European combos (three or more musicians) and big bands of all styles of jazz are eligible. Participation is limited to a maximum age of 30 years (born in 1984 and younger).

The prize is endowed with 10,000 euros, divided into a cash prize of 5000 euros and a promotional prize of 5000 euros, tailored to the band's needs. This can be the production and distribution of a CD, a promotional package or a coaching package.

The jury consists of Joe Viera (Artistic Director of the International Jazz Week Burghausen), Roland Spiegel (Bayerischer Rundfunk), Ralf Dombrowski (publicist and photographer), Reinhard Köchl (publicist).

More info: www.b-jazz.com/jazzpreisjazz-award-2014.html

Classical:next is the international specialist forum for all areas of the classical music industry. The networking event comprises a trade fair and a conference, as well as showcase concerts and video presentations. Based on the positive feedback, Director Jennifer Dautermann wants to stick to the concept of an open platform when designing the conference and concert program: "We involve the international classical music community as much as possible, because our trade visitors themselves know best what they need, which artists they should get to know and which trends are promising."
Industry professionals worldwide are invited to propose artists and ensembles with exceptional profiles and innovative approaches, pioneering projects and hot topics as well as expert panels for the conference contributions. An independent and international jury of experts will provide a neutral assessment of the proposals. Submissions are possible online in three categories until September 13, 2013:

1. live showcase concerts
"Live Showcases" are short live performances by soloists and ensembles. The focus is on unusual approaches and novel performance cultures as well as sound languages that play with multimedia tools, actively involve the audience in the concert or stand out from the usual "staging" of classical music programs in a variety of ways.

According to the organizers, the Auditorium Stravinski, the main venue, was sold out on eleven evenings. Among others, the old masters Prince, Sting and Leonard Cohen have filled the hall.

This year's festival budget amounted to 25 million francs. Compared to the previous year, it was CHF 3 million higher.

A section of road in Montreux is named after Claude Nobs, the late festival founder - the entrance road from Montreux to the Royal Plaza is now called "Avenue Claude Nobs".

The next Montreux Jazz Festival will take place between July 4 and 19, 2014.

Highlights included a performance by Volbeat on Thursday, the Toten Hosen in front of 20,000 spectators on Friday evening and Hurts on Saturday.

The Fantastischen Vier, Emelie Sandé and Zaz closed the festival on Sunday. But newcomers such as Reptile Youth, Goose and Netsky were also on the bill. Steff La Cheffe and Müslüm each attracted 7,000 spectators to the Waldbühne.

There were teething problems at the beginning of the festival with a newly introduced cashless payment system. Whether it will continue to be used will be decided in the autumn, according to statements by the organizers in local media. 

The next Gurtenfestival will take place from July 17 to 20, 2014.
 

Born in 1957, Wehrli was active as a guitarist in various jazz rock formations from 1974 onwards. His first compositional works also date from this time.

From 1978 to 1981, Wehrli studied guitar with Walter Feybli at the Zurich Music Academy, followed by composition studies with Hans Ulrich Lehmann in Zurich and Helmut Lachenmann in Stuttgart. From 1986 to 1991 he was active in the Koprod studio and production group in Zurich.

The farewell ceremony will take place on Tuesday, July 23, at 4 p.m. in the Predigerkirche in Zurich.

Graf from the company PFL Management is responsible for the programming of the Musiques colorées of the Scène Ella Fitzgerald. Graf has experience as a tour administrator and festival coordinator. He regularly works with Radio Télévision Suisse, the Festival Diagonales Jazz and groups such as Mama Rosin and the Imperial Tiger Orchestra.

Ernie Odoom and Nelson Schaer take over responsibility for the concerts in the courtyard of Geneva City Hall. The promoters, who are well-known in French-speaking Switzerland, organize the AMR (Association pour l'encouragement de la musique improvisée) concerts and are associated with the Geneva Fête de la Musique and the Chat Noir in Carouge.
 

A selection of candidates will now undergo an expert check, from which six candidates will ultimately qualify for the live show on February 1, 2014.

From September 30 to October 28, 2013, 8 a.m., all performers who want to represent Switzerland at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest can submit their songs composed especially for this event on the internet platform srf.ch/eurovision publish.

After registration closes, the public will vote for their favorite songs. At the same time, a jury of experts gives its verdict (50 percent rating). A total of nine candidates will be selected for SRF and RTR.

In a second phase, the nine best performers from the internet platform, six candidates from RTS and three candidates from RSI will present their song live to a panel of experts. The experts will evaluate the live competence, vocal quality and stage presence. Of these 18 candidates, the team of experts will send three to SRF and RTR, two to RTS and one to RSI.

The six qualified performers will present their song as well as a cover version of another song in the national live show on February 1, 2014. This show will be broadcast live from the Bodensee-Arena in Kreuzlingen. The TV audience and a jury of experts will each decide 50 percent who will represent Switzerland at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark.

The change in Swisscom's sponsorship strategy will take effect from 2014. After around ten years of sponsoring music, the company wants to turn its attention to other cultural and sporting events, Swissinfo quotes Swisscom spokesperson Christian Neuhaus as saying.

Swisscom is examining alternatives in cultural sponsorship. Music festivals have lost their appeal because they no longer allow them to stand out as sponsors, Neuhaus continues. There are too many festivals for that.

Following the loss of traditional sponsors from the alcohol, tobacco and communications industries, festival organizers now have to look for new financial partners. If this is not successful, tickets are likely to become more expensive.

The position of Foundation President will be newly created at the beginning of 2014 "in order to emphasize and further develop the leading international role of the Bach Archive", as the Bach Archive writes in its official press release.

