On September 27, 2013, the Leopold Children's Media Prize - "Good Music for Children" will be awarded for the ninth time at the WDR broadcasting center in Cologne. 130 music productions on CD, CD-ROM and DVD were submitted. The 17 particularly successful recordings that have now been nominated can already advertise with the title "Recommended by the Association of German Music Schools" and are therefore on the Association of German Music Schools' (VdM) list of recommended audio media.

The target group itself, this year's children's jury from the Humboldt-Gymnasium in Cologne, will award the special "Poldi" prize to their favorite from the competition at the award ceremony.

The nominations for the Leopold 2013 are as follows:

• Aktive Musik Verlagsgesellschaft mbH/Igel Records: George Frideric Handel - The Messiah (from 8 years)
• Aktive Musik Verlagsgesellschaft mbH/Igel Records: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Don Giovanni (from 8 years)
• AMA Verlag GmbH: Planet of Dragons - A musical space adventure (from 5 years)
• AraM Publisher: The wren and the silver flute (from 6 years)
• The blind fish: Muhsik (from 5 to 10 years)
• Edition SEE-IGEL: Puss in boots (from 5 years)
• Edition SEE-IGEL: sky wide (from 7 years)
• GLM Music GmbH: Quadro Nuevo - Beautiful children's songs (from 3 to 12 years)
• headroom Verlag: The great word factory (from 4 years)
• headroom Verlag: A Christmas story - Christmas Carol (from 6 years)
• Helbling Verlag GmbH: Mozart's Magic Flute (from 8 to 12 years)
• Jumbo Neue Medien & Verlag GmbH: I am two and already in (from 2 years)
• Monarda Publishing House Ltd: Jazz dreams in Cleveland - A musical journey through the magical world of the saxophone (from 12 years)
• murmel records - Ulrike & Bernd Meyerholz GbR: MilchBarJazz - for connoisseurs young and old (from 4 to 9 years)
• Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG: The elephant fart (from 5 years)
• Tonstudio Krauthausen GmbH: This song (from 10 to 15 years)
• Tyxart: Sax & Moritz (from 9 years)

The annotated list of prizewinners and recommendations can be ordered from the VdM (Plittersdorfer Straße 93, 53173 Bonn, e-mail: vdm@musikschulen.de) from October 2013.

www.medienpreis-leopold.de

With the award of the Schwyz Culture Recognition Prize, endowed with 10,000 Swiss francs, the Culture Commission and Government Council have honored the musician P. Theo Flury, OSB, who has provided important impulses in Schwyz culture for many years with his artistic work and great commitment, writes the Canton of Schwyz. He has made a name for himself far beyond the canton of Schwyz as a monastery organist in Einsiedeln and as a lecturer and performer on the organ.

Heidy Weber-Wiget, in turn, has become an integral part of cultural life in Schwyz, the canton added. With "incredible energy, tenacity and expertise", she has initiated and successfully organized countless cultural events in various fields over the decades - on her own responsibility, on a voluntary basis and always remaining in the background.

Marcel Oetiker. Photo: "March-Anzeiger" Schranz

By awarding the cantonal sponsorship prize of CHF 5,000, the Culture Commission is recognizing the creativity and exceptional potential of the accordion player Marcel Oetiker. The award is intended to support his artistic career and the further development of his proven skills.

After studying at the Lucerne School of Music, Oetiker completed his Bachelor's degree at the Bern University of the Arts in 2010. He was the first musician ever to achieve this title with the Schwyzerörgeli. In 2012, he also completed his Master's degree at the Bern University of the Arts.

The organizing patrons' association Schweizer Klaviertrio has chosen the Seeburgpark Kreuzlingen as a new, additional venue for this year's festival, where the two opening concerts will take place outdoors. In case of bad weather, the vaulted cellar of the Seemuseum will be available in the immediate vicinity.

A concert is planned at Arenenberg Castle on September 12 and four more concerts will take place from September 13 to 15 on the MS Sonnenkönigin from the ports of Kreuzlingen, Constance, Rorschach and Bregenz.

A commented student concert and a concert for young musicians are planned to promote young talent. The artistic director for the fifth edition is once again Martin Lucas Staub from Thurgau, the pianist of the Swiss Piano Trio.

The costs for the festival amount to 250,000 francs. The organizers are expecting income of around 87,000 francs from admissions and advertisements. The remaining deficit is to be covered by contributions from the public sector, foundations and sponsors.

The new name stands for the "unbroken motivation of all those responsible to make the cultural beacon of Aargau shine even brighter", the orchestra writes in an official statement.

The professional orchestra of around 60 musicians has two subscription series of its own with symphonic programming. It also makes regular guest appearances at the Tonhalle Zurich and is the house orchestra for the "Hallwyl Castle Opera", which takes place every three years.

The orchestra is supported by the Canton of Aargau, which in 2010 awarded it an "outstanding status in the cultural landscape of Aargau". British conductor Douglas Bostock has been the orchestra's principal conductor since 2001.

