The annual scholarship competition of the Kalaidos University of Music took place on November 13, 2023. This year, the prizes of the annual Istvan Kertész Competition were awarded at the same time. The two funding instruments recognize outstanding young artists and complement the services of the Kalaidos Scholarship Fund, which supports students in difficult financial situations.

Students from all degree programs at Kalaidos University of Music were invited to give an approximately twenty-minute performance of pieces in various styles in order to qualify for the scholarships and prizes. From current pop compositions to organ music, a wide variety of pieces, interpretations and very personal styles could be heard on this concert day. 

Students from the jazz and pop department performed in a band with vocals, piano, drums and bass; students from the classical department played violin, cello, piano, organ, flute and guitar. Experts were invited for each instrument to judge the performances of the individual students. Of course, it was not easy for the jury to award the scholarships and prizes - they had to  We were able to compare many excellent performances of different styles and instrument groups and to highlight some of them.

The scholarships from the Kalaidos University of Music went to the following young artists:

• Alexander Argirov, who has just completed his teacher training and started further training in classical singing at the Kalaidos University of Music, impressed the jury with his warm, sonorous voice and expressive text presentation;
• Zhang Zhixin, who will soon be completing his bachelor's degree in violin performance, impressed the audience with his diverse tonal colors and virtuoso ease in compositions by Gabriel Fauré and Henryk Wienawski;
• and the not yet twenty-year-old Inessa Kulmer, who is studying for a Master's degree in Performance Violin and performed compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, Camille Saint-Saëns and Claude Debussy with a great variety of colors, exhausting the possibilities of her instrument from the softest breath to fireworks of chords. 
• A sponsorship award went to the singer Katharina Deierlein, the pianist Riccardo Venanzi and the percussionist Wenbiao Yuan, who sang about lovesickness in a small, fine concert program ranging from 1920s swing to lively original compositions.
• In addition to the scholarships, the prizes of the Kértesz competition were also awarded:

First prize went to pianist Zeyu Zhao, who is studying for a Master's degree and impressed the jury with his virtuoso ease in his interpretation of a work by Chopin. The second prize was shared by cellist Selin Demirel, who performed compositions by Ahmed Adnan Saygun and Edouard Lalo with a wonderful sound and wide-ranging phrasing, and pianist Ruben Russo, who interpreted a composition by Brahms with a great variety of dynamic and agogic shaping. The organist Marie Königsbeck, who presented a clear polyphony and a varied registration, was awarded third prize. The Swiss prize went to violinist Elisabeth Kulmer, who shone with great virtuosity and technical precision.

After this day, we program directors are proud to be able to accompany all of these extraordinary artists in their careers. We know from our own experience what great commitment, perseverance and creative energy musicians need to learn a musical instrument from an early age, to spend countless hours perfecting technique and musical interpretation and to persevere through all obstacles, not least financial ones, to be enthusiastic about music and to share this enthusiasm with an audience. Our love of music sometimes makes us forget the great effort that goes into doing everything for a profession.
which in most cases is associated with precarious working conditions.

We are delighted to be able to financially support the work of these young artists and hope that our work will help these young musicians to continue to develop in their own individual style and to continue to infect their audiences with their enthusiasm for music and enchant them with their richness of expression - after all, we have learned in recent years that, especially in moments of uncertainty and fear of the future, deeply felt artistic expression and the commitment of a young generation can give us strength and hope to face the future more optimistically and perhaps turn it into something positive. 

At Arosa Sounds at the beginning of February, young talent from Graubünden is a central part of the program. Under the motto "Bündner Sounds", three Grisons singers will perform with the same backing band on each of two evenings. Original compositions are rearranged and rehearsed together in advance. The mixture of young and established musicians is a challenge, but enriching for everyone. The new interpretations bring new facets to the songs and inspire the audience. Marco Todisco, Chiara Jacomet and Julie Fox  will showcase their qualities as singer-songwriters on Thursday evening, while Friday will be rockier and more energetic with Dario Hess, Sarah Mark and Gianni Tschenett. Concerts with musicians from outside the canton of Graubünden round off the festival program. This year, the Bernese saxophonist Sha and Elvis cover versions accompanied by a band and string quartet can be heard.

The Arosa Classical Music Festival includes twelve concerts, seven of which will be performed by winners of the Hans Schaeuble Award. A total of twelve prizewinners will be performing in Arosa: three accordionists, four saxophonists, three violinists, a violist and a cellist. They all attended the Arosa Music Academy master class in Arosa in the fall and were awarded the Hans Schaeuble Award for their exceptional musical performances. In two groups, they will each develop a concert program in Arosa and perform it in Arosa, Chur and Zurich. They will be guests at the Klibühni - Das Theater in Chur and in Zurich as part of the Mittagsmusik concert series in the Predigerchor of the Zentralbibliothek Zurich and in the Johanneskirche Zurich. With the Duo Recantores, consisting of Kristina Bistriha, soprano / Anton Savchuk, piano and the Duo Christoph Croisé, cello / Alexander Panfilov, piano, established international artists can be heard in Arosa. The jazz quartet "Erwin Füchslin - Laurent Girard - Thise Meyer - Madlaina Küng", which plays improvised music at the interface between folk music, jazz and classical music, deserves a special mention. Bergkirchli concerts with Jasmine Vollmer, harp, Edmauro de Oliveira, guitar and Franco Mettler, clarinet complete the festival program. 

