The Willisau Jazz Festival was born in 1975, but that is only half the story: Niklaus "Knox" Troxler, founder and long-time director of the event, has been organizing concerts in Willisau, his place of birth and residence, since 1966. "I started with older jazz because I first had to awaken an interest in new things in this area," explains the graphic designer and poster designer in an interview with the magazine Jazz.

Under the sign of free jazz

Little by little, Troxler (born in 1947) is confronting his audience with experimental jazz, which sometimes disturbs older music fans, but encourages him as an organizer. For the first edition of his new festival, he hopes for an open-minded audience. A wish that is also reflected in the very first poster. Like all the others up to and including 2009, it was designed by Niklaus Troxler himself and shows the pop art-inspired silhouette of a head with a huge red quiff forming an oversized ear. The effect is modern, fresh and rebellious and captures the spirit of the free jazz of the time, which characterized the first festival edition with artists such as Archie Shepp and Cecil Taylor.

Six years later, on the occasion of the 7th edition, Troxler makes it clear that the event has not only established itself, but is now in its prime. The program continues to focus on free jazz and improvisation, but now increasingly seeks its fortune with US stars, such as the Pharoah Sanders Quartet or guitarist Pat Metheny. The festival poster presents itself accordingly self-confidently, with an abstract, neon-colored trumpet player as its motif - which has a strong rhythmic, moving and energetic effect.

The essence of jazz

16 years later, Troxler's poster for the 23rd festival edition is radically reduced. It shows a group of figures dancing and playing instruments - almost as if they had been scribbled on with ink. A minimalist setting without any gimmickry - reminiscent of the essence of jazz between sound, body and moment. The line-up, which is themed "Jazz Around the World" and features acts such as the French-Vietnamese guitarist Nguyên Lê and the Egberto Gismonti Group from Brazil, is also fitting. And emphatically demonstrates that Willisau hardly knows any stylistic boundaries any more.

In 2009, the festival faces an unclear future. The only certainty is that the 35th edition will be founder Niklaus Troxler's last. In June of the same year, however, it becomes clear that it will continue - within the family. From 2010, nephew Arno (born 1979), a trained drummer, will take over the sceptre. For his very last festival poster, Niklaus Troxler opts for a calmer, more organic design, a deliberate retreat from the dynamic motifs of the past. The music program also follows his preferences once again - from Africa to blues to avant-garde.

A visual departure too

In 2010, the anxious question is: What will the "new guy" do with this traditional event? The answer: Arno Troxler keeps his promise and brings continuity to the Willisau Jazz Festival, but also knows how to set new accents. He does this by bringing genres such as electronic music and rock to the stages of the small Lucerne town for the first time, bringing artists such as electric bassist Meshell Ndegeocello and Norwegian singer Sidsel Endresen. The new momentum is also noticeable in the poster design for the festival: The poster created by Annik and Paula Troxler, the founder's daughters, combines clear typography with color dynamics, structure and graphic elegance - and marks the departure to new creative shores.

To mark the 50th anniversary, Paula Troxler and Kleon Medugorac designed 50 different posters. Each one features a face made up of elements from previous posters, without appearing nostalgic. The four festival days prove to be no less playful with artists such as the Kali Trio, which presents post-genre sounds, or the Savannah Harris Trio, which explores the boundaries between improvisation and songwriting. Festival director Arno Troxler is happy to sum up: "2025 was characterized by fantastic concerts, audience growth and a peaceful, happy atmosphere." He is correspondingly optimistic about the future.

 

www.jazzfestivalwillisau.ch

Table of contents

Focus

When the little finger no longer wants to, everything is at stake
Interview with physiotherapist Marjan Steebeek

Health-conscious right from the start
Prevention and treatment of complaints at the Lausanne Enmouvement Center

Professional care for musicians' ears
A team at the University Hospital Zurich takes care of education, prevention, therapy and networking

Carte blanche: Challenges of freelance musicians and mothers

(italics = summary in German of the original French article)

Critiques

New releases Books, Sound carrier, Websites, Notes, Movies

Echo 

There is not enough space in the printed edition for all the texts, so they are listed here and linked to the corresponding online articles. Most of these were published before the printed edition appeared.

When young people compose the future
The Young Composers Project at the Künstlerhaus Boswil is a model initiative.
The online version for short descriptions of the individual works.

Sonorités contemporaines du santour
Entretien avec Farnaz Modarresivar, virtouse et compositrice

"The Groovy Drumbeat"
Music research at school

Le temps dʼun rêve à Rouffach en Alsace
Stage international de musique

" Vies de musiciennes extraordinaires "
Un témoignage d'Adele Posani sur l'enseignement de la musique en Palestine.

Satisfied finish with a quietly irritating theme
A look at the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad from August 4 to 6. It is the last under the direction of Christoph Müller.

The white tower above Mulegns
It has permanently changed the cultural landscape of Graubünden. Now the Origen Festival is celebrating its 20th birthday - with a spectacular building.