The official name change, which also involves a logo change (see illustration), will take place at the end of the current season on June 30, 2013. The orchestra can be reached from May 29 under the URL www.argoviaphil.ch.

In view of a long, fulfilled musical life, which he shared for many decades with his wife, the pianist Geneviève Joy, who died in 2009, he left behind a concentrated oeuvre of orchestral works, song compositions, ballet and chamber music, the publisher continued.

Born into a family of artists, Dutilleux experienced the multifaceted musical life of interwar Paris. As a student at the conservatory, he was in close contact with colleagues such as André Jolivet, Darius Milhaud and Francis Poulenc, but he did not become a member of the Groupe des Six or Jeune France.

In 1942, he temporarily became choirmaster of the Paris Opera. When the war ended, external conditions improved and Dutilleux switched to French radio. He later taught composition at the École Normale de Musique and at the Conservatoire. Two symphonies (1951 and 1959) brought the hoped-for international recognition as a composer.

Dutilleux was fascinated by the delicate polyphony of the Franco-Flemish masters; Bach chorales stayed with him throughout his life and the late works of Beethoven were a refuge for him. He described his own individual approach to harmony as free-tonal continuity, which harmonizes the classical theory of chords with modality, polytonality and atonality.

The device, called "Motioncomposer", can generate sounds, music and poetry from every movement, even if it is just the blink of an eye. In this way, Wechsler hopes to help people with disabilities achieve genuine musical expression, improved body and self-awareness and thus the development of a realistic body image.

The Motioncomposer is currently being presented as part of a symposium for barrier-free interactive sound art at the workshop studio of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

In a workshop, four guest composers from Norway, Spain, Italy and Germany are working with experts from Bauhaus University and guests from the Infomus Institute in Genoa (Italy) on new music scenarios for the device.

More info: www.motioncomposer.com

"Where the hell is the press?" offers six music journalists at the start of their careers practical training and further education. Designed as a mentoring program, the pilot project also aims to stimulate a discussion about the state of cultural journalism in the Swiss media and the current framework conditions of the critic's profession.

The music journalists Ane Hebeisen (Der Bund) and Yann Zitouni (RTS) have been engaged as mentors. They will design and run the festival blog together with the participants from May 23 to 25, 2013 www.wherethehellisthepress.netwhich offers alternative coverage of the Bad Bonn Kilbi 2013.

The participants Eva Hediger (Winterthur), Laurent Küng (Lausanne), Louis Rossier (Fribourg), Andreas Ruf (Olten), Fabienne Schmuki (Zurich) and Pascaline Sordet (Lausanne) were selected following a call for applications.

The pilot project will be evaluated after the first edition and will be pursued in the context of other festivals and disciplines.

The 41-year-old from Bern has worked as a dramaturge, lecturer and editor of the Theaterlexikon der Schweiz. Christine Wyss studied German language and literature at the University of Bern, graduating in 1998.

Wyss is a member of the Music Controlling Group and the City of Bern's Literature Commission. Thanks to her wide-ranging cultural policy and cultural commitment, she has an excellent network in Bern's cultural scene, writes the canton.

The office oversees the activities of the cultural commissions of the Canton of Bern in the areas of calls for proposals, awards, foreign and travel grants as well as art acquisitions and manages the secretariat. Christine Wyss succeeds Carine Zuber, who headed the office until the end of 2012 and is now in charge of the Zurich jazz venue Moods. Lukas Vogel is responsible for the cultural commissions on an interim basis.

Music is more present in society than ever before and yet it can be seen that pupils are less enthusiastic about music lessons than they used to be. The initiators of the colloquium identify open questions such as: Should music lessons be exhausting? Do teaching materials and courses need to be adapted?

According to a statement from the organizers, the multilingual 1st Swiss Music Education Research Colloquium aims to

• "Take note of Swiss and international research on motivation in relation to music education;
• Exchange practical analyses that combine motivation and music (teaching);
• Paving the way for cross-linguistic collaboration between researchers and practitioners in music education."

The colloquium is aimed at practitioners (instrumental teachers, music teachers at general education schools, conductors), researchers and political decision-makers. It is organized by the Music Education Research Group of the Fribourg University of Teacher Education. Members of the organizing committee are Jérôme Schumacher, Pierre-François Coen, Olivier Blanchard, Catherine Vernaz and Jérôme Fracheboud.
Contributions on the topic can be submitted until July 22. All submissions will be reviewed by double-blind reading.

Further information: www.musique2013.ch

Image: © knipseline / pixelio.de
 

Both teachers and students at music universities are becoming increasingly international. Sometimes - even in music - there is a lack of translation of the appropriate technical term.

The Music dictionary by Johanna Heutling offers the basic vocabulary of musical terms in German, English and Russian and, for the first time, in the Asian languages Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Italian and French technical terms are also included in the performance terms. The indexes in the appendix allow the keywords to be found quickly.