Arosa Sounds

February 1-3, 2024
Program
Sha solo / Bündner Sounds with Marco Todisco, Chiara Jacomet, Julie Fox, Dario Hess, Sarah Mark and Gianni Tschenett / Julie Fox solo / Gianni Tschenett solo / Aloha from Hawaii
All information at www.arosasounds.ch

Arosa Classical Music Festival

March 12 - 30, 2024
7 concerts with winners of the Hans Schaeuble Award / Jazz Quartet "Erwin Füchslin/Laurent Girard/Thise Meyer/Madlaina Küng" / Christoph Croisé and Alexander Panfilov / Duo Recantores / Edmauro de Oliveira and Franco Mettler / Jasmine Vollmer
All information at www.arosaklassik.ch

In its anniversary year, EPTA Switzerland is delighted to be hosting the 46th International EPTA Conference from February 29 - March 3, 2024 in partnership with the Lucerne School of Music. At Europe's largest annual conference on the piano, over 50 speakers from all over the world will present lectures, lecture recitals and workshops on the topic of "Changes - Visions & Evolutions in Piano Music".

For decades, the International EPTA Conference has provided a unique artistic and piano pedagogical forum for pianists. Piano playing, interpretation and piano pedagogy come alive - the latest research is shared and discussed. 

Registrations for listeners are open until 15.2.2024 (Early Bird discount until 31.12.23). More information can be found at www.epta.ch. EPTA Switzerland is looking forward to meeting all speakers and guests.

Review 2023

In October, EPTA Switzerland held its fall conference in collaboration with the Bern University of the Arts. The two-day congress was dedicated to the topic of "Piano in Motion". The focus was on workshops and lectures on the subject of "Magic Piano" - a central research topic at the HKB. Radio SRF 2 Kultur was a live guest at an EPTA conference for the first time. The program "Diskothek vor Publikum: Welte Mignon - eine pianistische Zeitreise" was recorded in the concert hall under the direction of music editor Eva Oertle with sound engineer Andreas Werner and pianist Tomas Dratva. 

Numerous questions of interpretation regarding text fidelity, improvisation, agogic, articulation and dynamics in a historical context were discussed. The recordings of the piano rolls offered astonishing insights. The program can be listened to at any time at www.srf.ch.

Interested parties had until September 22, 2023 to submit a statement on the Cultural Dispatch 2025-2028. SONART made use of this opportunity and coordinated its statement with the umbrella organizations Suisseculture, Suisseculture Sociale, the Swiss Music Council and the Culture Taskforce.

Some selected points from SONART's statement are explained below.

Social security

It is pleasing that the federal government wants to improve the social security of cultural professionals with various measures. After all, as in any other professional field, working conditions in the cultural sector should allow cultural professionals to pursue their profession under good conditions. This includes appropriate compensation for the work performed as well as adequate social security through the social insurance system.

The consideration of appropriate remuneration in the assessment of funding applications - as provided for in the cultural message - is therefore to be welcomed. The fact that the recommendations of professional associations for salaries and fees are to be used in the assessment of appropriateness is very promising. This consideration of appropriate remuneration must be acknowledged with corresponding additional funding for cultural promotion.

However, the systemic problems cannot be solved through cultural promotion alone; the social security system needs to be adapted for atypical forms of employment in general and for the self-employed. For this reason, it is positive that increased cooperation between the Federal Office of Culture FOC and the Federal Social Insurance Office FSIO is envisaged in certain areas and that selective adjustments to the social insurance system are also being considered. However, in our opinion, the social insurance system should be fundamentally adapted to so-called "atypical employment relationships" - an increasing phenomenon in all sectors.

Consideration of the entire value creation process in cultural promotion

It is very much to be welcomed that the upstream and downstream phases of production are also to be supported as part of the updating of cultural funding. We are convinced that funding the upstream phases (research and development) and improving the funding of the downstream phases (promotion, diffusion and communication) will improve the financial situation of creative artists on the one hand, and that this type of funding is also much more in line with the artistic creative process on the other.

Increased cooperation in cultural policy

Another positive aspect is that the federal government wants to strengthen cooperation in cultural policy with the cantons, cities, municipalities, cultural associations and private cultural promotion institutions. In our opinion, experience during the pandemic, but also in the run-up to the drafting of the cultural message, shows that the exchange between state entities responsible for cultural promotion on the one hand and cultural associations on the other is particularly beneficial.

Music promotion

Some important changes are also planned in the area of music promotion. SONART welcomes, for example, the equalization of the differences in the funding measures for different music genres. It is also right that projects in the fields of pop, rap and electro should receive more support in future, as well as selected festivals and venues.

For Pro Helvetia to successfully implement the measures, however, it needs significantly more funding than has been available for music promotion to date. 

It is pleasing that "the further development of appropriate framework conditions in the digital environment" is also mentioned as a cultural policy objective. In SONART's opinion, this includes measures that encourage the globally oriented large streaming platforms such as Spotify to act more locally. It is crucial that the international streaming platforms have local teams in Switzerland who are familiar with the diverse Swiss music scene and place Swiss music on playlists in Switzerland and abroad to improve its visibility.

Financial framework for federal cultural funding

The funding provided by the federal government for the four-year period is not sufficient. In view of inflation and the general reduction in the culture budget announced by the federal government in 2024 alone, the budget needs to grow faster than planned. The growth of the culture budget in the years 2025-2028 should be at least 2.5 % (instead of the planned average nominal growth of 1.2 %).

On November 11, 2023, the Salle Grenette in Fribourg became the meeting place for all Swiss people interested in music and health. Experts from music academies, associations, physiotherapists, teachers and researchers gathered to discuss the topic. They presented a differentiated picture of how physical and mental health issues are dealt with in the Swiss music scene. One of the key questions was how individual music-making can be improved without losing motivation. Recent research results currently paint a rather worrying picture. Elena Alessandri, Head of the Competence Center Music Performance Research at the Lucerne School of Music (HSLU-M), presented recent studies, for example, which indicate that music students have to contend with above-average physical and mental deficits right from the start of their studies compared to the population as a whole. 