Thank you, Peter Hagmann
The eminent music critic shaped the NZZ arts section for many years. He was interested in the fullness of life in music. He died on June 5.

This is what Swiss folk music sounds like
Interactive exhibition at the Forum of Swiss History in Schwyz

In concert with hearing impairment
The Freiburg Baroque Orchestra allows the audience to get very close for an experience with all the senses.

Strategic marketing for choirs
Many choirs are struggling with a lack of young talent and falling income. Instead of cutting back on advertising, they should invest in professional marketing, as every additional ticket sold helps to cover costs.

Singing, signing, dancing at the EJCF: a celebration of joy
The European Youth Choir Festival took place in Basel and the region for the 14th time. Over 60 children's and youth choirs from 13 countries received an enthusiastic response from an estimated 40,000 visitors.

Experienced a lot at 13 youth choir festivals
Since 1992, Arvo Ratavaara and his wife have looked after and hosted youth choirs from Estonia to Ukraine in Basel. He remembers impressive encounters and touching voices, police escorts and improvised fast food and, in particular, young people singing their hearts out.

 

Base

Articles and news from the music associations

Swiss Federal Orchestra Association (EOV) / Société Fédérale des Orchestres (SFO)

Konferenz Musikhochschulen Schweiz (KMHS) / Conférence des Hautes Ecoles de Musique Suisse (CHEMS)

Kalaidos University of Music / Kalaidos Haute École de Musique

Swiss Music Council (SMR) / Conseil Suisse de la Musique (CSM)

CHorama

Swissmedmusica (SMM) / Association suisse de Médecine de la Musique (SMM)

Swiss Musicological Society (SMG) / Société Suisse de Musicologie (SSM)

Swiss Musicians' Association (SMV) / Union Suisse des Artistes Musiciens (USDAM)

Schweizerischer Musikpädagogischer Verband (SMPV) / Société Suisse de Pédagogie Musicale (SSPM)

SONART - Musicians Switzerland

Swiss Youth Music Competition Foundation (SJMW)

Arosa Culture

SUISA - Cooperative Society of Authors and Publishers of Music

Swiss Association of Music Schools (VMS) / Association Suisse des Écoles de Musique (ASEM)

 

Music of recovery
Puzzle by Thomas Meyer

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Order issue for CHF 10.- (+ CHF 2.- shipping costs)

The Chinese percussionist Hedi Young, the Italian percussionist Antonio Gaggiano and the French cellist and composer Hortense Airault have been honored with the Fritz Gerber Award 2025 (the SMZ has reported). The prizes are endowed with 10,000 Swiss francs each and also enable participation in the Lucerne Festival Academy. The certificates were presented on August 24 at the Lucerne Festival by Regula Gerber, Vice President of the Fritz Gerber Foundation and former director of the theaters in Bielefeld and Mannheim.

At the award ceremony, the three winners, who have also studied or are still studying at Swiss music academies, presented themselves with exposed works of modernism: with Spins and Spells for cello solo by Kaija Saariaho, with a four-part etude for marimba solo by Pius Cheung and with Clash Music for a pair of cymbals by Nicolaus A. Huber.

Established in 2015, the Fritz Gerber Award is presented annually to three highly talented young musicians. It is closely linked to the Lucerne Festival and focuses exclusively on the interpretation of contemporary works. This year's jurors were Michael Haefliger and Heinz Holliger.

Merita stands for Music cultural heritage talent. Under the direction of Le Dimore del Quartetto, the international platform for chamber music funded by Creative Europe supported 38 quartets with 152 musicians from 28 nations for three years. Innovative concert formats were created in 40 residencies in historic houses, reaching over 10,000 listeners in 198 performances between March 2024 and August 2025. From Switzerland, the Protean Quartet, the Moser String Quartet and the Modulor Quartet are present.

The platform combines chamber music with cultural heritage and social inclusion. From September 2025, a second edition will be launched until 2029, which will support 56 ensembles - string quartets and piano trios.

Link to the platform

How can I learn to compose? How do I get my music from my head onto paper? How do I develop a musical idea? These basic questions were at the heart of the Young Composers Project (YCP), which took place one weekend a month from March at the Künstlerhaus Boswil and offered eleven young composers from German-speaking Switzerland the opportunity to develop their own works under the guidance of top-class teachers. The youngest was nine years old, the oldest nineteen. The results of this extraordinarily successful project will be presented at the September 7 in Boswil and September 9 at the cantonal school in Wettingen presented to the public.

Gifted children are encouraged to play instruments in many places today. When it comes to composing, however, the prevailing opinion is often that this is a matter for adults and that children and young people lack the necessary skills. The opposite is true. You could see this for yourself during a visit to the YCP on a weekend in Boswil in June and at the first rehearsal with professional musicians in Arlesheim in August. The variety and originality of the ideas, their elaboration and notation, which was mostly done on the computer, the unprejudiced approach to harmony, which ranged from atonal to D major, the alert engagement with theoretical and practical questions of composing and the partly still searching, partly already thoroughly reflected talk about their own work - all this aroused astonishment and aroused curiosity about the two public concerts in September.

