, Roland Moser and Daniel Glaus. For the music theater The omnipotence tube was composed by Helena Winkelman, who is also the musical director. Steamboat Switzerland performs and Meret Matter directs.

Further information about the musician Wölfli and a detailed program: www.150woelfli.ch

Suisseculture believes that operating contributions should continue to be financed from the regular public budget, as these are constitutional and statutory tasks of the cantons. According to Suisseculture, it is unacceptable for state tasks to be financed from gambling revenues.

According to the Federal Constitution and most cantonal constitutions, the arts and culture in Switzerland are supported by the public sector. Without this support, very few professional artists in Switzerland would have an economic livelihood and the diversity of cultural offerings would be thinned out.

In most cantons, individual artistic projects in particular have so far been supported from the proceeds of the big lotteries, while permanent art institutions are subsidized with annual budgets from the ordinary budgets of the cantons and municipalities. From the point of view of cultural professionals, this is correct and should remain so.

However, Suisseculture generally welcomes the fact that the profits from large lotteries will continue to be used in full for charitable purposes. Suisseculture also welcomes the criteria set out in the draft law and the planned greater transparency of the award processes.
 

According to a statement from the canton, the Basel-Landschaft cantonal audit office found in an audit report in mid-December 2013 that institutions in which the canton holds a stake had paid out compensation to cantonal representatives that had not been properly accounted for. As a result, the cantonal government commissioned law professor emeritus Enrico Riva to examine the canton's claims for repayment.

The Riva report states that, according to the Personnel Decree, all employees of the canton must hand over any remuneration they receive in connection with the performance of duties on behalf of and in the interests of the canton. The report also states that this also applies to members of the cantonal government.

Former member of the cantonal government Adrian Ballmer, the late former member of the cantonal government Peter Zwick, member of the cantonal government Urs Wüthrich and former land registrar Walter Mundschin are affected by a clawback.

For former member of the cantonal government Jörg Krähenbühl, President of the cantonal government Isaac Reber, member of the cantonal government Anton Lauber, member of the cantonal government Thomas Weber, member of the cantonal government Sabine Pegoraro and Niggi Ullrich, Head of the Cultural Affairs Department, who have also been listed in previous reports, there are no claims for repayment, even taking into account the review of the remaining mandates and shareholdings that has been carried out in the meantime, the canton writes further.