Prandi comes from Mantua and has been playing the cello since she was five years old.
In 2011, she completed her Master of Performance at the Bern University of the Arts with distinction. She is currently continuing her studies in Bern as a master student of Antonio Meneses. 

Further prizes went to: Vanessa Hunt Russell and Beatriz Blanco (2nd prize violoncello), Rustem Monasypov (2nd prize violin), Simon Wiener (3rd prize violin), Grigory Maximenko (3rd prize viola), Witold Moniewski and Zhi Xiong Liu (3rd prize double bass).

The Rahn Music Prize has been in existence since 1976 and serves to promote students at Swiss music academies and conservatories. It is awarded every two years alternately for piano and strings and is one of the most important music prizes in Switzerland.

In addition to the prize money, the various opportunities to perform as a soloist are a key component of the prize. The winners of the first and second prizes will perform on April 22 in the Tonhalle Zurich with the argovia philharmonic (Aargau Symphony Orchestra) under the direction of Douglas Bostock.

The working group came to the conclusion that equal opportunities and the quality of music education in popular and talent promotion should be improved in various areas and cooperation between the various stakeholders should be strengthened, writes the Federal Administration. It has drafted a total of 37 proposals for measures, 32 of which are in principle the responsibility of the federal government.

When assessing the question of which measures the federal government should implement, some of the working group members had differing views on the necessity, practicability and urgency of the individual measures and the scope of federal powers.

The working group's proposed measures are currently being analyzed by the Federal Office of Culture (FOC) and the FDHA and will be discussed with the cantons, cities and municipalities as part of the National Cultural Dialogue at the end of March 2014.

The Federal Council will decide which measures it wants to implement as part of the 2016-2019 cultural dispatch. The consultation on the 2016-2019 Cultural Dispatch is scheduled to open at the beginning of summer 2014. The Federal Council is expected to refer the 2016-2019 Cultural Dispatch to Parliament in December 2014.

The report is available on the website of the Federal Office of Culture: http://www.bak.admin.ch/?lang=de&webcode=d_14089_de

According to initial estimates, revenue from the sale of physical sound carriers and downloads as well as income from music streaming rose by around 1 percent to around 1.45 billion euros.

While the digital music market continued to grow as expected with growth of around 12%, the physical business in Germany - unlike in most other markets - remained relatively stable with only a moderate decline of around 2%. A final detailed analysis of how the individual submarkets have developed will be published at the beginning of March.

According to the Lucerne Festival biography, Abbado was head of La Scala in Milan, served as director of the Vienna State Opera, succeeded Herbert von Karajan at the helm of the Berlin Philharmonic, initiated the festival Vienna Modern and steered the fortunes of the Salzburg Easter Festival.

With the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra Mozart, five internationally acclaimed orchestras owe their existence to him.

With this production, Italian-Swiss director Nino Jacusso presents the film adaptation of Federica De Cesco's novel Shana, the wolf girl before. The film was shot on the Lower Nicola reserve in British Columbia. All of the actors and actresses in front of the camera were from the Scw'exmx tribe. The film tells the story of Shana, a Native American girl who - without losing touch with her people and their traditions - seeks her way in today's world. Shana is highly musical. But in order to make her violin sing, she has to follow the white wolf.

The young film composer Roman Lerch has succeeded in creating a virtuoso, wild, rhythmic, percussive and catchy soundtrack by combining incidental music and film music. The film music was recorded by part of the Kaleidoscope String Quartet with Ronny Spiegel, violin, David Schnee, viola and Bruno Fischer, cello, as well as Thomas Lähns on double bass and cellist Nadja Straubhaar. They received sonic support from percussionist Flavio Mezzodi and guitarist Dominik Blumer.

Shana's violin playing was recorded by the young Swiss violinist Malwina Sosnowski. Her interpretation of the "wolf music" is idiosyncratic and rebellious, and for the title song The Swiss singer-songwriter Anna Kaenzig could be won (CD review Slideshow Seasons). She composed and interpreted the song My Place for Shana - The Wolf's Music.

The film will be shown at the Solothurn Film Festival:
January 25, 5 p.m., Solothurn Riding Hall
January 27, 5:30 p.m., Concert Hall
followed by a concert by Anna Kaenzig, 9 pm, Festival Club in Solheure (Uferbau)
It will be released in Swiss cinemas from March 20

> www.shanafilm.com

The International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) are the only international music awards for classical music that are presented by an independent jury. It consists exclusively of professional classical music critics working for magazines, radio stations and internet services from 13 countries. The following media are currently represented: Andante (Turkey), Classic Radio (Finland), Crescendo (Belgium), Fono Forum (Germany), Gramofon (Hungary), IMZ (Austria), Kultura (Russia), MDR-Figaro (Germany), Musica (Italy), Musik & Theater (Switzerland), Opera (England), Orpheus Radio (Russia), pizzicato (Luxembourg), Radio 100,7 (Luxembourg), Resmusica.com (France), Rondo Classic (Finland) and Scherzo (Spain).

The jury selected 16 CD and DVD productions from 264 nominated productions. It also presented seven special awards to recognize outstanding musicians and producers. The Swiss conductor Charles Dutoit was awarded a prize for his life's work, Andreas Staier was named Artist of the Year and Adrien Boisseau Young Artist of the Year. The title Label of the Year goes to the Spanish company Glossa Music, and the jury was impressed by the best classical music website, that of Metropolitan Opera Archive. The SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg and the Ludwig van Beethoven Society in Krakow will also each receive an award for special achievements.

Award-winning CDs and DVDs:

Born in Armenia, Sergey Khachatryan won the Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki in 2000 and first prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 2005. In June 2013, his latest CD with the violin sonatas by Johannes Brahms was released on the Naïve label.