The Young Composers and their works

The youngest, nine-year-old Daniel Smirnov, who was always driven to Boswil by his parents, has a Fantasy a fresh and gripping piece for four players, divided into contrasting sections by tempo and key changes. He composes with great ease and has created over a hundred amusing pieces on his computer. Pieces of pork inspired by Walt Disney's Three little pigs.

At the other end of the age scale is Luca Blanke (*2005), who is The Blind Guitarist for violin, cello, clarinet, djembe and triangle is based on a painting from Picasso's Blue Period. He puts himself in the position of the blind musician and translates his thoughts in a considered way into a multi-layered, multi-faceted narrative musical structure.

Jaël Maier (*2008) plays the viola and has formed the trio Expanse in the storm for violin, cello and piano. Wide-ranging melodies are underpinned by moving accompaniment figures, a restrained inner excitement characterizes the piece.

Karina Verich (*2009), an excellent pianist who has been playing jazz since her childhood and who came to Switzerland from the Ukraine a few years ago, has created a new album with the duo As-tu fatigue? for piano and cello pizzicato, a challenging jazz number in 7/8 time. The two instruments are closely intertwined with small-scale motifs, rhythmic drive is combined with weightless elegance.

In Untitled by Laurin Rogausch, who is the same age, the keyboard instrument plays the leading role. The technically demanding part is embedded in an accompaniment of violin, cello and clarinet. With the expansive runs and arpeggios of the piano, the piece, written in an extended major tonality, has a distinctly concertante character.

What is striking about Marco Buser's (*2006) composition for five instruments is the polyphonic approach in the voice leading and the use of characteristic types of expression and form. The detailed piece consists of three contrasting sections - the middle one is based on a tango rhythm - and ends in a rousing finale. The attempt to formally reconcile the divergent parts is addressed in the playful working title: Rotundum quadrare opportet (roughly: The round must be made square). Incidentally, the composer allows associations with the footballer's saying "The round must go into the square".

Caner Öztas (*2008), who is already well versed in acoustic physics and can explain the overtone structure of an instrumental tone with flawless clarity, combines in The Evolution electronically generated sounds with violin, cello, piano and xylophone. The continuously changing loudspeaker sounds based on B merge with the playing of the instruments. By stubbornly sticking to the basic tone, the listener is sucked into the intensifying sound events.

Loïs Poller, who is the same age, designs in Vestige for clarinet, violin, cello and xylophone depicts the scenario of a young boy's search for his father, which ends in a general catastrophe. In the expressive composition, which carefully weighs up the expressive values, fast and slow parts alternate, but a serious tone is common to all.

Roland Potluka (*2007) also feels more drawn to darker emotional regions. In the trio Asphodelus Rêverie he refers to the flower Affodill, which, as he says, is associated with mourning. This inspired him to create an interesting construction of repetitive structures in which cello and clarinet alternate as leading instruments, the emotional content is translated into structural values.

Finally, Yannick (*2011) and Inès (*2008) Köllner: The two siblings have created a new project entitled Nano Haiku an approximately twenty-minute video installation with music, a dizzying journey through another reality, Yannick as an already accomplished, musically minded video artist and sound technician, Inès as a composer and highly talented cellist who will compete in the Swiss Youth Music Competition 2024 with Lutosławski's tricky Sacher variation has shone. At Nano Haikuwhere spoken texts, music and video projection intertwine to the second, she is now also active as a text author and conductor.

An academy for the next generation

The purpose of this course was: Elaboration of individual works up to concert maturity. It went without saying that this was only possible with precise notation. Composition lessons in the narrower sense were supplemented by a wide range of additional subjects. These dealt with fundamental aspects of composing such as the conception of a work, the form of notation, instrumental studies, questions of form and more; benchmark works of the past were also discussed. This turned the YCP into a veritable academy for the next generation. With its learning content and professional supervision, it would be an asset to any music school or college. For the Boswil Foundation, too, which was apparently not really aware of the importance of the company, it is an unplanned highlight of its sponsorship program.

The success of the project is thanks to a dedicated group of lecturers, above all baritone Robert Koller, who organized the complex undertaking almost single-handedly, and composer Bettina Skrzypczak, who co-founded the YCP in 2013 and then directed it for many years. This year, she led it in a team with Robert Koller. Other main participants were: Lukas Langlotz as musical director of the rehearsals, conductor Cristoforo Spagnuolo as "special guest", Pierre Funck for film music and Karin Wetzel, who helped supervise the course participants.

And the cellist Moritz Müllenbach. Using the example of the cello part from Inès Köllner's composition, which is peppered with double stops and harmonics, he demonstrated together with her the inexhaustible possibilities of sound production on the string instruments, as delightfully as a top chef revealing his best recipes. Alongside Heidy Huwiler (clarinet), Friedemann A. Treiber (violin/viola), Elizaveta Parfentyeva (piano) and Junko Rusche (percussion), Müllenbach was also part of the five-piece ensemble that rehearsed the compositional firsts. With the same care as if they had been written by established composers.

