After more than fifteen years, the grammar schools in Olten and Solothurn are receiving a new standardized cantonal curriculum. Around two years ago, the cantonal government instructed the Department of Education and Culture to fundamentally revise the curricula that had been in place since 1998.

For the curriculum, music is "a producing and reproducing art as well as an object of intellectual and aesthetic debate". These facets are also reflected in the variety of fields of study in tertiary educational institutions, such as musicology or ethnomusicology.

The Solothurn curriculum with detailed objectives for music as a basic, core or supplementary subject is available online at www.ksso.ch/klp or www.kantiolten.ch/klp.

The prize may be awarded to persons who are permanently resident in Switzerland or
Swiss citizens working abroad may be awarded prizes. Prizes may be awarded to teachers at vocational, elementary, secondary and higher education institutions as well as technical schools and institutions, but also to private researchers with practical activities in the field of education.

Teachers at public and private schools and institutions are considered equally. If pedagogical achievements have been made jointly by several people, the prize may be awarded jointly.

The Board of Trustees, consisting of Allan Guggenbühl (President), Rémy Droz, Fritz Osterwalder, Gianni Ghisla and Claudia Crotti, decides on the awarding of the prize, usually CHF 10,000. The next award ceremony of the Peter-Hans Frey Foundation
will take place in October/November 2014.

Reasoned nominations including a small documentation are requested to Peter-Hans Frey Foundation, c/o Allan Guggenbühl, Untere Zäune 1, 8001 Zurich by April 30, 2014. References are welcome.

The withdrawal of the financing commitment for the Salle Modulable by Butterfield Trust (Bermuda) Limited in October 2010 was unlawful. The competent judge found that a donation agreement existed under Swiss law and that the trust had to fulfill its obligations arising from this, the foundation writes.

If the Salle Modulable Foundation submits a feasibility study for a flexible music theater in the city of Lucerne that is adapted to the new circumstances, Butterfield is obliged to meet the original funding commitment of up to CHF 120 million. The feasibility study will be updated and adapted as part of the New Theater Infrastructure Lucerne (NTI) project.

Butterfield's counterclaim was dismissed in its entirety. The judge has not yet made a final ruling on other issues. There will be a subsequent hearing on this. The judgment is not yet final. It can still be appealed to the Bermuda Court of Appeal.

The Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER) is working with the EU to develop a solution by June 2014 that will enable Swiss universities and their students to participate in Erasmus+, writes the ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts).

The university's International Office encourages all students to apply as planned. It will work to ensure that the semester abroad can take place as planned in any case and continues to believe that politics and diplomacy will find a viable solution.

Since the adoption of the initiative on 9 February 2014, there has been uncertainty about the future of the Erasmus program in Switzerland. Negotiations for Switzerland's full participation in the new Erasmus+ program generation are currently suspended.
 

The project features 100 cellists and double bassists, from interested beginners to professional students. Pieces on the theme of water from five centuries as well as four world premieres by contemporary Bernese composers will be performed. The magician couple Wundertäter - Christoph Borer and Lou - weave the pieces of music together.

The Lily Waeckerlin Fund of the Accentus Foundation awards an annual music prize. The prize is awarded to an innovative and high-quality project in the field of youth and music. In 2013, the prize went to the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. Previous winners include the Lucerne Theater, the Upper Valais singing school cantiamo, the Bernese association Tönstör, the Gare des enfants Basel, the Köniz music school and the Ecole de Musique du Conservatoire de Lausanne. 

More info: www.jakobsreise.ch

The St. Gallen Cantonal Singing Association, as an association of all secular choirs in the canton of St. Gallen, considers the promotion of young people to be a very important task. This year, therefore, the first singing camp for children and young people aged between 8 and 13 is to take place in Niederuzwil.

Singing together, developing and performing a program for parents, siblings and interested parties, spending an eventful week with like-minded people - the camp from 6 to 11 July will offer all of this.

The directors Esther Stalder (responsible for youth development in the cantonal association), Tina Dätwyler (musical director), Alessandra Hollenstein (musical assistant) and Gabi Aeschbacher (choreography) are looking forward to welcoming many boys and girls who are keen to sing.