Peter Wollny will succeed Christoph Wolff in the position of director. Wolff has been Director of the Bach Archive since 2001 and will leave office at the end of 2013 for personal reasons. The official election of the new Bach Archive management is scheduled for October 2013.

Wollny, who completed his doctorate under Wolff at Harvard University in 1993 and habilitated at the University of Leipzig in 2009, is regarded as one of the leading Bach researchers.

As managing director of the Bach Archive's now three-member board, Dettloff Schwerdtfeger will continue to support the work of the president and the director on an equal footing. As part of the expansion of the board, Schwerdtfeger will take on the role of Managing Director of the Leipzig Bach Festival.

The Managing Director will chair the meetings of the Artistic Directorate, which will continue to be made up of the Thomaskantor Georg Christoph Biller, the new Director of the Bach Archive Peter Wollny and Elmar Weingarten.

Chiara Enderle, who completed a Bachelor's degree in cello with Thomas Grossenbacher at the ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts) and is now a student in Berlin with Jens Peter Maintz, beat the finalists Benedict Klöckner (Germany), Joris van den Berg (Netherlands) and Jonathan Dorman (Great Britain) in London.

The Pierre Fournier Award was established in 1988 by cellist Ralph Kirshbaum. Previous winners include Gemma Rosefield, Richard Harwood and Gregor Horsch as well as Mikhail Nemtsov in 2011. A total of 30 participants have been admitted to the competition.

Chiara Enderle was born in 1992 as the daughter of ZHdK music lecturers Matthias and Wendy Enderle. She has performed as a chamber musician with the Carmina Quartet in Switzerland, the USA and Japan. She has already won prizes in various competitions.

Thanks to a scholarship, Pony del Sol spent a year in 2007 at the Atelier Jean Tinguely, which is run by the City and Canton of Fribourg at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris. Since her return, she has given regular stage concerts. She released her first album in March 2013.

A total of 24 candidates applied for the scholarship, which was awarded for the first time. All genres of contemporary music were represented, from chanson to electro, rock, pop, jazz and reggae.

The expert jury was made up of Yvan Pochon (Office for Culture, president of the jury), René Aeberhard (Cantonal Commission for Cultural Affairs), Gilles Dupuis (Jazzkeller La Spirale), Davis Unternährer (Fri-Son) and Yann Zitouni (Western Switzerland Radio). After three rounds of deliberations, the jury's decision was unanimous.

According to the State Court of Auditors, it is incomprehensible that prospective musicians from Japan or China should be allowed to study in Germany free of charge to a considerable extent, SWR continues.

Young German musicians often have no chance against the competition from abroad. Music academies increasingly have to ask themselves whether their standards are still up to date, the broadcaster comments. It also needs to be discussed whether Baden-Württemberg can still afford five music academies.

The music magazine SWR2 Cluster will focus on the criticism of music academies from July 15 to 19, daily at 3:05 pm. The State Court of Audit itself will have its say, as will Science Minister Theresia Bauer and representatives of the music academies.

With this increase, the city is supporting what it considers to be the successful reorientation of the Zurich Festival, and it will enable more productions from medium-sized and smaller cultural institutions to be included in the Festival program, according to the official press release.

This would make the festival even more "a cultural festival for the city and region of Zurich and an attractive conclusion to Zurich's cultural year".

The city council is also asking the municipal council to extend the contributions to Theater Rigiblick for the years 2014 to 2017, which expire at the end of 2013. The annual support is to be increased by CHF 100,000 to a new total of CHF 490,000. Support for Miller's Studio is to be continued from 2014 to 2017 at the same annual level of CHF 154,640.

At the beginning of June, the Bundestag Committee for Culture and Media, with the votes of the governing coalition, deleted an important passage for the continued existence of the Artists' Social Security Fund from the government draft on the "Reorganization of the federal accident insurance funds, amendment of the Social Court Act and amendment of other laws".

The DTKV has therefore launched an e-petition to the German Bundestag to reinstate this point. It wants to legally oblige the German Pension Insurance to check whether companies that employ artists have complied with their tax obligations as part of their company audits - at least every four years.

Artists' social insurance (KSV) is part of the statutory social insurance system. It obliges freelance artists and publicists to take out statutory health, long-term care and pension insurance.

Half of the funding requirement is covered by contributions from the insured. The other half of the contribution is paid by taxpayers via a federal subsidy and the "exploiters" of artistic services in the form of an artists' social security contribution, which amounted to 3.9 % of all fees paid to a self-employed artist or publicist in 2012. The contribution rate rose to 4.1 % in 2013. Further and more substantial increases are to be expected in subsequent years.

However, the existence of the Künstlersozialkasse (KSK) is at risk, as fewer and fewer companies and institutions are fulfilling their obligation to pay contributions, writes the DTKV.
 

The cantonal government has chosen the Schwyz Cantonal Youth Wind Orchestra (SKJBO) under the direction of Urs Bamert as the musical ensemble. It will provide the musical backdrop for the aperitif and swearing-in ceremony at the Sacco di Roma.

Among the choirs, the Singkreis Brunnen has been chosen. It will make its main appearance during the mass in St. Peter's Basilica on the morning of the swearing-in ceremony. This is also the main reason why the choice fell on a church choir and not a yodeling, traditional costume or men's choir, the canton writes in the official press release.

With the swearing-in ceremony for the new recruits on May 6, the Swiss Guard commemorates the Sacco di Roma, the sack of Rome on May 6, 1527, during which the Swiss Guard defended Pope Clement VII.

Since 2008, the Swiss Guard has chosen a guest canton for these celebrations every year. In 2014, this will be the canton of Schwyz, which will travel to Rome with an official delegation - led by the cantonal government, which will take part in the Sacco die Roma in corpore.