The public rehearsal with the ensemble in Arlesheim was a first trial run three weeks before the final concerts. Here, the young composers heard their pieces, which they had mostly only worked on on the computer, live with instruments for the first time. Any inconsistencies in the score could be discussed with the ensemble and then corrected. And it was already clear here that the works are sounding proof that creativity and compositional intelligence can be articulated at a young age in a way that is just as serious as that of academically trained musicians. The latter have a professional craft, more compositional experience and therefore a more mature view of music. Young people, on the other hand, have a spontaneous joy of discovery, the will to learn new things and an unadulterated desire to create art. In other words: In composing, a new generation is taking its first steps towards shaping the future.

Concerts: Sun, September 7, 11 am at the Künstlerhaus Boswil and Tue, September 9, 6.30 pm at the Kantonsschule Wettingen

The topics of music research are as diverse as the subject matter itself and the knowledge gained does not increase on a monthly or weekly basis, but on a daily basis. However, if you take a look at how many of these findings actually end up in a broader public discourse, it quickly becomes very meagre.

I am part of a research team at the Lucerne School of Music (HSLU), led by Olivier Senn, which is dedicated to exploring the "groove", a phenomenon from the psychology of perception. We experience groove when we feel the urge to move to the music while listening to it and this is accompanied by positive emotions. A completely everyday phenomenon, almost everyone knows it.

In Psychology of Music and Music Perception (two important journals specializing in the perception of music, which also includes groove research), over 100 articles were published in 2024. Now everyone can ask themselves how many of these studies they have come into contact with in everyday life. If I wasn't working in science, I would probably answer this question with "none at all". Research findings reach us almost exclusively when they are so spectacular that they end up in the science section of a major daily newspaper.

This is also due to the fact that the dissemination of results to the general public tends to be neglected in the research process. Research is mostly carried out at colleges or universities. Third-party funding has to be acquired for the projects and budgets are often tight as a result. Many projects are finished once their study has been published in a scientific journal, and there are rarely any funds left for dissemination to the general public.

The National Fund steps in

The Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) is aware of this problem and has developed the Agora program with the aim of "promoting communication projects that enable a direct dialog between science and society".

We were of the opinion that our research field "Groove" offers a very low-threshold introduction to scientific work, especially for young people: Music is omnipresent. It influences our movement behavior and our emotions. The vast majority of people experience it regularly when they want to move while listening to music and their mood is sometimes positively influenced. You don't have to make this material palatable first. We submitted an application to the National Science Foundation and were awarded support for our project "The Groovy Drumbeat".

The idea was, our research in workshops at schools in music lessons to bring them together. We didn't just want to give lectures, but actively involve the classes. In total, we were able to hold the workshops at 6 schools in 4 cantons with 17 classes and almost 230 pupils (SuS). They were between 14 and 18 years old. Some were in special interest classes with a focus on music, others attended regular music lessons.

More effort than expected

When preparing the workshops with our colleagues Toni Bechtold, Lorenz Kilchenmann and Rafael Jerjen, we quickly realized that conducting research in the laboratory and presenting this research in a way that is understandable to laypeople without leaving out essential points are two completely different things. We needed much more time for the preparations than we had expected in advance. We had seriously underestimated this.

The workshops, consisting of two sessions, were held in consecutive weeks, each for a double lesson of 90 minutes. To start with, we listened to music together, tried to create a groove using body percussion and discussed the situations in which pupils experience groove in their everyday lives. We then derived questions on how this phenomenon could be investigated scientifically. In our research projects, we usually carry out listening experiments for this purpose, in which short audio samples (stimuli) are examined with regard to their effect on people. Drumbeats, as we know them from popular music, often serve as audio stimuli.

We wanted to set up and carry out such an experiment with the classes. We wanted the pupils to compose their own audio examples (stimuli) for it. We found a suitable Groove Scribe" online softwarewhich can be used to "build" beats without much prior knowledge after a short introduction. The pupils were asked to compose one groovy and one non-groovy drumbeat. We uploaded these Stiumuli to our experiment template on the SoSci Survey online platform. Participation in the experiment had to be completed as homework and the following week we went back to the schools to discuss the results with the classes and consider how they are reflected in the students' everyday listening lives.

Low-threshold topic - high level of reflection

We were very pleased with the high level at which the pupils reflected and discussed. Of course, vocabulary and expression varied depending on age, but it was still no problem for the young people to describe their own observations and understand how our groove investigations work and what the problems are.

A good example of this: In all experiments with all classes, it turned out that although there were stimuli that were perceived as very ungroovy, the grooviest patterns made it to the upper midfield at most. So there were none that were perceived as very groovy.

When asked why this might be the case, the first response from all classes, without exception, was that it was not "whole music", but only the drum beats. The students immediately recognized one of the biggest limitations of this type of research, namely that in order to control the experiment, we very often cannot use complete music, but have to reduce the stimuli.

