The Académie vocale de Suisse romande never ceases to surprise with unconventional projects. On its latest CD for Claves, it presents Frank Martin's famous mass for double choir a cappella as well as the first recording of Valentin Villard's Mass à six voix op. 44 and the vocal level is breathtaking.

In the twelve years of its existence, the two directors Renaud Bouvier and Dominique Tille have built up a chamber choir that is second to none. Professional singers as well as students from all over French-speaking Switzerland come together to form an ensemble that is carefully coordinated. Each new member is precisely deployed in terms of the balance and blend of the registers, and the palette of vocal colors is correspondingly rich and yet homogeneous.

Modernism is particularly close to the Académie vocale's heart and it also wants to inspire new vocal works. However, Villard did not write his Messe à six voix for this choir; it is an early work that the former student composed between 2008 and 2011, without a commission. This makes it all the more astonishing how varied and sonorously intense this sacred work explores the possibilities of the Académie vocale and makes them resound.

Born in Lausanne in 1985, Villard studied composition in Geneva and Amsterdam and also gained valuable experience as a church musician; he already worked as an organist and choirmaster in the Catholic parish of Morges. In 2019, he was one of the three composers for the Fête des Vignerons. His genuine sense of spirituality and his practice in church music can be heard in the six-part mass.

The very idea of writing a mass for a cappella choir and a sextet of choral soloists has its own special charm. The choral sound from which the solos emerge is reminiscent of Gregorian chant in its simplicity, flowing into harmonic fields that are very delicate to intonate. The Académie vocale achieves this with a floating lightness that can build up to great intensity. And the singers perform the sophisticated interplay between solos and choir with suggestive devotion.

Frank Martin's Mass for double choir is also an early work; he wrote it in 1922 just for himself and it was neither intended for publication nor for performance. It was not until 1969 that Martin's best-known choral work was performed for the first time. Whether in the fugal Gloria or the virtuosically heightened Credo, the Académie vocale sings with an agility and virtuoso power that is second to none. A certain affinity of spirit between Martin and Villard is also evident.

Valentin Villard & Frank Martin: Doubles messes a cappella. Académie vocale de Suisse Romande, conducted by Renaud Bouvier and Dominique Tille. Claves 50-3003

The list of people to whom various tracks are dedicated on this album, which so joyfully crosses all kinds of shores, already indicates how wide-ranging Day & Taxi's interests and connections are. They range from Jack Bruce, once bassist in the rock trio Cream, which redefined the terms "loud" and "hard", to Fluxus artist Robert Filliou, filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard and Zurich painter Corinne Güdemann, to New York experimental impresario Kip Hanrahan. Day & Taxi was formed around three decades ago by the two saxophonists Christoph Gallio and Urs Blöchlinger. Since then, intensive creative periods with various trio formations have alternated with longer periods of silence. After Devotion (2019) is Run, the Darkness Will Come! the second album in Gallio's line-up with Silvan Jeger (double bass, shrutibox, voice) and Gerry Hemingway (drums, percussion). While the 37-year-old multi-instrumentalist Jeger is also involved in ambient and pop music and is a member of the Reto Suhner Quartet in addition to the group Uassyn, the discography of Hemingway (born in 1955) includes almost 200 works with Anthony Braxton (whose quartet he was a member of for eleven years), Marilyn Crispell, Don Byron and John Cale, for example.

The program begins with the title track, whose loosely swinging bass riff is cleverly dissected in a first solo. Hard on its heels follows Gallio's first flight of fancy, inexorably driven forward by virtuoso drumming, which comes up with a fresh detail with practically every bar, without ever forgetting the crisp beat. The piece provides the pattern for the longer compositions in that the musicians always and everywhere draw from the full, but never get stuck in the cerebral with all their virtuosity. The pieces are based on Gallio's compositions, which, however, leave plenty of room for improvisation. The spectrum of moods is impressive. From the playful R. F. it goes beyond the almost rock highlight Ego Killer to the meditative, 57 seconds long Infinite Sadness and the brooding, brooding sound of a mysterious "drone" underneath Too Much Nothing. The album's rich diversity is all the more astonishing given that it was created in just two days in June 2021 in the Baden studio of Gallio's record label Percaso.

