According to the city's official communication, it has been known for some time that there is a lack of culturally usable spaces in Chur. The lack of a cultural center, for example, was already criticized in a corresponding petition in 2010. In-depth analyses revealed a glaring lack of rehearsal rooms for theater, dance, music, visual arts and literature in particular.

At the heart of the target vision for cultural spaces is a cultural center that is organized decentrally across the city centre but managed centrally. This is to take place in an independently managed cultural office attached to the Postremise. As far as possible, the existing cultural spaces scattered throughout the city center will be integrated into this concept if they can be rented.

In addition, there is a lack of rehearsal rooms for theater, music and dance as well as studios and band rooms. The target image makes suggestions as to how these shortcomings can be remedied. The Theater Chur, the Sennhof, the Haus zum Arcas and the Kulturhaus am Bienenweg all play a role here.

Original article:
https://www.chur.ch/aktuellesinformationen/1189481

The survey launched by the City of Bern entitled "How are you? Cultural workers and corona in Bern" confirmed, according to the city's press release, that the financial situation of cultural workers has deteriorated enormously within a year and that financial reserves are continuously decreasing or have already been used up. 411 cultural workers from a wide range of professions in the cultural sector took part in the survey.

With the Corona grant, the municipal council wants to give creative artists the opportunity to break out of crisis mode, so to speak, thanks to short-term help and make preparations for the next creative steps. While work grants always focus on work on a final product, the corona grants are intended to provide a breathing space and give an impetus for the next project idea. A total of CHF 800,000 is available for this purpose.

All professional artists living and/or working in the municipality of Bern who are in a financial emergency due to the current situation are eligible to apply. Grants are awarded up to a maximum of CHF 3000. The measure is intended to provide quick, uncomplicated and direct assistance and is limited in time. Applications can be submitted from March 26 to April 16.

From the 2022/2023 season, Hertel will manage Theater Pforzheim together with Administrative Director Uwe Dürigen. As the designated artistic director, he will already start the conceptual preparations for his term of office to a limited extent in spring. From September 2022, Markus Hertel will take up a five-year contract in Pforzheim as Thomas Münstermann's successor.

Markus Hertel was born in Essen in 1964 and studied directing at the University of Music in Munich, graduating with a degree in directing. His engagements have taken him from the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich to the theaters in Bern and Freiburg, the Bayerische Theaterakademie August Everding and Giessen, among others. From 2010 to 2020, Hertel was opera director at the Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landestheater in Flensburg.

He has been Artistic Director at the Wuppertaler Bühnen since 2020. In addition to his work at the theater, Markus Hertel is a lecturer at various colleges and universities and is dedicated to training the next generation of theater professionals. He is married and the father of three children.

It is clear to both Musik Hug and the Fondation Suisa that the situation for Swiss musicians has been extremely difficult for months. They need effective support so that they can continue to pursue their projects.

In a press release, Fondation Suisa writes that the Board of Trustees quickly and easily agreed to make the funding programs more flexible within the scope of the foundation's purpose. The additional funding model "Keep Going!" complements the existing offers. The programme is intended to "pick up the musicians and music organizations exactly where they are at the moment and allow them to adapt to the new circumstances if necessary".

Ten tranches of CHF 5000 will be awarded in April.

Link to the project:
https://www.fondation-suisa.ch/de/werkbeitraege/keep-going-2021
 

Without art and culture, things would be quiet, according to the professional association Sonart - Musikschaffende Schweiz. For this reason, Musik Hug is donating one percent of one month's turnover to the Sonart - Musikschaffende Schweiz relief fund as part of the "Musik tut gut" solidarity campaign. Association members can submit a one-off application for bridging assistance of up to CHF 3000 from the relief fund.

The tender is expected to start in April, writes Sonart.

www.sonart.swiss
 

The composer and performer, who was born in Rolle on November 11, 1917, studied at the MGG from 1930 to 1935 with Ernest Décosterd and Gertrude-S. Keller-Ching in Lausanne, and later in Geneva with Marie Panthès. In 1938 Julien-François Zbinden began his professional career as a jazz pianist, while from 1942 to 1945 he studied counterpoint and orchestration privately with René Gerber.

Zbinden held a management position at Radio-Télévision Suisse Romande in Lausanne until 1982, was president of the Swiss Association of Musicians from 1973 to 1979 and of Suisa from 1987 to 1991. His work has won several awards.
 

Numerous young musicians from all over Switzerland took part in the Swiss Youth Music Competition (SJMW). Well over 1000 music-loving young people played solo, in duos or in chamber music ensembles in front of an expert jury. Over 100 jurors were called upon to assess the performances of the young musicians.

A total of 775 prizes were awarded, including 76 1st prizes with distinction and 289 1st prizes. This means that 186 individuals and 179 members of 69 chamber music formations will be heard at the final from May 6 to 9, 2021 at the Südpol in Lucerne.

The detailed ranking lists with the results of the participants can be found under the following link: http://www.sjmw.ch/classica/downloads
 

After her engagement as 1st Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt from 2016-18, she conducted at the opera houses in Leipzig, Zurich, Antwerp and at the Salzburg Festival. She also received an invitation from Zurich Opera House (Werther) in 2020/21.