When "building" the beats, it also quickly became clear that the pupils know exactly what kind of beats they need to dance to and what they need to be like. We demonstrated a few aspects beforehand, such as density, regularity, instrumentation, etc. and off we went. Regardless of whether they were in inclination classes or general music lessons, the listening experiments consistently showed that the beats that were composed with the aim of being "groovy" were usually rated as such and vice versa.

Insights for personal listening

In the second double lesson of the workshop, the main focus was on interpreting the listening experiment, i.e. dealing with the question of why one beat grooves and another does not. Here too, the pupils knew exactly why a beat grooved for them or not. As a rule, the transparency of the pulse was very important. However, the density of sound events in the pattern or unusual instrumentation (e.g. cymbals or other percussion), which made the beats more interesting, also played a role.

We also tried to implement the two top drum beats from each class with body percussion and other percussion instruments. There were big differences here: more was generally possible with the inclination classes, but this was not only due to the different interests, but also to the size of the group. The inclination classes were very small.

To conclude the workshops, it was important for us to transfer the knowledge gained to the music that the young people actually listen to in their everyday lives. Together, we listened to music selected by the SUS and witnessed some lively debates about which music is groovy and which is not.

Impulses are taken up and developed further

We were breaking new ground as a team with this project. Although we all teach in some form, be it as instrumental teachers or in individual courses at the university, we had never done anything comparable before. This affected many areas, from age-appropriate treatment of the topic to dealing with the dynamics in school classes of young people. The transfer of knowledge here was not a one-way street and the teachers, who of course accompanied the workshops, told us that they had benefited greatly and asked us for more material on such topics. There are already ideas in the pipeline to perhaps organize a whole panel as part of project weeks, during which the young people could carry out their own small research projects and give presentations themselves. Making music together and small concerts would also be possible. Only time will tell what will come of this.

 

Balkan route - that sounds like mass flight and suffering, smugglers and the fear of uncontrolled immigration. "Balkan Route" is also the name of the concert program presented by Christina Pluhar with her ensemble L'Arpeggiata and guest musicians from the Balkans at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival in the sold-out church in Saanen, which was met with great enthusiasm. Here, the Balkan route becomes an exciting, sensual musical journey of discovery and tells the story of the people who live there. The title not only fits well with the theme of migration chosen by artistic director Christoph Müller for his last festival edition. It also plays with the audience's expectations and goes beyond the musical. It is precisely this added social relevance that Müller wants to achieve.

Western Balkans - Eastern Balkans

The world music evening is completely apolitical. No statements, no activism. The songs tell of longing and love, grief and death. They also radiate an irrepressible joie de vivre, like the Roma song Dumbala Dumbawhich Luciana Mancini turns into a party with her throaty voice and supple hip swing, fueled by the sensational accordionist Petar Ralchev and the creative percussionists David Mayoral and Tobias Steinberger. The Western Balkans route leads via Greece (the worn Are mou Rindineddha/Who knows, little swallow), Macedonia (So maki sum se rodila/I was born with pain) and Serbia (Gusta noćna tmina/Tiefe dunkle Nacht) to Croatia, which is accompanied by the sacred singing of Céline Scheen and Vincenzo Capezzuto. Panis angelicus (angel bread) from the 17th century.

On the Eastern Balkan route, Peyo Peev enchants with his virtuoso playing on the gadulka, the Bulgarian knee violin. The Arabic instruments oud (Kyriakos Tapakis) and kanun (Stefano Dorakakis), alongside the Greek lyre (Giorgos Kontoyiannis), also bring special colors to the largely improvised music, which only sometimes gets a little out of hand in the numerous solos. Christina Pluhar leads the multicultural ensemble on the theorbo with a subtle nod of the head. The five singers, including the particularly expressive Katerina Papadopoulo and Nataša Mirković, also provide a wide musical range.

Pleasing balance sheet over 24 years

Christoph Müller has not only made friends with his choice of topics. "There were indeed individual critical reactions at various levels. The topic of migration provoked individual people - and we exposed ourselves to the risk," says the outgoing director. After "Humility" and "Transformation", "Migration" is the final part of the three-year "Change" cycle. "After the pandemic and in light of the events of war and the rapid progression of climate change, I didn't want to and couldn't continue with the non-binding and saw it as my task to set an example with our programs," says Müller, explaining the sharpening of the profile in recent years.

He is all the more pleased that the program, budgeted at 7.5 million Swiss francs, 15 percent of which is publicly funded, is also popular with audiences and that between 27,000 and 28,000 tickets will be sold in the end - around 10 percent more than in 2024. When Müller took over the directorship in 2002 with a budget of 2.5 million Swiss francs at the time, the future of the concert festival founded by Yehudi Menuhin in 1957 was uncertain. With a total of seven academies - including the three-week Conducting Academy - the cultural manager expanded the festival and focused on promoting young talent. In addition to the many chamber concerts in the churches of the Saanenland, the orchestral and opera concerts in the big tent also make the festival something special. The fact that Christoph Müller's farewell will be celebrated at the last concert on 6 September together with the start of Daniel Hope's new directorship emphasizes the harmonious transition.