Interspersed between the pieces, almost like commas and dots, are succinct short poems by authors such as Thorsten Krämer and Steve Delachinsky. The writer of these lines can do less with that. However, this does not detract from the enjoyment of the fireworks of the exchange between three gifted artists.

Together with Simone Escher and Kaspar Pankow, Julia van der Waerden is organizing the third international violin and bow making exhibition in her studio in Zurich's Hunziker Areal from 12 to 14 May. Andrea Bischoff (D), Franziska Gerstner (D), Kai-Thomas Roth (GB), Kaspar Pankow (CH), Lauri Tanner (GB), Gruszow & Baumblatt (D) and Ulf Johannson (S) will be present.

The exhibition is open from 12 noon to 6 p.m. and is complemented by a supporting program (concerts, lectures and sound samples).

www.werkplatzgeige.ch

The extent to which musical education can also be beneficial for other cognitive abilities or academic performance is a recurring topic of discussion. A team from the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, Goldsmiths University of London, Macquarie University in Sydney, the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt am Main and the University of Cambridge have now approached this question using a new scientific method. The results of the study have been published in the journal "Music Perception".

An essential component for all cognitive abilities is working memory, i.e. the ability to keep things in mind and process them cognitively without external aids such as pen or paper. However, it is still unclear whether working memory functions universally or in specific areas, i.e. whether the brain uses the same areas and capacities for music, images, language or mathematics - or different ones.

In their study, the team examined a total of 148 people. Using six different tests, they compared the test subjects' musical and visual working memory with their level of musical education.

The results show: If musical education influences visual working memory, then it does so via the detour of musical working memory. This means that musical education primarily improves musical working memory, which in turn could have a positive effect on visual working memory. In addition, the tests showed that - conversely - a generally good working memory generally facilitates musical education.

These findings suggest that there is a common cross-domain component that influences both visual and musical working memory. However, a direct link between musical education and general cognitive abilities seems unlikely. Long-term studies comparing the development of musical and cognitive abilities in people with and without musical education could further substantiate these results.

Original publication:
Silas, S., Müllensiefen, D., Gelding, R., Frieler, K. & Harrison, P.M.C. (2022). The Associations Between Music Training, Musical Working Memory, and Visuospatial Working Memory: An Opportunity for Causal Modeling. Music Perception, 39(4): 401-420.
https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2022.39.4.401

Sébastian Jacot from Geneva studied at the Geneva School of Music. He won 1st prize at the Swiss Youth Music Competition in 2002 and 2004. In 2005, he was named Soloist of the Year by the Jmanuel and Evamaria Schenk Foundation. In 2015, he also won the International ARD Music Competition in Munich.

Prior to his engagement in Leipzig, he had already worked in the same capacity for the Ensemble Contrechamps in Geneva, the Saito Kinen Festival Orchetsra in Japan and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

The San Francisco Symphony is considered one of the most important orchestras in the USA. It has been conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen since 2020.

Original article:
https://slippedisc.com/2022/04/san-francisco-swoops-for-leipzigs-principal-flute/

Meredith Kuliew, violist and initiator of the project, has noticed that a lot of experimentation and new formats are being developed in the concert business. However, the work of female composers is still being overlooked. This is why FemaleClassics aims to give a stage exclusively to music composed by women.

The first cycle of three concerts will take place in Zurich from June 16 to 19. Prior to this, amateur musicians (violin, viola, cello) are invited to a workshop on June 11 to actively explore chamber music works by female composers. 

Among other things, Heidy Weber-Wiget helped to revive the Chlefele tradition when it almost fell asleep decades ago. She also initiated the two decades of New Year's concerts in the Seewner church. Among other things, she brought the "Zauberlaterne" cinema education program to Schwyz for children.

