The Belgian Classical Music Prize is awarded by an independent jury of experts and is the equivalent of the Dutch Edison Prize, the French Diapason d'Or and the German ECHO. The award ceremony took place on Sunday, June 23, 2013, in the city theater of Mechelen (Belgium).

See Siang Wong studied in Holland with Marjès Benoist and in Switzerland with Homero Francesch and Bruno Canino. From 2006 to 2008 he was a guest lecturer at the Lucerne University of Music. He has been teaching at the Zurich University of the Arts since 2002.

See Siang Wong has recorded six CDs for the Decca label. Further recordings have been released by Deutsche Grammophon, Guild, Novalis, ZHdK Records, Liverpool Records as well as Rose and in 2012 his first album on RCA Red Seal (Sony Music) with piano works by Franz Schubert.

To promote cultural activities and recognize significant cultural achievements, the municipality of Riehen awards an annual cultural prize of 15,000 Swiss francs. The jury for the cultural prize of the municipality of Riehen has awarded the prize for 2012 to the composer Beat Gysin, according to the municipality.

Beat Gysinborn in 1968, studied piano, chemistry, composition and music theory in Basel. Coming from a family of musicians, he has written over fifty works, some of them award-winning, for various ensembles since his youth. In addition to classical composition, Beat Gysin is particularly interested in the spatiality of sound phenomena and the creation of surprising sound spaces.

The official presentation of the 2012 Culture Prize will take place on Monday, August 19, at 6.30 pm as part of a public ceremony in the village church in Riehen. The laudatory speech will be given by Rahel Hartmann Schweizer, art and architecture historian. On the occasion of the award ceremony, the composition Babjosh by Beat Gysin with the pianist Irina Georgieva.
 

Saadet Türköz (resident in Zurich) and Fa Ventilato (Brooklyn NY) will receive a work grant. Simon Winiger, who also lives in Zurich, can complete a residency in Rome.

The project ideas and application dossiers were first assessed and selected by specialist juries. In a second step, all the jury members involved nominated the artists who have now received a work grant or a residency in the Römer studio apartment.

Brotbeck played a key role in establishing and developing the transdisciplinary festival and has directed the last three editions (2008, 2010, 2012), the Biennale writes in a press release.

Eigensatz will coordinate the Bern Biennale 2014 Board of Trustees with immediate effect. The other members of the Board of Trustees are Kathleen Bühler, Peter Fischer, Sophie-Thérèse Krempl, Maike Lex, Christian Pauli, Raphael Urweider and Georg Weinand. Together they will design the program for the upcoming festival, which will take place in September 2014.

Gabriela Eigensatz studied Latin American literature in Mexico City and graduated as a Hispanist from London University. While still a student, she joined the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.

Since then, she has worked as a cultural attaché at the Swiss representations in Washington, Madrid and New York. Her last post was in Berlin, from where she returned to the head office in Bern in April 2012.

The music festival les muséiques has been held in Basel's museums every year since 2001. According to the festival management, this year for the first time it will not last several days as usual. A concert day will be held at the end of September and from 2014 the festival will take place every two years.

The reasons, says artistic director Florence Sitruk, are the restructuring of the sponsorship landscape and the new organizational team, which needs time to fulfil these tasks. The festival last took place under her aegis in September 2012 and was praised by the local and international press. Sitruk is confident and calls the festival, which she took over from Peter Sadlo in 2010, "a jewel for bringing all the arts together".
 

Compared to the previous year, this represents a slight increase of 2 percent. The number of first-semester students reached its highest level in the last ten years at around 5,500. Around 40 percent of the students were enrolled on artistic courses and one third on artistic and educational courses, with one in four enrolled on musicology courses.

With around 8800 students, artistic training in the field of instrumental/orchestral music is the most popular area of study. Jazz and popular music courses have seen the greatest growth, with student numbers more than doubling in the last ten years. Teaching at general education schools, on the other hand, continues to stagnate, and musicology has also seen a 17 percent drop over the same period.

At 56 percent, the proportion of women remains almost unchanged compared to the previous year, as does the proportion of foreign students, which is a quarter of the national average and in some degree programs (instrumental/orchestral music, composition) even more than half of the students.