Carine Tripet-Lièvre, Head of the General Pedagogy program at the Haute école de musique Genève - Neuchâtel, Andreas Cincera, who works at the Scuola Universitaria di Musica della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano (SUM) and at the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH/HKB), as well as Oliver Margulies, research assistant in the field of music physiology, preventive and musician's medicine in the Department of Music at the ZHdK. If one had to draw a common conclusion from their presentations, it would probably be this: There is still a lot to be done in terms of holistic music education that does not extinguish the inner fire of the students. Cincera illustrated the task with a virtual thick book that would list the countless research projects on the subject that have not yet been tackled.

The keynote speakers were child and adolescent psychiatrist Anke Grell and German musician Antonia Pfeiffer. The former highlighted child and adolescent brain development and its connection to skills and deficits in self-efficacy. Antonia Pfeiffer was connected via video and Zoom due to illness. She explained variations of tapping techniques that can be used to counteract performance anxiety, for example. The techniques are known from kinesiology. Pfeiffer presented further developments by the German physician Michael Bohne.  

Health Day Music for all 

With the Music Health Day, Swissmedmusica offers a networking event that covers all aspects of prevention, pedagogy and musician medicine and provides a practice-oriented information platform for interested parties of all kinds. The campaign also includes a list of health services offered by members of the association on the Swissmedmusica.ch website (under "Services"). Members also benefit from a comprehensive newsletter with information on events, current news from the field of musician's medicine, literature and media references and other interesting content. Membership is open to anyone who sees conscious health work as an opportunity to improve their own music-making and general quality of life.   

The next Music Health Day will take place on November 9, 2024 in Lucerne's Neubad. In close collaboration with the HSLU-M team, the aim is to once again provide an overview of contemporary methods and techniques of music education.  prevention and healthy, inspired music-making.  

Link to the report by Marianne Wälchli

"Dear Doctor, you have no idea what you have done with your letter of 8.1.55 - for which I thank you nonetheless [sic!]: to expect a Basel resident to give a lecture in Berne on Carnival Monday! Joking aside: if all else failed, I would even come to Bern on February 28, because I'm really looking forward to it. [...]" This is the first paragraph of Hans Ehinger's reply to Kurt von Fischer, then President of the SMG Bern section, to his invitation to give a lecture. A humorous letter like this is only a small part of the SMG archive, which consists of minutes, membership lists, correspondence, event programs and many other documents. For some years now, the SMG has been asking itself how these documents from the history of the SMG can be stored properly. On the initiative of Central President Cristina Urchueguía, a contract was concluded in December 2022 with the Basel University Library, where the holdings of the Basel chapter are already stored, so that the SMG archives can be transferred to its holdings and made accessible for research. While the holdings of the Svizzera italiana section are already stored in the State Archives of the Canton of Ticino, the remaining holdings were distributed among the various sections in Switzerland. The SMG archive material was mostly stored in folders, boxes and envelopes and had to be sorted and repackaged for archiving. 

Never again Bostitch: the materiality of the archive 

In response to the SMG's call, a spirited five-person archive team came together, consisting of Cristina Urchueguía, Tim Bösiger, Dominic Studer, Gabrielle Favre and Helen Gebhart. In July, the team accepted an invitation from Iris Lindenmann (music specialist) and Lorenz Heiligensetzer (archives collection manager) to the University Library Basel, where they were given an introduction to the art of archiving. To the great delight of the archive team, white lab coats were also provided. It soon became clear that decisions have to be made constantly in archiving work: Which documents need to be archived and which can safely be thrown away? Should an oversized page be packed in a special format or should it be archived folded? What is the best way to pack papers so that the original order can be recognized by researchers? After the workshop, the team set to work sifting through and repackaging the archives of the Basel, Zurich, Bern and Head Office sections. In the weeks that followed, the team battled intensively against rusty staples, glued-together pages and a lot of dust from several centuries. Dominic Studer, who found the work rather monotonous at first, recounts his experiences: "There was hardly anything as tedious as removing thin carbon paper from the sometimes rusty Bostitch staples. It was all the nicer when you found a relatively "metal-free" folder for archiving. The long-term effect of adhesive tape on paper was also quite astonishing. I think these are things that you hardly ever think about when archiving your own files. I haven't used a Bostitch since the internship!". 

Many exciting documents came to light during the archiving process: calligraphically designed membership cards, handwritten letters on a wide variety of paper,  The program of events included a lecture-concert at the Zurich Section by Wanda Landwoska "Harpsichord and Clavichord with J.S. Bach" from 1922. It was particularly exciting to discover which well-known musicologists had already given lectures at the SMG in the past. 

On the trail of the family 

In addition to the history of the SMG, personal traces can also be traced in the SMG archive, as Gabrielle Favre explains: "My parents were both musicologists and members of the SMG; my father was also involved on the board of the Bern section, and my mother worked for several years as an auditor in the same section. Naturally, both of them often took part in the events offered by the SMG, and I often accompanied them. That's where my historical interest in archiving SMG documents came from, and I was particularly pleased during the project work when we in the team came across documents that contained "traces of my parents"."

Possible examples include personal rights for the use of an artist's likeness, trademark rights for the use of a band logo to produce merchandise, copyrights for the exploitation of a song or ancillary copyrights for the exploitation of a recording. The license agreement therefore regulates who may use which right within which framework (in terms of content, time and territory) and under which conditions.

Virtually all music creators are primarily confronted in their professional lives with contracts relating to the rights to their compositions (copyrights) or to their rights as performers (ancillary copyrights). Dolly Parton has the song I Will Always Love You composed and wrote the lyrics and is therefore the author of the song. The song became a worldwide commercial hit when Whitney Houston recorded it. Whitney and her fellow musicians held the ancillary copyrights as performers. 