The canton writes in its media release that the cultural mediator and organizer's interest in and openness to art and culture was awakened from an early age. Her parents' business, the then Hotel Wolfsprung in Brunnen, was a favorite haunt of local artists. The Schwyz writer Meinrad Inglin, for example, was a regular visitor to the hospitable establishment on Axenstrasse.

Original article:
https://www.sz.ch/behoerden/information-medien/medienmitteilungen/medienmitteilungen.html/72-416-412-1379-1377-4603/news/16539

From May 17 to 20, the classical music industry will meet at Classical:next neu in Hanover. This event sees itself as an international forum for all professionals in the field of classical music. Together with other partners, the Fondation Suisa has once again organized a joint stand for participants from Switzerland. Registrations are still possible until May 13 via

The saxophonist, composer and trained lawyer has headed the Lübeck University of Music since March 2014. As the press office there announced yesterday, during his time in office Gubler has further developed the Lübeck University of Music through many measures, sat on national and international committees (e.g. since 2020 on the Council of the Association Européenne des Conservatoires, Académies de Musique et Musikhochschulen) and taught an international saxophone class.

Until he takes up his post in Bern in February 2023, the Department of Music at Bern University of the Arts will be headed by Peter Kraut on an interim basis, following Graziella Contratto's departure at the end of January 2022.

The pianist Yilan Zhao, born in 1995 in Hunan Province in southern China, completed her bachelor's degree at the Juilliard School in New York with Hung-Kuan Chen, Robert D. Levin and Matti Raekallio, among others. She has been studying with Konstantin Scherbakov at the Zurich University of the Arts since 2018.

Cellist Charlotte Elise Lorenz, born in 1994, studied for a Bachelor's degree with Francis Gouton in Trossingen and continued her studies with Christian Poltéra at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts - Music, graduating in 2019 with a Master of Arts in Music with a focus on classical performance and in 2022 with a Master in Interpretation in Contemporary Music.

Born in Toronto in 1993, percussionist Elliott James Harrison completed a Master's degree in Percussion Performance at McGill University in Montreal in 2017 and a Master's degree in Pedagogy at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel in 2019. He also attended a Master's in Contemporary Music at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent.

The Fritz Gerber Foundation for gifted young people has been active since 1999. It supports talented young people in the fields of crafts, culture and sport. Support is provided in the form of financial contributions for education, further education and training. In the last 23 years, the foundation has supported over 2500 young people with more than 30 million Swiss francs.

The prize has been awarded annually to young, highly talented musicians since 2015. It includes a scholarship for participation in the Lucerne Festival Academy worth CHF 10,000 and additional prize money of CHF 10,000. Applications are made via an open call, and recommendations are also accepted. This year's jury consisted of Michael Haefliger, Director of the Lucerne Festival, composer and conductor Heinz Holliger and Felix Heri, Director of Lucerne Festival Contemporary.

According to the federal government's press release, the same regulation will apply to compensation for cultural associations in the non-professional sector. In doing so, the Federal Council is taking into account the after-effects of the pandemic on the cultural sector. After the lifting of all sanitary measures at the end of March 2022, the challenges in the cultural sector will not end immediately.

In particular, a hesitant return of audiences is still to be expected. Added to this are the uncertainties surrounding international tours and transnational performances by artists. These conditions continue to make it difficult to plan cultural events.

The Federal Council has therefore decided to amend the Covid-19 Cultural Ordinance and extend the support measures for the cultural sector by two months. This concerns the loss compensation for cultural enterprises and creative artists as well as financial aid for cultural associations in the non-professional sector.

More info:
https://www.admin.ch/gov/de/start/dokumentation/medienmitteilungen.msg-id-88026.html

Integration is easiest for new arrivals from abroad if they get involved in an association. You get to know people, do things together and can distinguish yourself as a hands-on, i.e. socially useful person. Switzerland is a country of associations. But this was apparently not always the case, as a 100-year-old article from the magazine Modern folk music shows. In it, the Swiss are described as a nation of lone wolves who are completely unsuited to the club system.