With around 5700 graduates, more students successfully completed their studies in 2011 than in the previous ten years. More than 2100 orchestral and instrumental musicians alone left the universities, followed by around 1200 prospective teachers at general education schools, which, however, only recorded a slight increase of 3% compared to other fields of study over the last ten years.

In other areas, the growth rates were much higher: the number of graduates in jazz and popular music, as well as in musicology, has more than tripled or doubled in the last decade. In contrast, an above-average number of instrumental and vocal teachers and sound engineers have entered the professional market.

The MIZ's calculations are based on data from the Federal Statistical Office, which compiles the reports from conservatoires and universities, teacher training colleges, church music colleges and universities of applied sciences in its annual student statistics. For the first time, the MIZ has included students with music as their 2nd and 3rd subject in addition to their 1st subject.

Born in Uster in 1985, pianist Chris Conz is an established name on the Swiss blues and boogie scene. In 2011, the Chris Conz Trio won the small Prix Walo as the best young Swiss band. Alongside Conz, the trio includes drummer Martin Meyer and bassist Nuno Alexandre.

The Swiss Jazz Award is presented annually to the Swiss jazz band that has been most popular with the Radio Swiss Jazz audience over the past twelve months and received the most votes in the subsequent poll on the station's website.

More info: www.swissjazzaward.ch

The city of Biel will not be concluding a new contract with the Kulturtäter association. The Extraordinary General Meeting on June 12, 2013 decided to dissolve the association.

The situation in the areas of cultural perpetrators in cabaret, Chanson française and Semaine littéraire française will be reviewed by fall 2013. Due to the city's current financial situation, there may be less funding available for this from 2014 than before. All contracts will be revised in 2016 due to the total revision of the Cantonal Cultural Promotion Act.

The subsidies for the Théâtre de la Grenouille and the Photoforum are the responsibility of Parliament. If the City Council does not approve the loans for the two institutions, the situation would have to be reassessed as a whole for reasons of equal treatment. 

For the first time, Pro Helvetia is providing comprehensive support to 13 Swiss jazz and pop formations, writes the Arts Council. It not only supports the creation of new recordings - from rehearsing a repertoire to studio recording and mastering - but also their promotion abroad with Swiss labels.

A total of 112,000 Swiss francs will be provided:

- Wintsch/Weber/Wolfarth (Hat Hut)
- Sylvie Courvoisier - Mark Feldman Quartet (Intakt)
- Hans Hassler (Intakt)
- Samuel Blaser (No Business Rec / Songlines)
- XL-Target featuring Joe Bowie (Unit)
- Rusconi (Qilin Rec)
- Marc Perrenoud Trio (Challenge Rec)
- Christoph Stiefel Inner Language Trio (Basho Rec)
- Peter Kernel (On the Camper)
- Mama Rosin (Moi J'connais Records)
- Reza Dinally (Limmat Records)
- Tim & Puma Mimi (Petit Indie /Peski)
- Anna Aaron (Two Gentlemen)

In a press release, the CGT criticizes the fact that culture now only accounts for 0.68 percent of the state budget, the lowest figure in the last thirty years. The 2013 culture budget has been cut by one billion euros.

Federal cultural expenditure in Switzerland amounts to around 0.4 percent, which is even lower than that of the French state. However, the comparison is flawed because in this country culture is the responsibility of the cantons and these and the municipalities bear a large part of the burden.

The Avignon Theater Festival takes place between July 5 and 26.
 

Although a complete edition of Wagner's letters in chronological order has always been considered indispensable, its realization only began in 1967 under the patronage of the Richard Wagner Family Archive (later the Richard Wagner Foundation). Werner Breig's fundamental new conception of Richard Wagner's complete letters began in November 1999 with the publication of Volume 11. The carefully annotated volumes are illustrated with facsimiles and little-known photographs. The first publication of several letters further enhances the content of the edition. The commentary is based on many previously unpublished documents.
So far, the letters up to 1867 (volumes 1-19) have been published. Most recently, volume 22: Letters of the year 1870, edited by Martin Dürrer, with the letters on the premiere of the ValkyrieThe first letters on the Franco-Prussian War, with the first letters on festival plans in Bayreuth and 50 first publications. Volume 21: Letters from 1869 is currently in preparation and is expected to be published in summer 2013. The volume is edited by Andreas Mielke and contains letters on the premiere of Rheingold and to the Paris Rienzi-staging, to the extended new version of the script Judaism in music and 44 first publications. This is followed by volume 20 of the Wagner letter editions.