A musician or a label that wants to release recordings regularly hires "session musicians" to work in the studio as a supplement. In order for the musician or label to subsequently exploit the recording, they need a license to the rights of the session musicians. To this end, the parties involved regularly sign an artist's receipt, which is a very simple form of license agreement. With the artist's receipt, the session musicians sell all rights to the recording for a one-off lump sum. They only retain those rights which they cannot give away by law (e.g. the remuneration claims for broadcasting or performing the recordings, which are managed by Swissperform in Switzerland). The sale of rights is generally valid forever, for the entire world and for all types of use. 

In order to bring a recording to the people, artists usually conclude so-called "artist contracts", "tape transfer contracts" or "distribution contracts" with a label or a distributor or aggregator. Which type of contract is most suitable depends in particular on who bears the economic risk for the production and marketing of the recording. With an artist contract, the label bears the lion's share of the costs from production to marketing and distribution. In return, the artist must personally commit to the label for several years and transfers the rights to the recordings for decades. In addition, the label receives the majority of the income from the exploitation. In the case of a tape transfer contract, the artist pays for the production and delivers the finished mixed recordings, sometimes with artwork etc. With a distribution contract, the distributor or aggregator only takes care of the logistics (digital/physical), all other organizational and financial tasks are borne by the artist.

The tape transfer agreement is often confused with the publishing agreement. While the publisher should take care of the exploitation of the copyrights to the composition (regardless of a specific recording), a tape transfer agreement regulates the rights to a specific recording. With the song I Will Always Love You a publisher would be responsible for Dolly Parton's rights as a composer and lyricist and a record company for Whitney Houston's rights to the recording.

For all of these contracts, musicians should first think about who is putting how much money and effort into the release of the recording. This risk sharing should then be reflected in the revenue sharing in the contract: the higher the economic risk of one party, the higher their share of the revenue should be. You should also carefully consider the duration of the contract and the duration of the transfer of rights. Here too, the higher the economic risk, the shorter the duration. Formulations such as "for the duration of the protection period" translate as "for 70 years". Last but not least, you should take a very close look at the revenue share. I should use
of the contract as easily as possible to calculate how much money I will receive from the evaluation of the recording. The decisive factor is not only the amount of the percentage, but also its basis: phrases such as "... after deduction of costs ..." without these costs being defined in the contract, are regularly not acceptable.
a source of unpleasant discussions.

Therefore, my recommendation at the end: Take enough time for the negotiations and get advice from a specialist.

Chantal Bolzern
... is a lawyer, mediator and co-president of Helvetiarockt.

Switzerland's music history is a treasure chest filled to the brim with all kinds of gems to be discovered. But all too often these jewels can only be found by trawling through archives and libraries or have not yet been unearthed at all. For example, who knows the composer and music publisher Emil Ruh, or the composer and psychoanalyst Elisabeth Spöndlin? While Emil Ruh's descendants would have to be consulted, the search for information on the latter is not difficult: the fascinating composer Elisabeth Spöndlin is already listed in the MLS. The modern e-encyclopedia makes the treasure hunt much easier and opens up access to Swiss music history at the click of a mouse. 

Scientificity, multilingualism, accessibility

The MLS is a project of the Swiss Music Research Society (SMG). It is supported by a Board of Trustees of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAHS) consisting of Irène Minder-Jeanneret (President), Caiti Hauck (Vice-President, University of Bern), Cristina Urchueguía (University of Bern), Sandra Tinner (Swiss Music Council), Marco Jorio (former Editor-in-Chief of the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland), Pio Pellizzari (former Director of the Swiss National Sound Archives), Christiane Sibille (ETH Zurich), Stefanie Stadler Elmer (University of Zurich), Moritz Kelber (University of Augsburg). From the outset, the Board of Trustees conceived the MLS as a modern reference work and formulated four objectives. The first is to catalog and document music culture and history, and the second is to provide scholarly articles containing text, sound and images that are available in various languages. The third goal is unlimited public accessibility and sustainable preservation of the cultural heritage, and the fourth is cooperation with various institutions. In order to introduce the MLS and awaken the desire to write, the Board of Trustees is organizing a conference and a workshop in November.

Conference: The MLS as an e-Lexicon 

The conference "Music in Switzerland in the past and present: The Swiss music lexicon for the 21st century" will take place from 23-24 November and offers a varied program. Representatives from over 15 different encyclopaedias, databases and digital information projects such as RISM, Memoriav, Wikipedia, Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon online and many more will present their work and discuss the challenges and opportunities of music reference works in the 21st century. In addition to the conference, to which all interested parties are welcome, the MLS is also offering a workshop on writing lexicographical articles. In the workshop on November 25 in Bern, the MLS team will teach how information from club and family archives, for example, can be processed in order to turn it into an MLS article. In the spirit of cultural participation, the MLS is calling for participation in writing articles: Did her grandfather compose? Was her aunt a music publisher? All these testimonies and many more are part of Switzerland's music history and can find their way into the MLS through their participation (see p. 53). 

Le Dictionnaire de la musique en Suisse gives access to the history of music in Switzerland to all those who are interested. In order to present the DMS and to encourage people to contribute articles, its editorial team is organizing a conference and a workshop in November. The conference " La musique en Suisse, hier et aujourd'hui : Le Dictionnaire de la musique en Suisse pour le XXIe siècle" will take place on November 23 and 24, with speakers representing a quintet of lexiques, data bases and digital information projects. On November 25, the MLS team will organize a workshop to learn how to write dictionary articles; all interested parties are invited.

l Dizionario della musica in Svizzera apre l 'accesso alla storia della musica svizzera a tutte le persone interested. In order to present the MLS and to satisfy the desire to write, the Consiglio di fondazione is organizing a conference and a workshop from 23 to 25 November. La conferenza avrà un programma vario, con la partecipazione di rappresentanti di oltre 15 enciclopedie, banche dati e progetti di informazione digitale. In the workshop, the MLS team will teach how to write articles in the online library.