A little displeasure and a lot of happiness

In concert Beethoven today in Lauenen church, Patricia Kopatchinskaja and pianist Joonas Ahonen truly show the composer as a revolutionary. The grand line is somewhat lost in the radical escalations in the violin sonatas No. 4 in A minor and No. 8 in G major, but the finale of the G major sonata, for example, which is taken at breakneck speed, is given a radicality that makes you sit up and take notice. The world premiere of Márton Illés' piece is also exciting Én-kör V (Ich-Kreis V), which combines ludicrous virtuosity with sound experiments. The composition, which is also a challenge for the audience, certainly causes displeasure, as can be heard from the conversations after the concert.

In contrast, there is a collective feeling of elation after the performance by mandolin star Avi Avital with his Between Worlds Ensemble, which brings southern Italian music and, with singer Alessia Tondo, the corresponding temperament to the Saanen church. Apart from excerpts from Emanuele Barbella's mandolin concerto and Igor Stravinsky's Suite italienne is full of folk music - from Naples to Apulia: lively, authentic, varied. Here, too, there is plenty of room for improvisation (Luca Tarantino: guitar, Itamar Doari: percussion). And the tarantella is not only played with virtuosity, but also danced. At the end, the atmosphere in the church is like that of a rock concert. And you can see many happy faces.

The festival continues until September 6.

gstaadmenuhinfestival.ch/en

For half a century, the Winterthur Music Festival for independent, non-commercial culture in the heart of the old town. What began as a small concert weekend in 1976 is now one of the oldest festivals in Switzerland and attracts around 60,000 visitors every year. The festival has established itself as a springboard for Swiss acts and international newcomers - made possible by over 1,100 volunteers with more than 28,000 hours of voluntary work.

In its anniversary year, the Musikfestwochen is deliberately doing without show effects and big names. "We have worked for many years on the clear positioning of our festival and have been successful with it," explains Co-Managing Director Lotta Widmer. In view of the current "death of festivals" and the increasing monopolization in the music industry, the festival wants to maintain its independence and sharpen its profile.

Anniversary program with a focus on the future

The anniversary is being celebrated with three special formats. On August 9, the "Future Lab" will take place - a workshop with the Think & Do-Tank Decenterin which participants develop scenarios for the festival of tomorrow. At the same time, the "Music Festival Carousel" goes on tour: a musical walk with concerts at surprising locations around the festival site.

The "Rätselelfestwochen" - an interactive course through Winterthur - has been running since July 1. The escape room team Secret passage188 has designed them. They provide a playful insight into the organization behind the scenes.

The 50th edition of the Musikfestwochen will take place from August 6 to 17, 2025. Association President Anina Ljaskowsky emphasizes: "We were, are and will remain a work of many. Instead of just looking back, we want to think ahead: how must the festival continue to develop so that it is still independent, open and relevant in 50 years' time?"

https://musikfestwochen.ch/news/50-jahre/

"And the finale piles up to shattering greatness in the passacaglia and then truly 'morendo' in the coda. It all seems so oppressive because the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra gives its best, and as we know, that is no mean feat. A world-class evening; thank you, Bernard Haitink." So wrote Peter Hagmann in 2008 in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) about an evening with Shostakovich's 15th Symphony conducted by Haitink. Title All life lived; the choice of words careful and precise, the view sympathetic, comprehensible, the judgment clear, the gesture meaningful. And perhaps it is precisely in such a review that the complexity of the unfortunately declining institution of "music criticism" is revealed in the most beautiful way.

Among the critics in German-speaking Switzerland, Peter Hagmann was the one who achieved the widest reach and he was well aware of his position at the NZZ and committed to it. He was the only one of us who had what it took to be a major critic, and he performed this office with dignity and a sense of tradition, but he was anything but stiff, as he was able to react with passion and emotion, and sometimes even with anger. He wrote about this with both originality and elegance, independent in his expression of opinion. Smiling, he recounted how German colleagues had once reproached him: "You Swiss always have such a different opinion."

He started out in Basel. He was born there on April 13, 1950, grew up there, studied musicology there and completed his doctorate with a thesis on Welte-Mignon reproduction pianos and organs. After all, he had also obtained an organ diploma, so he knew the subject from practical experience. In 1972, he began working in Basel as a concert and opera critic for the National Newspaper and the resulting Basler Zeitung. In 1986 he moved to the NZZwhere he worked as an editor from 1989. His concert and opera reviews from Zurich, Switzerland and abroad, his reports and interviews are countless.

After retiring in 2015, he continued his work with Wednesdays at twelve on his website - a "blog for classical music. For art music in the emphatic sense. For old music, for the classical-romantic music of the great repertoire, for new music". With pride and a certain defiance, he wrote that he sees this blog "as a counterpoint to trends in the printed media, in which music criticism is treated as a fossil, considered obsolete and in many places marginalized, if not abolished. Anyone looking for music criticism can find it on this website." He remained curious and interested, even though he observed developments in the media landscape with skepticism. The Zurich music critics often sat together as colleagues and discussed what was going on, openly and without competition. We always found Peter to be an approachable and attentive interlocutor.