The registration deadline is March 31, 2014.

Flyer and registration on: www.sgkgv.ch
 

Buxhofer gave up the management of the editorial office in Chur less than a year ago in order to work more as a journalist, the "Bünder Tagblatt" continues. The deceased left behind a wife and a son.

Christian Buxhofer was born in Chur in 1961. He worked as a primary school teacher in Arosa for three years before switching to journalism. He has also been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Chur Theater since 2010.

Arosa Kultur organizes concert series and, since 1987, the Arosa Music Course Weeks. According to its own description, it is the largest music festival of its kind in Europe. For its anniversary in 2011, the program was expanded to include additional master classes, which take place every September under the title Arosa Music Academy.

 Link to the obituary

SWR2 will promote Janina Ruh until 2016 in its radio program, with appearances at SWR events and through CD productions. She impressed the jury from the music editorial team "with her high level of musicality, sophisticated technique and great confidence and stage presence", writes the broadcaster. The jury's decision was unanimous.

Janina Ruh, born in Rottweil in 1989, was already a junior student at the Zurich University of the Arts with Susanne Basler at the age of twelve. After various studies at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf, the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik Berlin and the Berlin University of the Arts, the cellist completed masterclasses with Gustav Rivinius, Troels Svane, Ralph Kirshbaum and Jens Peter Maintz, among others.
 

Around 350 surviving, lost, unfinished and fragmentary works are listed in the 1400-page volume. In addition to the presentation of musical sources, the work entries also include first publications of Zimmermann's letters, notes and calendar entries with all relevant passages for the respective work.

The catalog raisonné also contains 23 color illustrations of autographs. It is part of the scientific cataloging of the Bernd Alois Zimmermann Archive of the Akademie der Künste and is based on preliminary work by the late Zimmermann researcher Klaus Ebbeke. 

More info: www.schott-musik.de/shop/2/show,260217.html

Since the 2005/06 school year, Kreuzlingen has offered a course aimed at pupils with artistic, musical or sporting talents. It is a course that combines the broad-based Matura education with individualized training in one of the special fields of sport, music or art.

The reduced attendance times lead to a higher proportion of self-study (e-learning, self-learning assignments, learning programs with self-monitoring and so on). For training in the chosen specializations, we work together with institutions that support students in the development of their talents (sports associations, conservatory, design school).
 

According to the announcement, the group of beneficiaries in Austria is to be extended to include those employed in art education and teaching. The lower income threshold that entitles people to join the insurance scheme is also to be lowered. "Improving the income situation for artists and cultural workers is a priority goal of this legislative period, alongside copyright reform," the "Standard" quotes the Minister of Culture as saying.

Germany and Austria are familiar with an artists' pension scheme for cultural professionals. Efforts to introduce such insurance in Switzerland also failed during parliamentary work on the Culture Promotion Act to implement the culture article in the new Federal Constitution.

However, Swiss federal politicians agreed that a certain percentage of federal funding for artists must flow into a pension fund. However, the model will only become substantial if the cantons and municipalities also introduce comparable provisions. 

Under Wieler's direction, the Stuttgart Opera has regularly received excellent ratings for its productions and singers in surveys of theater critics in recent years and has won numerous awards and prizes, writes the ministry.

Jossi Wieler's next directorial work for the Stuttgart Opera is currently in development: Mark Andre's first opera "wunderzaichen" will premiere on March 2. 

Jossi Wieler was born in Kreuzlingen/Switzerland in 1951. He studied directing at the Theater Department of Tel Aviv University. He has been artistic director of Oper Stuttgart since 2011/12 and recently co-directed the new Stuttgart productions of Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos" and Denisov's "Der Schaum der Tage" together with Sergio Morabito. In the current 2013/14 season, the world premiere of Mark Andre's first opera will be followed by a new production of "Tristan und Isolde". 
 

It will be opened m4music on Thursday, March 27, in Lausanne. For the first time, exclusive showcases by Blood Red Shoes (UK), Rootwords (CH/GE), Nadine Carina (CH/TI) and Wolfman (CH/ZH) will be broadcast live from Studio 15 of RTS on Couleur 3 and SRF Virus. The Best Swiss Video Clip award ceremony will take place in the afternoon. The industry will discuss music promotion in Switzerland with representatives of the newly emerging indie label association.