Image: Print of the letter from Richard Wagner to Anton Pusinelli dated March 21, 1864, taken from Volume 16: Letters of the Year 1864, p. 67. 
 

Richard Wagner: Complete Letters, Complete Edition in 34 Volumes and Supplements, Breitkopf & Härtel

Leopold Huber has made a name for himself as an author of books, radio plays and screenplays, but in particular as a director and producer in the fields of drama, musical theater and film, both in Thurgau and in the German-speaking world, writes the canton of Thurgau.

Leopold Huber was born in Upper Austria in 1955. He has worked as a freelance author, film and theater director since 1981. In 1990, he was a member of the founding ensemble of the See-Burgtheater Kreuzlingen (as dramaturge). He has co-directed the theater with Astrid Keller since 1993/94. He most recently directed "Die schwarze Spinne" by Jeremias Gotthelf (2010), "Der Zerrissene" by Johann Nestroy (2011), "The Black Rider" by Tom Waits (2012) and currently "Die Dreigroschenoper" by Bertolt Brecht (2013).

The Thurgau Culture Prize will be presented on Tuesday, August 13, 2013, at a public ceremony on the lake stage in Kreuzlingen by Cantonal Councillor Monika Knill, Head of the Department of Education and Culture.

Born in Freiburg, Barwisch studied economics, horn and international cultural management in Freiburg and Basel.

After gaining professional experience in various orchestras, including the Long Island Philharmonic Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic, he joined the orchestra management of the Munich Chamber Orchestra in 2004.

He has been Head of Concert Planning at the Munich Chamber Orchestra since 2006 and Deputy Managing Director since 2011.

Barwisch's predecessor, Reymond, is to transform the Lugano Festival into a year-round operation by 2015 - to coincide with the opening of the new Lugano-LAC hall. Concerts with international guest orchestras are planned, as well as recitals, chamber music and opera performances.

Pro Helvetia supports each orchestra participating in "Œuvres Suisses" with CHF 50,000 per year for the entire duration of the project. This gives the professional orchestras more leeway to plan tours abroad and implement projects for young talent and education.

All premieres will be recorded by Radiotelevisione svizzera di lingua italiana (RSI), Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) and Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF). In addition to broadcasts on the radio programs, it is planned to release a CD box with all the works once the project is complete.

Participating in the project are: Bern Symphony Orchestra, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Sinfonie Orchester Biel, Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Zürcher Kammerorchester.

The Swiss Youth Music Festival takes place every five years and is a highlight of the Swiss Youth Music Association's program of activities. jugendmusik.ch. As a member of the Swiss Wind Music Association and as a supporting member of jugend+musik, jugendmusik.ch is an important link between youth music-making in general and wind music.
On the weekend of June 15th and 16th, 112 youth bands with over 5000 children and young people performed in Zug in the categories of parade music, indoor show, taboure, percussion, brass band and harmony. Fifteen Swiss champions were crowned, who were honored by the President of the Swiss Confederation, Ueli Maurer, in the final on Sunday afternoon in Zug's Bossard Arena.
The aim of the entertainment program was to bring generations together. Under the direction of Mario Venuti, the Kadettenmusik, Stadtmusik and Harmoniemusik of the city of Zug jointly performed Mathias Rüegg's The story of the piccolo and the hundred tubes on.

Swiss champions in the respective categories:

Parade Music Small: BML Talents (Bürgermusik Luzern)
Parade music medium: Liberty Brass Band Junior
Parade Music Large: Boys' Music of the City of St. Gallen
Parade music evolutions: Youth Music Kreuzlingen

Indoor show: Tambouren Knabenmusik der Stadt St. Gallen
Tambours S1J: Boys' music of the city of St. Gallen
Tambours S2J: Windband Biberist
Tambours S3J: Youth music Ringgenberg-Goldswil
Percussion: Stadtjugendmusik Zürich

Brass Band Intermediate: Future Band
Brass Band highest level: BML Talents (Lucerne)

Harmony lower level: Jugendmusik Frauenfeld
Harmony intermediate level: Jugendmusik Sursee
Harmonie Oberstufe: Youth Wind Orchestra of the City of Lucerne
Harmony highest level: Jugendmusik Kreuzlingen

www.jugendmusikfest.ch