The Danish International Cello Competition (DICC) was founded by the Danish Philharmonic Orchestra in collaboration with Nordic Artists Management.

Cellists of all nationalities born on or after June 27, 1996, are eligible to apply. The application period runs from August 15 to October 24, 2026. Twenty-four participants will be selected from the applications. They will compete against each other in three preliminary rounds and a final round.

The competition week begins with an opening concert by the Danish Philharmonic Orchestra. It concludes with the final round and awards ceremony on July 3, 2027. All rounds are open to the public and will also be streamed internationally.

Artistic Director Adam Stadnicki cites Denmark’s cello tradition and the Sønderborg-based string manufacturer Larsen Strings as reasons for choosing the location. The city’s excellent connections to Europe were the deciding factor.

Cello Bridge Mentoring Program

Accompanying the competition is the Cello Bridge mentoring program, led by Trudy Wright, former tour and project manager at Harrison Parrott. It is open to all 24 participants, even after they may have been eliminated. The program includes one-on-one meetings, panel discussions, and workshops on career issues in the music industry.

Jury and Prizes

The jury is chaired by cellist Daniel Müller-Schott. Other members include Andreas Brantelid, Amelia Jakobsson, Tatjana Vassiljeva-Monnier, Alex Taylor, Kathryn Stott, and Niklas Walentin.

The first prize, the Larsen Strings Prize, has an estimated total value of approximately 80,000 euros. It includes 14,000 euros in prize money, ten concerts with European orchestras, an album recording with the Danish Philharmonic Orchestra for Pentatone, mentoring, and a three-year collaboration with Nordic Artists Management. The second prize is worth 8,000 euros, and the third prize is worth 5,000 euros. Special prizes will also be awarded.

Further information

Danish International Cello Competition (DICC)

According to the website, the composer and scientist want to Morris Wolf and the pianist Sergey Tanin With their festival, they aim to «bring more music to the region and offer an inspiring addition to the cultural life of Schams for both the local audience and visitors from farther away.»

This year, from September 18 to 20, the Reformed Church in Andeer will host five concerts featuring music ranging from the Renaissance to the present day.

Further information: https://www.musicaandeer.ch/konzerte

 

What does St. Gallen sound like? Like the silence of a monastery library? Like HSG students discussing the future of capitalism? This question was addressed at the opening concert of the Vilnius Festival with Fabian Künzli’s orchestral work, which premiered in 2025 This Is What St. Gallen Sounds Like A powerful sonic response. This work weaves together various listening experiences that residents of the canton of St. Gallen were invited to submit in advance.

A catchy melody that sticks in your head keeps reappearing in new instrumental arrangements, while a chorale melody by Johann Sebastian Bach pops up here and there. But that’s not all: Künzli even brings the atmosphere of a café in St. Gallen to life. Midway through the piece, the audience is invited to chat with their neighbors. A smash hit!

A Lithuanian on a farewell tour

It is thanks to Modestas Pitrėnas that one of the Baltic region’s most renowned classical music festivals opened this year’s edition with a work by a Swiss composer. The Vilnius-born conductor served as music director of the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra for eight years. His farewell tour has now brought him and the orchestra back to his hometown. A few days after the concert, Pitrėnas’s thoughts are still with the Vilnius Philharmonic: «It was an indescribable feeling to see the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra in my homeland. To this day, the orchestra is still reminiscing about Lithuania and its hospitable people. I’m very proud of that!»

At the opening concert, there was no sign that the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra had arrived in the Lithuanian capital late the night before. It performed Daniel Nelson’s accordion concerto with great energy. The Ghost Machine Treatise and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The encore by accordionist Martynas Levickis was particularly moving: In his original composition The Dawn Is Breaking Minimalist broken chords met sweeping, elegiac cantilenas—inspired by Lithuanian folk music. A gem!

Anniversary Edition

The Vilnius Festival celebrated its 30th edition this year from June 5 to 25 and has long been a fixture on the Lithuanian cultural calendar. The program brings together leading international classical musicians and the promotion of Lithuanian musical creativity, not least through world premieres and commissioned works. The festival manages this balancing act with astonishing ease.

For years, the Vilnius Festival has been led by Lithuanian musicologist Rūta Prusevičienė. In her office at the National Philharmonic, she talks about Krzysztof Penderecki, who came to Vilnius for one of the festival’s first editions in the 1990s, but also draws connections to other ties between Switzerland and Lithuania: Around 1900, for example, numerous young Lithuanians studied at the predominantly Catholic University of Fribourg. One of them was Juozas Purickis, who later became foreign minister of independent Lithuania.

Stucco Work from Ticino and a Lithuanian Sound Artist

The Vilnius Festival takes place in the heart of the Old Town, whose churches and monasteries are characterized by Baroque architecture. Even architecturally, there are some connections to Switzerland: In the 17th century, artists and stuccoers from what is now Ticino contributed to Lithuanian Baroque. Giovanni Pietro Perti and Giovanni Maria Galli, for example, created the stunning stuccoed interior of the Church of St. Peter and Paul. The Switzerland-Lithuania connection in Vilnius is thus not only audible but also visible.