Elections are/were not only on the federal level this fall. Two new seats had to be filled on the board of the Swiss Music Council: Karin Niederberger, President of the Swiss Yodelling Association, and Patrizia Lais, Swiss School Music Association, stepped down from their positions on the SMR. Before the new elections were held, President Rosmarie Quandranti thanked the retiring Board members for their work on the SMR Board. Several people stood for both places on the Board, making it an exciting election.

Yvonne Glur, President of accordeon.ch, was elected as Karin Niederberger's successor. She will therefore represent the amateur music sector on the Music Council. Yvonne Glur is an accordionist and teaches both at the regional music school in Zofingen and at the Lucerne University of Teacher Education. She is also active as a youth & music leader and trainer. She leads two formations of young accordionists on a voluntary basis. 

Rico Gubler, Head of the Music Department at the Bern University of the Arts, was elected to the second position on the SMR Board (Education/Research/Science). Rico Gubler is both a professional musician (saxophone) and a qualified lawyer and has been a member of the Swiss Conference of Music Universities (KMHS) since this year. 

To stay on the subject of elections: We still don't know who will be the new Minister of Culture in Switzerland... - although Federal Councillor Alain Berset used to say: "Switzerland doesn't have a Minister of Culture, only a Minister of the Interior.". It is generally known that he is very close to music and enjoys playing the piano in his private life. At the Swiss Music Awards ceremony in September, he did not miss the opportunity,
to play a jazz duet with the main winner, trumpet player Erik Truffaz! Which instrument will the future Swiss Minister of Culture play? 

As every year in September, the Swiss Music Council met with colleagues from the music councils in Germany and Austria to exchange ideas. This year's meeting took place in Regensburg, Germany. In the joint "Regensburg Declaration", they call on the parliaments and governments of all federal levels of the DACH regions to set out the measures they intend to take to implement the UNESCO Mondiacult Declaration of 2022.

As a member of the board of trustees of the Swiss Music Encyclopedia (MLS), the SMR is involved in the conference "Music in Switzerland in the Past and Present: The Swiss Music Encyclopedia for the 21st Century" on November 23-24 at the University of Bern and is encouraging as many people interested in music as possible to take part in the workshop on November 25, which will help groups and individuals to document the local music culture with words, images and sounds. 

Today, almost everything is digital - back in 1923, most things were still mechanical. Technological change resulted in repeated amendments to copyright law. And so the eventful history of SUISA begins shortly after the first improvement to the original Swiss Copyright Act of 1883 came into force in 1922.

Both composers and musicians at the time were concerned that music machines would compete with their live performances. The most important task of MECHANLIZENZ AG, founded in June 1923, was to license the production of sound carriers. Records were still in their infancy and so it was mainly music boxes that found their way around the world, especially from the Yverdon and Sainte-Croix area. 

Everything for the music

One year later, GEFA, the Swiss Society for Performing Rights, was founded. Following the introduction of the new exploitation law, GEFA is transformed from an association into a cooperative and begins operations on January 1, 1942 under a new name: SUISse Auteurs - or SUISA for short.

In 1946, the Board of Directors decides to open an office in Lausanne in order to better serve members and customers in French-speaking Switzerland. The Lausanne branch also becomes the point of contact for all cinemas, film producers and television advertisers throughout Switzerland. In the same year, a small team moves into the Bel-Air Tower, the largest high-rise building in Switzerland at the time. In 1954, the company moved to the future "House of Music" in Lausanne. From 2002, there will also be a branch office in Lugano for customers and musicians in Ticino.

Increasing music consumption

In the post-war years, more and more music is consumed and more and more is composed. Between 1942 and 1960, the number of SUISA members triples. In 1958, MECHANLIZENZ AG is affiliated to SUISA, but remains legally independent for the time being. 22 years later, the complete merger of the two companies is decided.

In 1961, Ulrich Uchtenhagen took over the reins of SUISA and guided it through the changes of the boom period for 28 years. During his time, the World Register of Authors and Publishers was established. SUISA is commissioned by the World Confederation of Societies of Authors and Publishers (CISAC) to compile a "list" of all composers, lyricists and music publishers registered with a copyright society. The result is the CAE Directory of Composers, Authors and Editors covering all genres such as music, literature, film and visual arts. It quickly lists more than one million authors and publishers.

SUISA offers this directory as a service to all collecting societies worldwide against payment of a usage license. Since the end of the 1990s, the CAE has been the IPI (Interested Parties Information), which can be accessed online by all rights holders around the world. 

In the 1960s and 1970s, the partnership with important users such as the SRG and the hospitality industry is deepened. Increased music consumption and a growing number of registered works require a dedicated IT system to process the enormous amount of data at that time. Partly due to the huge amount of space required for IT at the time, SUISA builds its current headquarters on Bellariastrasse in Zurich Wollishofen, which it moves into in the fall of 1968.

Promote and demand 

At the end of the 1980s, the "SUISA Foundation for Music", today's FONDATION SUISA, was founded. The initiator was the composer and writer Michel Bühler from French-speaking Switzerland and his idea of a central structure to support the chanson. FONDATION SUISA's mission is to promote contemporary music creation in Switzerland and abroad, for which it now allocates around CHF 2.5 million annually.

The beginning of online music distribution at the end of the 1990s is the starting signal for far-reaching and lasting changes. In 2006, the EU Commission issued a recommendation aimed at achieving the greatest possible competition between companies for the administration of online rights. Rights holders in the internal market should be able to decide, free of territorial borders, which company they entrust with the management of their rights. As a result, large Anglo-American major publishers are withdrawing the reproduction rights from the European collecting societies in the hope of being able to license them themselves and directly from the online music providers at better conditions. In response, SUISA is the first collecting society ever to develop a suitable system that separates the work shares of the major publishers (so-called "carve out") and can thus correctly settle the licenses for online use.