The Credit Suisse Young Artist Award is an initiative of the Lucerne Festival, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gesellschaft für Musikfreunde Wien and the Credit Suisse Foundation. It provides young musicians with funding and performance opportunities to develop their careers.

Previous prizewinners are Quirine Viersen (cello/2000), Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin/2002), Sol Gabetta (cello/2004), Martin Helmchen (piano/2006), Antoine Tamestit (viola/2008), Nicolas Altstaedt (cello/2010) and Vilde Frang (violin/2012).

After his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Hamburg with Karlheinz Zöller, his training was complemented by encounters with Jean Pierre Rampal, André Jaunet and Peter Lukas Graf.

Before his Freiburg engagement, Fahlenbock was a regular guest with the Ensemble Modern Frankfurt, had a temporary contract as solo flutist with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra (1985 to 1987), and was deputy solo flutist in the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra from 1987 to 1992.

Fahlenbock is a regular guest at conservatories in Chicago, Beijing, Moscow, Salzburg and at the Fondation Royaumont in France.

The nominees are the formation Belleville with violinist Adam Taubitz (gypsy jazz and more), the young Zurich band Blue Bolero, the quartet of saxophonist Daniel Blanc, singer Nicole Herzog with Bernese pianist Stewy von Wattenwyl, the trio of Winterthur-born pianist Ralf Ruh and the group Y-Jazz from Yverdon-les-bains.

The six bands were selected by Radio Swiss Jazz, Jazz Ascona and a jury of experts from bands that have released a CD in the last 18 months and have been most popular with Radio Swiss Jazz listeners.

The Swiss Jazz Award winners in recent years have been the 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 special lifetime achievement award.

You can vote on www.swissjazzaward.ch

All competing formations are assigned a prominent team member who must be integrated into the group and actively participate in the shows.

According to the Swiss Television announcement, brass music formations from Switzerland that have their own repertoire, can play pop songs and choreograph their performances are eligible to enter. There are no restrictions regarding the size or type of formation.

More information on registration and the conditions of participation can be found at srf.ch/kampfderorchester to find.

Cultural practitioners from the Canton of Schaffhausen (no age limit) who are either entitled to reside in the canton, have been resident in the Canton of Schaffhausen for at least three years or have previously resided in the Canton of Schaffhausen for at least fifteen years are eligible to participate.

The production location (studio location) is deemed to be the place of residence. A panel of independent experts decides on the awarding of grants. A sum of CHF 110,000 is available each year.

The guidelines and application forms can be obtained from:
Subsidies office
Department of Education, Secretariat
Herrenacker 3
8200 Schaffhausen
kulturfoerderung(at)ktsh.ch

More info: www.sh.ch/index.php?id=614
 

The financing of the ensemble, which was founded in 2004, stands and falls with the presence of its founder. However, Abbado has had to cancel all concerts since September for health reasons. According to the orchestra manager Fabio Roversi, the financial backers have therefore withdrawn.

It remains to be seen when Abbado will return to the podium. The Orchestra Mozart was due to perform at the Lucerne Festival at Easter. As the NZZ writes, festival director Michael Häfliger is still in negotiations with the ensemble to find a solution for the engagement.
 

The development is characterized by two trends: on the one hand, the decline in sales in the traditional CD business is continuing, while on the other hand, the extremely dynamic digital business is also undergoing a structural change, in which the established download offerings are coming under pressure from streaming service providers. IFPI members have invested around CHF 6 million (around 26%) of gross sales in the development of national talent.

Sales from the sale of CDs and other physical sound carriers contributed CHF 47.5 million to total sales (2013: CHF 53.7 million, -12%), of which around CHF 2 million was attributable to vinyl and other sound carriers. This decline in sales basically follows the general trend of CDs being replaced by online music consumption. The trend has been reinforced by the persistent strength of the Swiss franc since 2010 and the resulting direct imports by retailers and end consumers, which in turn has led to a reduction in sales space for CDs.

According to IFPI Switzerland, the share of such directly imported CDs is estimated at around 30 percent of purchases by Swiss end consumers; this income bypasses Swiss distributors. On the other hand, it is also apparent that the decline in sales in the CD business has recently slowed down: After a very drastic decline in previous years, it amounted to CHF -6.2 million (-12%) in 2014. The share of physical sound carriers in total sales amounted to 56% in 2014 (2013:
58 percent).

A month earlier than in other years, the Frankfurt trade fair is all about music. Walking through five huge halls, the entire value chain of the music industry is on display: from beat (drums and percussion) to bow (plucked and stringed instruments), from midi (keyboards, digital pianos, synthesizers, church organs) to forte (pianos, grand pianos, historical keyboard instruments), from nota (sheet music and specialist literature) to musikbiz (record labels, music publishers, studios, pressing plants and concert organizers, festivals and marketing platforms, institutions, academies and universities) - from the idea to making music to listening to the music on recordings or on the Internet.

Audience and prices

The Graduate School of the Arts (GSA) is a cooperation between the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Bern and the Bern University of Applied Sciences, Department of Bern University of the Arts. It is an interdisciplinary doctoral program aimed at both researching artists and academics who are interested in artistic practice.

At the GSA, theory and practice are closely intertwined, as are basic and practice-oriented research. At the GSA, doctoral students realize their own project in a stimulating environment that introduces them to scientific and artistic networks. Doctoral students benefit from synergy effects between the two universities and can develop specific skills.

During the three-year pilot phase from fall 2011 to summer 2014, the Graduate School was open to members and graduates of the University of Bern and Bern University of the Arts.