Giedrė Šlekytė is a winner of the 2015 Malko International Conducting Competition and was awarded 2nd prize at the 2013 Solon Michaelides International Conducting Competition in Cyprus (no 1st prize was awarded). She was nominated for the Young Conductors Award at the 2015 Salzburg Festival and as Newcomer of the Year at the 2018 International Opera Awards.

"frauenkomponiert", founded in 2015, is taking place for the fifth time this year and in a new internationalized form. The artistic director, the British-Swiss conductor Jessica Horsley, has put together a greatly expanded program compared to previous years. Horsley studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, among others, and lives in Basel. Optimism that the virus would soon be defeated probably played a major role in the planning.

The festival's guiding principle of "bringing to life compositions from the 9th to the 21st century by women from different countries" (website) is not only commendable, but an imperative of our time, especially as many of these "unheard sounds" deserve to be made accessible to the music world.

Jessica Horsley made her debut with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the start of the festival on March 8. The concert was broadcast live on BBC 3 from the audience-free Watford Colosseum in north London and was entitled "Pioneers of a Century 1921-2021". The program featured symphonic music by the British Ruth Gipps (1921-1999) and the Australian Peggy Glanville-Hicks (1912-1990). The organizers thus broke into a male domain, so to speak, as late Romantic orchestral music by women is still rare in today's standard concert repertoire. In between was the world premiere of the revised version of Cécile Marti's Wave trip for large orchestra from 2011.

Ruth Gipps studied with Ralph Vaughan Williams, among others. As a composer, she strictly rejected atonality, twelve-tone music and serialism throughout her life. She achieved early success in 1942 with the orchestral poem Knight in Armourwhich was premiered at the "Last Night of the Proms".

The concert opened with the 2nd Symphony op. 30 (1946). Gipps works with grand gestures, a bit Hollywood, but orchestrates it in a varied and colorful way. Together with the splendid orchestra, Horsley focuses on transparency, a slender tone and works out finely graduated dynamics and striking tempo changes, but also gives space to pathos.

Peggy Glanville-Hicks, also a student of Ralph Vaughan Williams, left behind a large and varied oeuvre. Jessica Horsley said on BBC 3 about the composer: "She is an amazing person, her music speaks to us, it's an incredibly direct music." At the London concert, Glanville-Hicks' ballet music experienced Tragic Celebration (1964) had its British premiere. It is dedicated to the American choreographer John Butler, who brought most of its eight ballet scores to the stage. The piece contains everything from fairytale-like, idyllic moods to drama - a grateful template for a classical ballet.

The Sinfonia da Pacifica (1953), also a British premiere, impresses with its snappy rhythms and pulsating percussion combined with a direct, blunt melody. Jessica Horsley characterizes the piece as "optimistic and brilliant".

Cécile Marti has written her piece Wave trip rewritten under the impression of the Covid-19 pandemic, said the conductor, because the word "wave" is associated with completely new phenomena in the current crisis, which must also be taken into account. What remains is a full, colorful orchestral sound with ascending and descending glissandi that lead into different layers of intervals and standing sound structures. The BBC Concert Orchestra provided an achingly beautiful listening experience.

Livestream can be a good alternative, but there are still teething problems here and there. Of the other three festival concerts in March (in cooperation with local concert series in Basel), two were not enjoyable; one due to constant interruptions and the second due to extremely poor sound quality. Matthias Wamser played an exciting program on the Elisabethen organ with pieces by Elsa Barraine, Ilse Gerényi, Violeta Dinescu and Maria Hofer. However, the pauses in loading were simply too long to get a consistent impression. Susanne Doll, organ, and Carmit Natan, soprano, could be heard from the Leonhardskirche with soulful songs by Israeli songwriter Naomi Shemer without interruption, but unfortunately only very distorted.

The evening music from the Predigerkirche, on the other hand, proved that livestreaming can work. A beautiful program entitled "Chiara Margarita Cozzolani and the nuns of S. Radegonda" could be enjoyed without any disruptions. Under the direction of Jörg-Andreas Bötticher, a competent instrumental ensemble and outstanding soloists performed compositions by Cozzolani, the highly musical Milanese nun from the 17th century.
The festival will continue in Basel, Bern and Zurich in June 2021.

According to the Zurich Opera House's press release, Annette Weber studied theater and musicology in Mainz, while also gaining experience as an assistant director and working as a stage manager at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe until 2004. She then held the same position at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin until 2010. There she also gave scenic lessons to members of the International Opera Studio and worked on "Carnival of the Animals" and "The Magic Flute" as part of the Musikkindergarten Berlin under the direction of Daniel Barenboim.

Between 2010 and 2016, she worked regularly with Stefan Herheim in Berlin, Bayreuth and Salzburg, among others. From 2013 to 2018, she worked as a consultant for the Artistic Directorate of the Semperoper Dresden, where she was responsible for artistic matters and casting. She then moved to the Hamburg State Opera.