After the revision is before the revision

"Does Switzerland need a law against the illegal downloading of music?" This postulate by Géraldine Savary, then a member of the Council of States, was the impetus for the last copyright revision in 2010. The revised CopA, which came into force on April 1, 2020, attempts to anchor the reality of online business in the law. However, the interests of users and creators are far apart in many respects. Consumers are also in a strong position and are defending the permission to copy music privately with compensation via the blank media levy. And so it becomes a compromise in which both sides come to terms. Since then, technology has changed rapidly again: Music is being streamed more and more frequently. A regulation for downloading music comes too late for films. 

There is no question that this revision of Swiss copyright law is not the last, but rather the prelude to the next one. Rapidly advancing digitalization and emerging technological developments such as artificial intelligence and machine learning will mean that the legal standards will have to be reviewed again.

Big steps into the future

SUISA's current Executive Board has been in office since 2010. CEO Andreas Wegelin, his deputy Vincent Salvadé and COO and first woman on the SUISA Management Board Irène Philipp Ziebold not only steer the fortunes of SUISA, they also drive the technological renewal of the IT systems and the streamlining and automation of processes.

SUISA is well positioned to compete internationally, not least due to its well-developed and constantly evolving IT infrastructure. In 2017, it founded the joint venture Mint Digital Services together with the US music rights organization SESAC, which has since been used for the settlement and administration of the cross-border music licensing business with online providers. In the same year, the Liechtenstein-based company SUISA Digital Licensing was founded, which is responsible for the licensing of international online music platforms. Both companies also offer their services to other collecting societies and music publishers and last year managed the online business of over 22 collecting societies and 4000 publishers worldwide.

Who could have foreseen this change 100 years ago? And who dares to predict what will happen next? The use of music will continue to change: It will shift even further to the internet and the licensing of music use on TV or for concerts will no longer necessarily be based on the territorial principle but on whoever offers the best service and the most favorable conditions. SUISA is ready for the challenges and would like to thank all former and current employees, all composers, lyricists and publishers for their commitment and trust. Together we have been making music possible for a hundred years.

www.suisa100.ch
www.suisablog.ch/tag/100-jahre

As a trained musician and long-standing music school director, he brings valuable experience in artistic, pedagogical and strategic-organizational areas. 

Dear Christian, congratulations on your election! Could you briefly explain to our readers what the tasks of the UAS Council are?
Thank you very much, I am looking forward to this varied position. The University of Applied Sciences Council is responsible for overseeing the state-accredited university of applied sciences in matters of higher education law and also for strategic management. It is the highest internal body within our university of applied sciences and is responsible, among other things, for ensuring institutionalized accreditation. 

In our day-to-day work at the Kalaidos University of Music, the name of the University of Applied Sciences Council is usually mentioned when regulations are amended or when new degree programs are launched.
Exactly. One of the most frequent tasks of the UAS Council is to review adjustments to curricula, for example in relation to institutionalized accreditation. It also discusses new courses submitted by the departments and assesses parameters such as strategy, feasibility, market environment and professional field. 

This also applies to the Department of Music, which has added modules such as self-marketing, fundraising and argumentation/negotiation to its Bachelor's and Master's degree programs. Neither your music degree nor mine included such subjects. Nevertheless, we are still getting by today. How do you feel about these adjustments?
Like all professions, that of the musician today is no longer the same as it was 20 years ago. The argument "it used to be possible without it" doesn't hold much water. We must aspire not only to train prospective musicians to become professionals on their instrument, but also to prepare them in depth for a life as a musician. In most cases, their day-to-day work does not consist of full-time jobs. They are actually entrepreneurs with a diverse range of services. They have to keep telling society why they and their work are needed. They can't wait for the work to just come to them.

You show this reality about everyday working life to our Bachelor's students in the "Professional Field Studies" module and discuss it with them. After you took over this module as a lecturer, you reorganized its content. What was your motivation behind the changes?
I lacked credibility, as the lecturer had previously only spoken about music school and orchestra jobs. Our aim was to give students as real an insight as possible into the breadth of professional fields. The new model makes this possible: We meet musicians:inside their workplace, have discussions with them and the students about everyday life, motivation, "offer recipients:inside", fascination and their future. 

The topic of digitalization often came up in these discussions. Especially in classical music, I often experience reluctance towards this topic. The Kalaidos University of Music is decentralized
and is therefore partly based on digital communication. How do you experience this topic?
The vocational studies module in particular shows how remote and on-site learning can be combined in a meaningful way: What is presented in the classroom with a lecture, discussion and projector can be done just as well online. Our students don't have to travel to Zurich from all over Europe for a lecture. When we visit the orchestra musician in the rehearsal room or the freelance musician at band practice, we do it on site. 

We also apply this approach in the remaining modules and in all our degree programs. Main subject, subject didactics and minor subject teaching take place on site. This also applies to some modules where physical attendance makes sense. Theory classes, on the other hand, take place entirely remotely. Nevertheless, criticism quickly flares up that "remote teaching cannot replace on-site module teaching".  Where is the boundary between remote and on-site?
You have to be aware that remote teaching is not on-site teaching on a screen. Our lecturers have the challenging task of building their remote teaching from the ground up on the digital structure and using the tools provided for this purpose.  teaching methods (which are becoming more diverse every day). In my opinion, it is not expedient to play the two types of teaching off against each other. Rather, it is important to sound out the possibilities and limits in discussion with all those involved and to determine a provisional application based on experience. Today, (working) life takes place almost everywhere in a mixture of remote and on-site, with the boundaries being discussed and adapted again and again as required. Why should it be any different in music? 

