The European Composer Prize, endowed with 5000 euros, is awarded annually by the Governing Mayor of the City of Berlin for the best premiere or German premiere at the Young Euro Classic Festival. Aziza Sadikova received it for her work Letter Shards received.

The composer cites the diary of Daniil Charms, a Russian avant-garde writer of the 1930s, in which he recorded emotional despair and erotic desires, as the inspiration for her work. The physical process of writing a diary is reproduced in the composition through the use of a typewriter and corresponding orchestral effects, among other things. 

The jury justified its choice with the diversity of musical and dramatic means of expression, which "can be heard as tones, sounds and words like a prayer from a distant world, ghostly and yet intensely disruptive". Born in 1978, Aziza Sadikova studied at the Tashkent State Conservatory, the Birmingham Conservatory and Trinity College of Music in London. Her music has been performed at the Salzburg Aspekte Festival, Wien Modern and the Southbank Festival in London, among others.

As part of Young Euro Classics, the German premiere of Enallagai by the Swiss composer Stefan Wirth. The "Festival of the World's Best Youth Orchestras" in Berlin attracted a total of 23,500 visitors.
 

Teachers and other people interested in culture can now register at www.kklick.ch inform about projects by artists and institutions. According to the three cantons, this is the first comprehensive intercantonal cultural mediation platform in Switzerland.

Around 100 cultural education offers are already available on the site at launch and are constantly being supplemented with new, up-to-date offers. kklick offers teachers in particular a central point of contact, provides information on all matters relating to cultural education in the region and facilitates direct contact with cultural providers. An editorial team is responsible for selecting the offers.

kklick is an initiative of the three cultural offices of the cantons of Appenzell Ausserrhoden, St. Gallen and Thurgau. kklick also works together with the school authorities of the participating cantons. kklick provides information via newsletters, publishes a brochure to accompany the Internet platform and regularly invites teachers to network meetings. 

More info: www.kklick.ch

According to the German Music Industry Association (BVMI), revenue from music sales amounted to EUR 656 million - around EUR 4 million less than in the first half of 2013.

The most important sales pillar remains the CD, which once again recorded only a slight decline in sales (-3.6%) and continues to represent around two thirds (65.6%) of sales on the German music market. The greatest growth was recorded by the subscription-based and ad-financed music streaming segment (+77%), which now accounts for 7.7% of the German music market.

Vinyl is also continuing on its successful course, growing by 34.5% compared to the first half of 2013 and thus increasing its market share to 2.4%.

In line with the trend of recent years, sales of music videos (-10.4 percent) and physical singles (-31.2 percent) as well as music cassettes (-39.3 percent), which no longer play a role in the music business after celebrating their 50th anniversary last year, declined.

Sales from the digital business segments increased by a total of 7.5 percent to 174 million euros. With a 26.5 percent share of sales, more than one in four euros in the German music industry is generated digitally. Even though downloads declined for the first time (-7.1%), they continue to be the second most important source of revenue in the German music industry with a share of 18.6%.

If both ears receive the same information, the right and left auditory cortex of the brain work practically synchronously in musically trained children. In untrained children, they are slightly out of sync; in children with ADHD, the scientists were even able to detect a marked time shift between the two hemispheres of the brain in their current study.

This discovery could explain why auditory processing and perception disorders, ADHD and dyslexia often occur together, explains Annemarie Seither-Preisler from the Institute of Psychology at the University of Graz, one of the authors of the study. Some of the problems of the affected children are likely to be due to insufficient cooperation between the two hemispheres, with negative consequences for attention, rapid language processing and reading and spelling skills.

The team also found that the gray matter in the auditory cortex of musically active children is around half the size of that of their peers. Long-term observation showed that this brain region already had a very specific shape and size before musical training and did not change over time.

As a next step, the team would like to investigate whether auditory processing and perception disorders can be diagnosed at an early stage using neurological measurements in the brain.

Original article:
Annemarie Seither-Preisler, Richard Parncutt, and Peter Schneider. Size and Synchronization of Auditory Cortex Promotes Musical, Literacy, and Attentional Skills in Children. The Journal of Neuroscience, August 13, 2014, 34(33): 10937-10949; doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5315-13.2014
 

Participation is limited to a maximum age of 30 years and all styles of jazz from combos (three musicians or more) or big bands in Europe are eligible. The prize is endowed with a total of 10,000 euros, divided into a 5000 euro cash prize and a 5000 euro promotional prize tailored to the needs of the winner.

The jury will select five formations for the final round in a blind process. The finalists will be announced in December 2014. The final round will take place on the first day of the 46th International Jazz Week, March 17, 2015, as part of a public concert event.