He has also taught at music academies, worked as an expert and sat on juries. Together with Erich Singer, he published the book Conducting is a riddle about Bernard Haitink. This volume of conversations and essays about a musician to whom he felt close was his last major publication: "The Dutch conductor was at all times solely concerned with the music, with bringing the work of art laid down in the score to life through the act of interpretation," wrote Peter Hagmann in his obituary of Haitink. And that is what he was also concerned with, beyond all recognition: continuing a tradition, not according to an ideology, but energetically out of life. Hence the emphatic title All life livedthat is so typical of him. Until the very end. In March, he was still discussing the world premiere of Beat Furrer's The great fire. Peter Hagmann has now died after a serious illness at the age of 75.

What began in 2023 with 300 to 400 schoolchildren has now become the heart of the Brugg Festival. The "echo" mediation project has seen impressive growth: over 800 young people took part in 2024, and 1000 children and young people are expected for the first time in 2025.

"People always say that classical music is elitist, but that's not the case here in Brugg," emphasizes Sebastian Bohren, violinist and artistic director of the festival. "With 'echo', we also reach the general public." At the end of June, the festival already had over 600 registrations, including more than 100 secondary school pupils for the first time.

Direct contact instead of schoolmasters

The recipe for success of "echo" lies in its unconventional approach. Instead of teacherly pedagogy, the organizers focus on direct encounters with charismatic musical personalities. Pupils can try out instruments for themselves and experience classical music "very directly", as Bohren explains. Music and movement teacher Noëmi Dittli moderates all "echo" events.

Walter H. Rambousek, Head of Music Education, has tailored the presentation of the events to the four participant groups: 1st to 3rd grade, 4th to 6th grade, 7th to 9th grade (upper school) and music school. "Entry into the world of classical music needs a door opener. 'echo' is the key to this," he says.

18 Events and new offers

This year's "echo" program includes 18 events in three categories. They are free of charge for pupils from Brugg School, including Brugg Music School, as well as for teachers and accompanying school staff. In addition to moderated concerts with artist talks, school classes can also attend concert rehearsals, take part in "meet and greet" sessions or experience violin maker Gerhard Burger at work. Another new addition to the program is a guided tour of the organ in the Reformed City Church of Brugg - a request that came directly from schoolchildren.

The highlight of the family program is The carnival of the animals by Camille Saint-Saëns. The work will be performed twice on September 4 for school classes and in the evening as a family concert. The timeless suite from 1886 with its dancing elephants and gliding swans is considered an ideal introduction to classical music.

Cooperation as a success factor

The project is based on a close collaboration between the Stretta Concerts association, the Brugg school and the Brugg music school. A total of 1700 children and young people attend Brugg school, 755 of whom receive instrumental lessons at the music school.

"World class on your doorstep - where else can you find that?" enthuses Simon Moesch. He is a teacher at the Brugg district school and a member of the "echo" program group. Stephan Langenbach, head of the Brugg music school, sees "immense added value" in the project. The distance between classical musicians and children is noticeably reduced.

Financial support enables free offers

Thanks to the support of the Julius Stäbli Foundation, pupils of the Brugg School and Music School can attend all regular concerts of the festival free of charge - provided they are accompanied by a paying adult. For other children under the age of 16, admission to the family concert costs The carnival of the animals 10 francs.

The "fifty-five minutes" lunchtime concerts at the Cinema Odeon are aimed specifically at families. They create a low-threshold opportunity to encounter classical music outside of a full-length program.

The Brugg Festival will take place from August 31 to September 6, 2025. The organizers' vision is for the younger generation to pass on their love of classical music to their families and thus create a new generation of classical music lovers.

As part of the Forward Festival, Lucerne Festival and Bern University of the Arts are organizing an exhibition by Thomas Gartmann, Doris Lanz, Gabrielle Weber and Raphaël Sudan on 22/23 November. It bears the title "At the focal point of developments. 125 years of the Swiss Association of Musicians". At the same time, the anthologies At the center of developments. The Swiss Association of Musicians 1975-2017 and Music discourses after 1970 presented.

In 2017, the Schweizerischer Tonkünstlerverein (STV) became part of the Verband Sonart - Musicians Switzerland integrated.

Anyone interested in the history of STV can find many aspects of it on a new, clearly laid out website on the subject:

https://www.hkb-interpretation.ch/ausstellung-stv

As concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and founding member of Spira mirabilis the Florentine Lorenza Borrani as a conductor, leader, soloist and chamber musician in the most important concert halls and concert seasons as well as at international chamber music festivals worldwide.

She teaches violin and chamber music at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole and has been a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London since 2019.

 

The cultural stage is located at the Sachseln residence (building no. 711). Lively traditions can be experienced there every day. Formations from all parts of Switzerland present the sounds of yodeling, alphorns, brass music, choral singing, folk dancing and accordion melodies. The 20-minute performances take place at 11 am, 2 pm and 3 pm. Afterwards, the performers will be available to talk to the audience.