It is aimed at a large user group of amateur and professional musicians, but above all students at music colleges. The dictionary will also be used by German or English-speaking musicians working in Eastern Europe or Asia. As studying abroad has become more attractive than ever due to the international harmonization of the study system, the book also contains administrative terms that go beyond purely technical vocabulary and make everyday study easier.

Johanna Heutling, Dictionary of Music German - Japanese - Korean - Chinese - Russian - English, 380 pages, € 28.00, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden 2013, ISBN 978-3-7651-0397-1 

Newly elected committee members are: Sabina Binggeli-Brogle, long-standing member of the Board of Trustees and President of the Pro Argovia Cultural Foundation, Lenzburg; Walter Leimgruber, Professor of Folklore at the University of Basel and Franziska Reck, filmmaker and film producer, Zurich.

The President of the Commission for Cultural Affairs continues to be the Director of Culture, State Assemblyman Alex Hürzeler. Hanspeter Thür, Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner, President of Theater Tuchlaube, Aarau, serves as Vice President.

The re-elected members are: Lieni Füglistaller, former National Councillor, Rudolfstetten-Friedlisberg; Hedy Graber, Head of the Culture and Social Affairs Directorate of the Migros Cooperative Federation, Zurich; Linus Hüsser, historian, Ueken; Josef Meier, President of the Aargauer Kunstverein, Wettingen; Ruth Soland, Artistic Director of Klanc, mezzo-soprano and music teacher, Zofingen; Maja Wanner, President of Klosterspiele Wettingen, Würenlos.

The following people did not stand for re-election for the 2013-2016 term of office: Simon Libsig, author and storyteller, Baden; Urs Pilgrim, President of Murikultur, Muri; Gillian White, visual artist, Leibstadt.

The commission's tasks include, in particular, advising on the allocation of operating contributions to communal and private cultural institutions of at least cantonal importance. The commission is also consulted on major cultural projects that affect the Swisslos fund, on overarching projects in the areas of monument preservation, archaeology, museums, libraries and archives or on landmark decisions regarding cultural mediation by the cantonal government.

BeJazz TransNational is aimed at local and national musicians who want to overcome the financial hurdles of cross-border musical collaboration. The focus is on exchanges with musicians from abroad.

The organizers will select three projects from the applications. Those selected will each play a public concert at the BeJazz Club. All performers receive the usual BeJazz fee plus expenses.

BeJazz TransNational covers the travel costs of the foreign partners as well as the costs for a maximum of three additional overnight stays. This enables the bands to have an intensive rehearsal phase prior to the performance.

Based on the performances, a jury will decide which of the three projects is most worthy of support. The selected band receives the BeJazz TransNational sponsorship prize worth 8,000 francs to support further project-related activities.

More info: www.bejazz.ch/transnational

The four bands that made it through were Dinner 4/5 from Wettingen, Pinut from Aarau, Crystal Minds from Untersiggenthal, Last Sorrow from Wynental and the two best school bands (led by a teacher): high/low city from Reitnau and SPAM from Schöftland.

The six finalists are coached by an expert from the music business. They work on arrangements and live performances in their own practice room and are given tips for their band careers. An audience prize will also be awarded at the final.

The ZHdK was actually due to move into the new Toni-Areal campus in summer 2013. Intensive preparations have therefore been made in terms of content, organization and technology for the major project, which will see over 35 locations merged. Since February 2013, it has been clear that the move will be postponed by a year due to construction delays.

The international accreditation of all Master's degree programs was completed in 2012. With the accreditation of all its degree programs, Switzerland's largest art academy has reached a milestone that is significant not least for its international profile, writes the ZHdK.

Research has also established itself, according to the ZHdK. The good success rate at the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) last year shows that it is on the right track.

In 2012, interest also focused on the doctoral programs that the ZHdK runs in cooperation with foreign art universities. Thanks to these international collaborations, young lecturers and researchers in the arts and design can be supported. These disciplines are not represented at local universities.

According to Thomas D. Meier, the ZHdK is aiming for its own right to award doctorates in the medium term. As the newly elected President of the Rectors' Conference of the Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences, he wants to promote a constructive dialog with the universities on the subject of doctorates.

As Artistic Director of the Lugano Festival, Reymond will be responsible for concert programming, which will have new opportunities thanks to the future concert hall in the LAC (Lugano Arte e Cultura).

Its tasks also include harmonizing the Lugano Festival's concert offerings with the programmes of other local music institutions, in particular RSI (Radio and Television of Italian-speaking Switzerland) and the Orchestra of Italian-speaking Switzerland Foundation. The Festival will extend its program, which was previously limited to the spring months, to the whole year.

The LAC cultural center is the work of architect Ivano Gianola and is due to open its doors in 2015. Designed as a multi-purpose center, the building offers space for activities in the visual arts, music and performing arts and houses a concert and theater hall in addition to the exhibition space for the New Art Museum.