New stage with free concerts on the Schiffbauplatz

m4music moves its headquarters to Zurich's Schiffbau on March 28 and 29. Thanks to the new open-air stage on the Schiffbauplatz, around 50 bands will be performing in Zurich this year instead of the previous 40 or so acts. These include up-and-coming Swiss bands such as Milchmaa (CH/GR), Jeans for Jesus (CH/BE), Adieu Gary Cooper (CH/VD) and Ekat Bork (CH/TI). The free concerts will begin on Friday afternoon, March 28, from 2.15 pm. m4music festival director Philipp Schnyder von Wartensee is delighted about the new open-air stage: "We are thus offering another platform to strong up-and-coming Swiss bands. Conversely, the audience can listen to new bands in the afternoon - an ideal addition to the free conference and demo tape clinic program."

Diedrich Diederichsen and Daniel Miller discuss at the conference

This year's conference will cover the top topics of the music industry in workshops, panel discussions and keynotes. The thematic focus will be on Berlin: emigrated Swiss artists such as Tobias Jundt (Bonaparte) and Stefan Rusconi (Rusconi Trio) will discuss whether Berlin is the new Swiss music capital. Diedrich Diederichsen, former editor of "Spex", the magazine for pop culture, talks to publicist Max Dax about his book "Über Pop-Musik", which will be published at the beginning of March. Daniel Miller, founder of Mute Records (Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk and many more), is interviewed by presenter Markus Kavka.

Marc Sway and Steff la Cheffe rate the songs of tomorrow's artists

The Demotape Clinic is Switzerland's most important competition for up-and-coming musicians. In this edition, 825 demos were submitted, compared to 777 in 2013. The jury, consisting of industry professionals and musicians such as Steff la Cheffe, Marc Sway and José Moreno, music editor and critic for Radio Couleur 3, comments on a selection of them in public. In order to give the best Swiss talents the best possible start to their careers, the Fondation Suisa presents four awards in the categories pop, rock, urban and electronic with prize money totaling CHF 17,000.

Further information and detailed program: www.m4music.ch

The Light fair by Thomas Gabriel was commissioned for the major choir festival Pueri Cantores 2004 in Cologne, which brought together young singers from all over the world. This also explains the multilingual nature of this mass. It originally consisted of three movements: the introit, the alleluia and the final hymn. It is scored for two four-part mixed choirs and a large wind orchestra. Six languages are used in the introit: German, Italian, English, Spanish, French and Latin. The Hallelujah and the final chant also follow the principle of multilingualism.

In the years since the premiere, the three movements have been expanded to include the responsorial chant and the offertory and published together with the instrumental piece for the Communio. The large-scale wind composition presented here contrasts with an organ version, which will probably be easier and more frequently realized in practice.

Thomas Gabriel, Lichtmesse; wind version, for solo soprano, choir SATB/SATB, 2 ob, Eh, 2 Fg, Cor, 2 Tr, Trb, Tb, Org, score, CV 19.052, € 62.00; organ version, score, CV 19.052/50, € 24.50; Carus, Stuttgart 2013

tramway vienna-bratislava is the title of a new piece by the well-known Swiss composer Mathias Rüegg, who lives in Vienna. Anyone imagining this title to mean a tranquil trip to Bratislava in an old streetcar carriage will be disabused right from the first bars: extremely fast tempi, a pianist who uses his grand piano like a cajon, only the saving two fermata bars give the players and the listener a short breather in the initial phase. It quickly becomes clear that this is a piece composed by an expert for experts. Mathias Rüegg himself writes: "Difficulty level 11 out of 10".

Mathias Rüegg proves that this work is playable despite the immense technical demands (rhythm, height, rapid changes of mute, etc.) with a link to a recording with the dedicatee of this composition, the fantastic trumpeter Juraj Bartos, together with his equally talented piano partner Ladislav Fanzowitz. A challenge for every trumpeter and pianist. But it is worth accepting!

Mathias Rüegg: tramway vienna - bratislava, for trumpet and piano, D 05748, € 17.95, Doblinger, Vienna 2011