The jury consists of Joe Viera (director, artistic director of the International Jazz Week Burghausen), Roland Spiegel (music editor for jazz and classical music at Bayerischer Rundfunk), Ralf Dombrowski (music journalist) and Reinhard Köchl (music journalist).

The application deadline is 31.10.2014. Only applications that are complete and received by the IG Jazz office by this date at the latest will be considered.

More info: www.b-jazz.com

The cultural prize, endowed with 30,000 francs, was not awarded last year due to the canton's cost-cutting measures; in 2014 it will be awarded for the eleventh time, again with the previous prize money.

It has only ever been awarded once to a music institution, in 2007 to the Langnau Jazz Night. In 2009, it went to the Brienz Violin Making School. The other previous winners are the Literarische Gesellschaft, Biel, Radio RaBe, Bern, the Fotobüro Bern, the Theatertreffen AUAWIRLEBEN, Bern, the Architekturforum Biel, the Berner Tanztage, the Burgdorfer Krimitage and the Kunsthaus Langenthal.

The Atelier de gravure in Moutier has made a name for itself as a workshop for the techniques of intaglio printing, lithography, relief printing and, for some years now, heliogravure, which is known far beyond the region for its outstanding printing techniques.

The Canton of Bern Cultural Mediation Prize, endowed with CHF 10,000, is being awarded for the ninth time. The award to Christian Jaquet is the first time a cultural mediator from the field of design has been honored.

Born in 1935, Christian Jaquet has had a significant influence on the cultural and design scene in the canton of Bern in many different ways over the decades. In 1967, he founded the Hablützel and Jaquet studio in Bern. In 1998, he was appointed project manager for the establishment of the new Bern University of the Arts and head of the "visual communication" course; he was particularly influential in the field of signage.

Previous recipients of the Cultural Mediation Award include Roman Brotbeck, former Head of the Music Department at Bern University of the Arts, and literature and music organizer Hans Ruprecht.

The music is not just an accompanying element in the Swiss-Canadian co-production, but an integral part of the plot, writes the Suisa Foundation. The character of Shana is strongly shaped by the music. The jury describes Lerch's music as "very inspired, passionate and masterfully composed". It presented Lerch with the prize of 15,000 Swiss francs at the 67th Locarno International Film Festival.

Roman Lerch was born in Solothurn in 1987. After several years of band experience, the pianist decided to pursue professional training, which he completed at the universities of the arts in Bern and Zurich, focusing on film and theater composition, among other things. His teachers included Peter Scherer and Niki Reiser.

The cooperation, which was sealed by the rectors Rüdiger Nolte (music) and Ulrich Druwe (education), aims to "significantly increase the music education and artistic skills of teachers in Baden-Württemberg", particularly in the elementary school sector. At the same time, it opens up new career prospects for Freiburg music and teaching students, writes the Freiburg University of Music.

A degree course in music education in the elementary and primary sector is aimed at Freiburg music students studying elementary music education, who can now combine their studies with elements of primary school teacher training at the Freiburg University of Education, thus opening up access to the teaching profession.
The Bachelor's and Master's degree course in Secondary Level 1 Teacher Training, sub-course in Music is being developed by the University of Education in cooperation with the Freiburg University of Music.

The University of Music and the University of Teacher Education will cooperate more closely in the new Bachelor's and Master's degree courses for secondary school teachers, sub-course in music.

The aim of the cooperation is to provide future music teachers of all school types - from music schools to grammar schools - with "musical teaching and learning at the highest level". In addition, students from both universities would be systematically integrated into the educational research contexts at the University of Teacher Education.

The aim of the conference is to highlight interfaces between music psychology and its application in the engineering sciences. Keynotes by Karlheinz Brandenburg (Fraunhofer IDMT, Ilmenau) and Meinard Müller (International Audio Laboratories, Erlangen) will highlight existing points of contact between the disciplines and provide impetus for new ideas and discussions. Music journalist and composer Michael Rüsenberg (Cologne) will also give a keynote speech.

The conference is also dedicated to Music Information Retrieval (MIR), sound perception, sound evaluation, music and sound synthesis and music effects. In addition, contributions are expected that demonstrate the benefits of technologies from the natural and engineering sciences for music psychology.

Info:
Applied Music Psychology, 30th Annual Conference of the DGM 2014, September 12 - 14, 2014, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS Erlangen (Tennenlohe), www.music-psychology.de

The contents of over 100 estate boxes - comparable to around 20 moving boxes - are now being sifted through and prepared for entry into the estates database. The estate includes numerous music prints with handwritten notes, including many songs and extensive correspondence with musicians, concert agencies, companies and admirers. There are also manuscripts of his lectures, essays and books, as well as contracts, photos and many records and CDs.