The 24-year-old Swiss musicologist has taken up his position as a trainee and doctoral candidate at the Brahms Institute via the Center for Cultural Studies Research Lübeck (ZKFL). He will be researching Joachim's work with a focus on the structures of musical life at the time that still have an impact today.

The Brahms-Institut was also able to acquire a bundle of 18 previously unknown letters and album pages. It includes private and business correspondence that Joseph Joachim wrote himself in a very clear handwriting or dictated at the end of his life. The letters, which are addressed to Theodor Fürchtegott Kirchner and Florence May, among others, offer a revealing insight into Joachim's life as a violin virtuoso. Of particular interest is an album leaf from 1884 on which Joachim, who is considered a pioneer in the rediscovery of Bach's solo violin works, quotes bars from Johann Sebastian Bach's Largo ma non tanto (BWV 1043).

Original article: https://www.brahms-institut.de/index.php?cID=1031
Info about Christoph Arta: https://www.brahmsinstitut.de/index.php?cID=217

A Master's degree course has been established at Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg for years. A 60-point minor Bachelor's degree will now be added in the summer semester of 2021. The course lasts three years.

Students learn about different music cultures and practices as well as their socio-cultural contexts. They learn which social influences change music-making and how music-making influences society. Students also gain their first research experience: They learn about field research and recording methods in practical application. Career opportunities open up, for example, in the cultural, social or educational sector.

More info:
https://www.musikwissenschaft.uni-wuerzburg.de/studium/studium-ethnomusikologie-d/

The funding concept includes adjustments to activities in all of the areas supported by the foundation and is supplemented by ten calls for proposals. "Bridges to the Future" offers artists and cultural practitioners the opportunity to adapt their practice to current circumstances and create a basis for the future. A special focus is placed on digital and hybrid models of dissemination and networking.

With this package of measures, the foundation is adapting its activities in various disciplines to the current circumstances. It is also launching several calls for proposals to give artists and cultural practitioners the opportunity to further develop their ideas and formats and create a basis for the future. A special focus is placed on new models of dissemination, visibility and networking.

More info: https://prohelvetia.ch/de/dossier/infopoint-covid-19
 

The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2022. As part of the "ISCM Collaborative Series", various ISCM sections are organizing an international choral composition competition in various categories with the aim of motivating the choral scene, which has suffered greatly in Corona times, with new impulses for contemporary choral music. The Swiss ISCM Section (Swiss Society for New Music SGNM)which will also be 100 years old in 2022, is leading the way by writing a Competition in the category for choral works for equal voices out. The award-winning pieces will be premiered at two choral concerts in spring 2022: In the Stadtcasino Basel by the Männerstimmen Basel under the direction of US composer Eric Whitacre and in Andelfingen by the Zurich Youth Choir under Marco Amherd. In addition to the world premieres, the publication of the prize-winning works from all competition categories and further performances at the International Society for Contemporary Music's World Music Days (ISCM World Music Days) are planned. The competition is open to composers of all ages and nationalities. The deadline for entries is June 30, 2021.

The ISCM is the oldest international umbrella organization for the promotion of New Music. It is considered one of the most important music-cultural societies in the world. One of its central tasks is to organize the World New Music Days, which have been held annually in a different country since 1923. In 2021, the festival is expected to take place in Shanghai and Nanning. The current ISCM President is Glenda Keam from New Zealand. The SGNM (Swiss Society for New Music) is the Swiss section of the ISCM, which was also founded in 1922. Together with its members, it has organized the ISCM World Music Days in Switzerland six times in the last 100 years: 1926 (Zurich), 1929 (Geneva), 1957 (Zurich), 1970 (Basel), 1991 (Zurich) and 2004 (Switzerland-wide). The World Music Days in Switzerland are associated with several important world premieres in music history, including the world premiere of Anton Webern's 5 orchestral pieces op.10 under his direction in Zurich in 1926 and the staged premiere of Arnold Schönberg's opera fragment Moses and Aron 1957 at the Zurich Opera House. Henriette Bosmans and Emmy Wegener, the first female composers in the history of the World Music Days, performed in Geneva in 1929. And in 1957, electronic music was performed for the first time at the ISCM World Music Days in Zurich in a concert by the pioneering Studio di Fonologia della RAI with works by Henri Pousseur, Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna. Arturo Corrales, Antoine Fachard, David Rossel and Javier Hagen (President) are on the current SGNM Board.
 

Sonja Kuhn joined as deputy manager in 2016, then took over as interim manager until she finally became co-manager together with Katrin Grögel in January 2018. She will continue to perform her duties as usual until the end of the regular notice period at the end of July 2021. The previous co-head Katrin Grögel will take over the overall management of the Culture department from August 2021.

According to a press release issued by the City of Basel, the search for a deputy head has been initiated. The Department of Presidential Affairs has decided to advertise the vacant position as deputy head of the Department of Culture. 

More info:
https://www.bs.ch/nm/2021-personelle-veraenderung-in-der-leitung-abteilung-kultur-pd.html