The SMM is turning its 19th symposium into a "Music Health Day" and will provide a unique, broad overview of forward-looking concepts and the diverse practice of preventive health care in music-making. The day will be introduced by the children's and  Adolescent psychiatrist Anke Grell, who also represents musicians' medicine at the Zurich Center for Anxiety and Depression Treatment.  

According to Anke Grell, the psychological strain on professional musicians has changed in many ways as a result of the pandemic. Depending on their personal situation, many have suffered and continue to suffer from very specific existential fears in the near and distant future. Surveys have revealed an increase in anxiety and depression symptoms. Professional identity was suddenly perceived differently in political and social terms. Many have asked themselves the question of meaning and in some cases discovered other fields of activity for themselves, which they have also retained for various reasons after the pandemic.

Continuous overload situations can lead to exhaustion and loss of interest in otherwise everyday and enjoyable activities, including professional music-making. The ability to react emotionally to events decreases, sleep disorders and loss of appetite can also occur. Anxieties and fears also occur more frequently, particularly fear of performing and failure in a musical context. 

Enlightenment and removal of taboos

Orchestras, music academies and music schools can prevent burnout among their employees by providing information, education and removing taboos, the psychiatrist explains further. They can create a learning and working environment in which it is possible to address difficulties as a matter of course without having to fear negative consequences. They can impart knowledge about how a healthy body and a healthy mind function when making music and learning and what the warning signs of physical and mental overload and illness are. All of this can  for example in lectures, workshops, discussion groups, supervision and individual counseling sessions.

Contact points for people with pre-existing complaints are also important. A diverse network of specialists has been established here, which is organized in the relevant professional associations in Switzerland (Swissmedmusica), Germany (German Society for Music Physiology and Musicians' Medicine) and Austria (Austrian Society for Music and Medicine). One positive example is the cooperation between the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and the Zurich Center for Anxiety and Depression Treatment (ZADZ), where she works. It provides students and employees of the ZHdK with psychosocial counseling and treatment.

Being kind to yourself

According to Grell, there is unfortunately no magic formula for keeping the joy and inner drive of making music alive. The most important thing, explains the psychiatrist, is to focus on what it is actually about: the music and the joy of making music. This is admittedly easier said than done under certain external and internal circumstances. Being kind to yourself, your own abilities and your current form on the day, freeing yourself from perfectionism to a certain extent and meeting external expectations with a healthy distance can be very helpful here. When signs of exhaustion become noticeable: Don't hesitate to get support! Being aware of your own limits and acting accordingly is a strength!

The Music Health Day is open to everyone as an information platform and networking event.

More information and registration: 

swissmedmusica.ch/news-symposium

Center for Anxiety and Depression Treatment Zurich: 

www.zadz.ch

From the end of the 17th century at the latest, the canons of St. Michael's Abbey in Beromünster (LU) celebrated the feast of St. Michael (September 29) and the subsequent consecration of the church (September 30) with the greatest amount of church music in the church year. The ceremonial required a double or triple choir mass on both feast days. Unsurprisingly, the festivities not only attracted worshippers from near and far, but also musicians who had gathered in Beromünster days before to rehearse the music. 

In 1749, a three-voiced festive mass composed especially for the festivities by Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer von Schauensee (1720-1789) was performed. While Markus Lutz (1772-1835) described the Lucerne patrician as the "most famous Swiss composer of his time", Meyer von Schauensee has largely been forgotten today. This is not least due to the fact that modern editions of his works are almost completely lacking. In order to gain an impression of the late baroque musical splendor of the Beromünster monastery and to be able to study Meyer von Schauensee's music in more detail, Raphael Eccel, Grégory Rauber, Luc Vallat and Christoph Riedo have set themselves the goal of compiling the music composed for the Beromünster monastery. Messa Solenne a 3 Cori in a historical-critical edition and to publish it in the edition series of the Swiss Music Research Society.

The Geneva musicologist's project received a boost when the concert series at the monastery church in Muri/AG and the Early Music Festival Zurich showed interest in performing the three-choir festive mass. Meyer von Schauensee's work will now be performed both on September 22 in Zurich and on September 24 in Muri/AG under the direction of Jakob Pilgram. The performers are the vocal ensemble larynx (3 soloist quartets) and the Capricornus Consort Basel (3 string quintets, 3 organs, 6 trumpets, 2 horns, 1 timpani). The second concert will be filmed, recorded and made available on the Festival Alte Musik Zürich website. In this way, an impression of the musical splendor in Beromünster, which was on a par with numerous other Swiss religious churches, can be gained in the future.

In fact, those attending the service were treated to a unique listening experience. The singers and instrumentalists, divided into three sound groups, offered an unparalleled polyphonic spectacle in the collegiate church. In the mass, which consists of 24 movements, Meyer von Schauensee exploited everything that polychoralism has to offer: from the full, three-choir sound to all conceivable combinations of the interplay of the three sound groups and various echo effects. Just as impressively, the transcribed score illustrates for the first time how well Meyer von Schauensee, who studied with Ferdinando Galimberti (?-1751) in Milan from 1740-42, was able to capture the musical style of the early Milan symphonists around Giovanni
Battista Sammartini (1700/1-1775) has internalized. 

Information about the concerts

Friday, September 22, 2023 at 7.30 pm in the Fraumünster in Zurich as part of the Festival Alte Musik Zürich. Concert introduction at 6.15 pm at the Center Karl der Grosse (Kirchgasse 14).

Sunday, September 24, 2023 at 5 p.m. in the monastery church of Muri/AG as part of the concert series Music in the monastery church.

Information about the edition 

Franz Joseph Leonti Meyer von Schauensee (1720-1789): Messa Solenne a 3 Coried. by Raphael Eccel, Grégory Rauber, Luc Vallat
and Christoph Riedo, 7th volume of the edition series Music from Swiss Monasteries, Bern: Peter Lang (in preparation). 

The publishers are still looking for funds to realize the edition. 