The article reflects the resentment that the author obviously harbored after a 10-year odyssey. After the first initiatives, it took that long for the Swiss Mandolinists' and Guitarists' Association to be launched on November 13, 1921. Immigrants also played a key role in the eventual happy outcome, as SP city councillor-to-be Simone Brander explained in her Sunday speech on the 100th anniversary of the association, which has since been renamed the Swiss Mandolinists' and Guitarists' Association. Swiss Plucked Music Association underlined the renamed association. This was no coincidence. As Vreni Wenger-Christen's commemorative publication beautifully explains, plucked string ensembles and orchestras in Switzerland originated from outside. Immigrants from Italy brought sociable music-making on plucked instruments over the Gotthard from the south, while the Wandervogel movement radiated to us from the north. What both influences had in common was that they appealed to broad sections of the population who were excluded from conservatories and bourgeois musical life.

These origins can still be felt today. For example, the Amando Zurich Mandolin Orchestra, one of the ensembles that provided the musical backdrop to the ceremony on Sunday morning, was founded in 1910 as the Trämler Orchestra. They were and still are amateurs who achieve amazing things with dedication and under professional direction. What has changed since then is the breadth of the movement, mentioned association president Sandra Tinner in her entertaining speech. While 22 associations joined forces when the association was founded, it now consists of seven orchestras and 30 individual members. The festival was above all a family reunion. People knew each other and exchanged memories and anecdotes.

But don't think that the association is mainly looking backwards. On Saturday, a not inconsiderable part of the musical festival program was played by young people. Plucked string orchestras and ensembles from the Zurich, Baar, Stans, Horgen, Basel and Uster-Greifensee music schools showed that enthusiastic young musicians are on the rise. And with the zupf.helvetica association orchestra, founded in 2017 and led by Sonja Wiedemer and Christian Wernicke, there is an ensemble ready to take on this new generation and offer them a perspective.

pluck.helvetica wants to represent Swiss plucked string music nationally and internationally and is focusing on the strategy of expanding its repertoire through commissions. While the 2019 commission for the first such project with Anina Keller went to a specialist in the genre, Ramon Bischoff comes from a completely different musical corner for this year's project. The musician, who works as a sound engineer, often experiments with alternative tuning systems and also writes a lot of electro-acoustic music. The sound world of the plucked string orchestra was new territory for him. The result of the collaboration, the piece Schwärme, which was premiered on Sunday, was therefore an adventure for both sides.

In his composition, Bischoff works with sound effects that may be unfamiliar to many, yet he has listened carefully and used the body of sound effectively and adequately. The title alludes to the flocking behavior of birds or fish, which seem to move chaotically and yet suddenly act in a very coordinated manner and change direction in a targeted manner. The tremolo, the mandolin cliché par excellence, is used appropriately for the chaotic confusion, while clear rhythms organize the movement in between. Slightly different tunings meet tempered tuning and create beats, which in turn mix with tapping and scratching noises. The result is an interesting soundscape that elicits unusual sounds from the instruments. Only the addition of the double bass indicates that a pure plucked string orchestra does have some tonal limitations.

Percussionist Ziegler completed his studies at the Zurich University of the Arts in September 2019 with a Master of Arts in Music (Performance Soloist). In 2017, he won the Migros Culture Percentage Study Award for the second time since 2015 for his exceptional solo performance during the Instrumental Music Competition. In 2018 and 2020 he won the Kiefer-Hablitzel / Göhner Music Prize and was a semi-finalist at the International TROMP Percussion Competition in both years.

The Thurgau expert jury has selected the following six Thurgau artists from 50 applications: Hannes Brunner, visual artist, Zurich; Lea Frei, author and illustrator, St. Gallen; Michael Frei, filmmaker, Zurich; Sonja Lippuner, visual artist, Basel; Thi My Lien Nguyen, visual artist, Winterthur; Fabian Ziegler, musician, Matzingen.