Link to the daily program

The ISCM Switzerland is the Swiss section of the ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music) It was founded in 1922, making it one of the oldest ISCM national sections in the world. It owes its foundation to the conductor Hermann Scherchen and his employer at the time, the Winterthur patron of the arts Werner Reinhart. Its first president was the composer and then chief conductor of the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Volkmar Andreae (1879-1962). 1922-1995 the mandate of the ISCM Switzerland is held by the Swiss Association of Musicians STV/ASM, 1995-2025 by the SGNM/SSMC, the Swiss Society for New Music.

From 2025, the Swiss Music Edition SME/EMS the mandate of ISCM Switzerland. Volkmar Andreae was succeeded on the Executive Committee in chronological order Hans Ehinger (1934, ad interim), Paul Sacher (1935), Samuel Baud-Bovy (1955), Paul Müller (1960), Constantin Regamey (1963), Hermann Haller (1968), Julien François Zbinden (1973), Francis Travis (1974), Fritz Muggler (1978), Jean-Luc Darbellay (1995), Max E. Keller (2007), Nicolas Farine (2010), Javier Hagen (2014) and Christian Spitzenstaetter (2025).

The history of the ISCM and its World New Music Days

The International Society for Contemporary Music ISCM is one of the most important music-cultural societies in the world and - against the backdrop of the League of Nations - goes back to an initiative of the Second Viennese School during the Salzburg Festival in 1922. Its founding members included the composers Bartók, Hindemith, Honegger, Milhaud, Ravel, Berg, Schönberg, Stravinsky and Webern. In German-speaking countries, the organization is better known as IGNM, International Society for New Music.

At this year's General Assembly in Lisbon, long-time Vice President Frank J. Oteri was elected as the new President of the Society. He is the first US-American ISCM President and succeeds the outgoing New Zealander Glenda Keam, who has held the office since 2019. Rebecca Diependaele (Belgium) was elected as the new Vice President and Deborah Keyser (Wales) was newly elected to the ISCM Board. As before, the other ExCom members are Magnus Bunnskog (Sweden) and Chialin Pan (Taipei). The delegates also appointed two female composers as honorary members: Karin Rehnquist (*1957) from Sweden and Jacqueline Fontyn (*1930) from Belgium.

The ISCM organizes the World Music Days, which take place every year in a different country (ISCM World New Music Days WNMD). They last between one and two weeks and are organized differently in each country. What they all have in common, however, is that compositions from all member countries are represented equally and democratically, which always places the festival programs in a unique field of tension between top international positions and a reflection of the global diversity of new music. Since the founding of the ISCM in 1922, the Swiss IGNM sections have organized the ISCM World Music Days a total of six times: 1926 (Zurich), 1929 (Geneva), 1957 (Zurich), 1970 (Basel), 1991 (Zurich) and 2004 - under the motto "Trans_it" - throughout Switzerland.

The this year's ISCM WNMD took place in Portugal from May 30 to June 7 under the motto "Thirst for Change". The 23 concerts in Lisbon and Porto covered 14 categories. The artistic director of the festival was Miguel Azguime.

New plants wanted for 2026

The next ISCM WNMD to be held in Romania in 2026 will take place. The call for submissions is already open and closes on October 1, 2025. Composers without age and origin restrictions can apply in two categories: Open Submissions (open to all) and/or via submissions from ISCM member sections.

Christian Spitzenstaetter (*1994) comes from Wörgl, Austria, and is a clarinettist, composer and conductor. From 2013, he studied at the HKB in Bern with Ernesto Molinari, and in 2014 he founded the KOMP.ART orchestra, which is made up of music student friends from various European countries. In March 2016, he was engaged as conductor by the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg for two concerts. Spitzenstaetter lives in Bern, currently works as an assistant to the head of the study program at the HKB and is also the current president of the Swiss Music Edition SME/EMS.

 

Transparency notice: The author provided the text and image free of charge. Editorial office: SMZ
The text was supplemented on July 3, 2025 with further information on the ISCM General Assembly and the ISCM WNMD 2025.

The Manhattan Chamber Orchestra performed Nohl's orchestral work on June 28 in New York's Carnegie Hall La Lacrima - a work in memory of her late father. On June 30, the Lehner Quartet played Nohl's string quartet September Tango. Two world premieres in a row in New York: a rare double appearance for a composer from a German-speaking country.

Katharina Nohl was born in the former GDR and has been intensively supported there since childhood. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, she studied music in England and Italy, among other places. She has lived with her family near the Rhine Falls for over 20 years.

Her music combines classical forms with individual timbres, influenced by places in her life such as Istanbul, Ferrara and the Zurich music scene. As the founder of the Swiss Female Composers Festival, she has been committed to the visibility of female composers for years out of artistic conviction. The premiere of these two works at Carnegie Hall is not only a personal milestone, but also a cultural-political signal with a quiet but lasting effect. A third premiere will take place there in November, together with her daughter.

 

Transparency notice:
This text was provided free of charge by the author and edited by the SMZ editorial team.