Contact: christoph.riedo@unige.ch

Silke Kruse-Weber is a lecturer at the Kalaidos University of Music and was Professor of Instrumental and Vocal Pedagogy at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz until September 2022. From fall 2023, she will hold a deputy professorship in Augsburg. Her research interests include the development of instrumental and vocal pedagogy as a scientific discipline and the transfer of knowledge between theory and practice through reflective practice. Her new reflection tool Reflect! has just been published.

Silke, you have just published new music education research findings, can you briefly summarize them?
Thank you for asking! I am very happy about my publications right now. While theory and practice are often seen as opposites in music education, Reflect!, an observation and reflection tool for instrumental and vocal teaching, brings them together. A playful and artistic set of cards inspires a research-based attitude and a self-determined exchange about the quality of instrumental and vocal teaching and learning.

My study Reflective Practice in Innovative Music Schools is a knowledge transfer project in which music school teachers, the research team and university teachers are in close contact. Here, too, the focus is on the relationship between theory and practice, insofar as the latest developments from research are transferred into practice - e.g. the focus on student-centeredness or a
Opening up to different social forms of teaching.

So it's about reflecting on your own music education knowledge, how do you convey this to your students?
Reflection can be learned and does not have to be solitary, it works best as a collaborative practice where peers learn from each other. It is important to create time and space for reflection. In seminars and training courses, I often show excerpts from teaching videos and ask for a description of the situation. They are almost always evaluated instead. Descriptions without evaluation are difficult. Teachers like to focus on students' deficits. We consider what negative assessments do and find that learners often become defensive and lose their open willingness to learn.  

Which skills are crucial for reflecting on and expanding your own knowledge?
I think they are skills that build on each other: research, reflection and science. An inquiring attitude provides the basis for reflection. Reflective skills require curiosity, openness and empathy in order to be able to adopt new perspectives and penetrate an issue. They are expressed in differentiated questions. A scientific orientation is another basic competence. It allows you to make a plausible and coherent selection from findings and theories for a specific purpose. Scientific research, e.g. in Master's theses, is ultimately based on more rule-based work.

Are these skills also important for performance students?
Performance students in particular benefit from reflective practices! When practicing and making music, it is important to constantly develop new alternative actions. Stereotypical practicing is not efficient. Studies have shown that the more you deal with your own goals and evaluate practice processes, the more efficiently you practice. It is also important to be open in your own career. Professional fields are changing rapidly and musicians should be able to deal with complexity and unpredictability. Reflective practice can encourage change and adaptation to situations. This is exciting for every person, artist and educator.

How do the ability to reflect, curiosity and scientific thinking help us to be good artists or teachers?
Reflective practice is a key competence for good teaching, pedagogical action and successful creative practice. Today, we especially need musicians and
Educators who think critically, are responsible and flexible.

Scientific findings, on the other hand, are not directly transferable to the practice of teaching or playing. Every teaching situation and every music-making situation is social and therefore unpredictable. Scientific findings only provide one perspective on how practice can be illuminated.

Since you became a research lecturer, our students have been happy to take the otherwise often unpopular research course, and the quality of the Master's theses has increased - what is your secret?
This course is about getting students excited about research. For example, they learn to pose their own research questions and to conduct scientific research for them. They learn a certain type of reflection and appreciation with regard to the presentation of
scientific results, but also how to deal with the ideas and findings of a scientific community and how to learn from them. It is not uncommon for a scientific paper to open up new perspectives for students on where their education can take them. At the beginning of the course, students always ask themselves why they should learn how to write scientific papers. But I don't see that as a problem, but rather as an invitation to develop new perspectives.

Detailed information on the new releases can be found on this website: www.kruse-weber.com

A new concept for a master class has been developed for 2022 in collaboration with the OSI (Orchestra della svizzera italiana) and the CSI (Conservatorio della svizzera italiana). Up to 10 students from the Pre-College of the CSI will be supervised and taught by Robert Kowalski, the 1st concertmaster of the OSI, for a week in Arosa.

This year's master class took place from June 26 to 29, followed by three concerts in Arosa, Cham and Lugano. The four young musicians, Adelaide Chiaradonna, Leon Bekaj, Gianluigi Sartori and Ares Midiri, all aged between 14 and 17, had an instructive time in Arosa. The four rehearsal days and three concerts were intensive and instructive, and thanks to Robert Kowalski's experienced, professionally and personally proven direction and Redjan Teqia's accompaniment, they were able to gain valuable experience.

The next masterclass will take place in June 2024, and the short concert tour will take the young musicians to Zurich and Bern as well as Arosa, Cham and Lugano.

"Hans Schaeuble Award" and the Arosa Classical Music Festival

Since 2015, the "Hans Schaeuble Award" has been presented to several participants of the Arosa Music Academy every year. The Arosa Music Academy is an international master class of the Arosa Music Course Weeks for the instruments violin, viola, cello, saxophone and accordion. As in previous years, at least eight academy participants will receive a "Hans Schaeuble Award" this fall. The award includes an invitation to actively participate in the Arosa Classical Music Festival the following winter. Under the direction of Markus Fleck (violin) and Lars Mlekusch (saxophone), one  chamber music program and subsequently performed in Arosa, Chur and Zurich. 

In Chur, the concerts are organized in collaboration with klibühni, Das Theater, while in Zurich a concert is held as part of the "Mittagsmusik im Predigerchor" concert series at Zurich Central Library.

The Arosa Classical Music Festival 2024 will take place from 14 to  March 30 in various concert venues in Arosa. In addition to the chamber music concerts by the Hans Schaeuble Prize winners, an ensemble from the Conservatorio della Svizzera will be performing. Visitors can expect a musically broad program with classical, jazz and folk music. 

Information about the festival will be  End of November on www.arosaklassik.ch is now available.