A special piece of the estate is a concert grand piano that the singer bought at the beginning of his career in the 1950s. The gold-colored metal frame inside bears the signatures of many fellow artists, including Jörg Demus, Leonard Bernstein, Daniel Barenboim, Arnold Schönberg, Wilhelm Kempf, Aribert Reimann and others.

During his lifetime, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925-2012) had stipulated that his estate should remain in his hometown of Berlin, where he experienced many of the highlights of his career, and that it should be made available for research. He had held a professorship at the Berlin University of the Arts since 1983.

According to the German Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the law will stop the increase in the artists' social security contribution rate. More intensive audits of employers by the German Pension Insurance and the Artists' Social Insurance Fund will ensure that the levy is fair. The law thus makes "an important contribution to making the artists' social security system fit for the future".

Around 180,000 self-employed artists and publicists in Germany are currently covered by statutory health, long-term care and pension insurance through the artists' social insurance scheme. Like employees, self-employed artists and publicists pay half of their social security contributions. The other half of the contributions is financed by a federal subsidy (20 percent) and the artists' social security contribution from companies (30 percent) that exploit artistic and journalistic services.

The artists' social security contribution is levied as a contribution. The levy rate is set annually for the following calendar year and is currently 5.2%. The basis for assessment is all remuneration paid to self-employed artists and publicists in a calendar year.
 

Born in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande in Gironde in 1931, Jacques Merlet studied organ and piano at the Paris Conservatoire, where he was also a student of Olivier Messiaen. After graduating, he decided to pursue a career as a radio editor. He first worked for the radio station France Culture and later for France Musique.

Merlet was regarded as a tireless promoter of the early music scene, and he ensured that personalities such as Jean-Claude Malgoire, William Christie, Jordi Savall and Philippe Herreweghe were given a radiofone platform in France during their pioneering period. In 2003, he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French state.

Merlet suffered his first stroke in 2000 and has now succumbed to the consequences of pneumonia.

Sergei Prokofieff was born in Moscow in 1954. He acquired his knowledge of German by studying Rudolf Steiner's writings, which were banned in the Soviet Union. His first book Rudolf Steiner and the foundation of the new mysteries was published in Germany in 1982, while the Soviet Union was still in power. In 1991 he co-founded the Anthroposophical Society in Russia, and in 2001 the Anthroposophical Society appointed him to the board in Dornach, Switzerland.

Prokofieff was regarded as a militant orthodox representative of anthroposophy, who took a narrow view of the term. He took Steiner critics such as Helmut Zander to task, according to the news agency NNA he took the view that "they were deliberately working to destroy the anthroposophical movement".

His negative attitude towards anthroposophical content on the Internet also earned him the reputation of an orthodox anthroposophist.
 

In the cello category, the competition will be contested by Swiss musicians Chiara Enderle (Migros Culture Percentage soloist 2014), Sayaka Selina Studer (multiple Migros Culture Percentage study prize winner) and Laura van der Heijden from the UK with a Swiss mother (BBC Young Musician of the Year 2012). 

A total of 312 applicants were accepted by the preliminary jury for the 63rd edition. This year's categories are piano, cello, percussion and wind quintet. The applications came from 50 countries and five continents. 312 of the instrumentalists have been invited to take part in Munich. South Korea tops the list of countries applying in 2014, followed by Germany, Japan, Russia, France, Spain, the USA, China and Poland.

The competition starts on Monday, September 1 in Munich. A total of more than 165,000 euros in prize money is available this year, consisting of the main prizes from ARD and the special prizes awarded by foundations and institutions.  

According to the Bachhaus statement, some experts even consider it to have been created during Bach's lifetime. In any case, it is one of the three or four oldest depictions of Bach on a painting that still exist today, according to Bach House director Jörg Hansen.

It is clear that the portrait, which will be on display at the Bachhaus Eisenach from August 1, is a picture of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): just like the portrait painted by Elias Gottlob Haussmann in Leipzig's Old Town Hall in 1746, the sitter is holding a sheet of music in his hand - here the musical notes "B-A-C-H" are written on it in bass clef. The picture served as a model for numerous Bach copperplate engravings, such as the one on the title page of the first edition of the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung from 1798.

The oil painting on wood was formerly in the possession of the Königliches Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, which had acquired it from the music teacher Rössel in Berlin in 1860. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was sold again to a private owner. It was not until 1985 that Bach research became aware of this painting. Following a visit to the "Echt Bach" exhibition, which the Bachhaus presented in Berlin Cathedral this spring, the owner decided to give it to the Eisenach museum on permanent loan.

It will now become part of the exhibition on Bach iconography, to which the Bach pastel from Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's presumed possessions was already added in May, and which is being redesigned and expanded again to mark the occasion.