The second concert of the Vilnius Festival was dedicated entirely to the exceptional Lithuanian pianist Andrius Žlabys. What a wide range of timbres he brought to Bach’s Overture in the French Style It was impressive to see how he could conjure up BWV 831 from the Steinway grand piano: every trill, every ornament, every rhythmic nuance took on a color of its own under his hands. Žlabys played Bach’s music as a vibrant presence. Less convincing, however, was the world premiere of his own work Movement for piano and string quartet, which, while it had poetic passages, was stylistically all too clearly modeled after other composers, such as Arvo Pärt.

Feeding marmots before the concert

Musically, Lithuania and Switzerland are closely intertwined. A little over a decade ago, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra made several guest appearances at the Música Romântica festival in the glacier village of Saas-Fee. Festival director Rūta Prusevičienė recalls how the musicians told her that they would hike in the mountains and feed marmots during the day before performing in the parish church in the evening. The Lithuanian piano duo Vilija Poškutė and Tomas Daukantas, on the other hand, have been living in Switzerland for several years and have long been part of the local music scene.

An important bridge between Lithuanian and Swiss music is the conductor and flutist Kaspar Zehnder: He first came into contact with Lithuania in 2002, when the National Opera Orchestra made a guest appearance at his Murten Classics festival. Later, he conducted in Vilnius and Kaunas, brought Lithuanian music by Loreta Narvilaitė, Onutė Narbutaitė, and Anatolijus Šenderovas to Switzerland, and invited the Klaipėda Chamber Orchestra to Murten Classics and the «klangantrisch» festival in his hometown of Riggisberg, where he serves as artistic director. «What I appreciate about Lithuania is that with every performance and every visit, the network expands,» says Zehnder.

Three Weeks of Musical Discoveries

The Vilnius Festival lasted about three weeks. The program’s stylistic breadth was evident right from the first few days of the festival. The third concert featured American countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen. Accompanied by the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra under Hossein Pishkar, he spanned a range from the Baroque to the modern era. Cohen was particularly compelling in the quiet passages, where his voice unfolded a bright, delicate timbre that was never glassy. The chamber orchestra did not always seem completely in sync. The spark only flew in places.

That’s part of the appeal of the Vilnius Festival: Just a few hours later, the next concert offers the chance to make another musical discovery—whether or not it has a connection to Switzerland.

With the one posted online in April Music Industry Topic Portal «For the first time, we now have a centrally compiled overview of the structures, data, and current developments in this important sector of the cultural and creative industries,» writes the German Music Information Center (miz).

Since May, miz has also been providing the «Kompass Music Studies» «a central search platform that provides consolidated access to over 1,700 music degree programs in Germany and enables prospective students to find the right program.».

The miz is an institution of the German Music Council.

The award is presented by the Spanish classical music magazine Music Lover awarded. The CD was released in January 2’26 by MDG and features music from the early 17th century.

Lea Suter and Juan González Martínez have formed the Duo GlossArte. In 2025, the ensemble won the 9th International H. I. F. Biber Competition in Austria. According to a press release, the Bremen-based duo stands for «informed performance practice that combines musical rhetoric and artistic freedom.».

Opus Klassik announced the 37 winners of this year's awards on June 22. In the «Composer of the Year» category, alongside Dieter Ammanns CD glow  at Swiss Phonogram Hildur Guðnadóttir for Where to From on Deutsche Grammophon and with Fazil Say for Mozart's Requiem / Fazil Say: Mozart & Mevlana Nominated by Warner Classics.

Opus Klassik describes itself as «the most important classical music award in Germany.» The award ceremonies will take place on October 10 and 11 in Berlin.

Link A review of the recording «glut – Dieter Ammann – music for orchestra» featuring the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, conducted by Jonathan Nott.

Friederike Starkloff has been the first concertmaster of the Basel Symphony Orchestra since the 2023–24 season and will move from the HMDK Stuttgart to the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in 2026 – Music as the successor to Brian Dean, who will retire at the end of the spring semester of 2026.

British soprano Mimi Doulton has been performing on many opera stages since 2018. Her focus is on the 20th- and 21st-century repertoire. Starting next fall semester, she will become a full-time lecturer in voice. The new saxophone instructor will be German bandleader, composer, and musicologist Fabian Willmann.

 

 

The Swiss Confederation is hardly known as a country of origin for Baroque composers. It was less due to a lack of musical talent that hardly any composers stood out in this country than to the social and institutional conditions. For married Catholic musicians in particular, there were only a few positions in the early modern Swiss Confederation that allowed them to work as composers on a permanent basis. Johann Melchior Gletle (1626-1683), who was born in Bremgarten/AG and whose 400th birthday is at the beginning of July, therefore left his homeland and made a career as a cathedral conductor in the Bavarian-Swabian city of Augsburg.

We know surprisingly little about Gletle's years of education. All that is certain is that he attended the Jesuit school in Freiburg/FR in 1641. In August 1651, he was employed as organist at Augsburg Cathedral. Shortly afterwards, he married Katharina Streitlin, with whom he had 16 children. In April 1654, he was the first non-clergyman to be appointed cathedral choirmaster. In return, he was given a surplice so that he could perform in processions like the clergy. He held both posts until his death at the beginning of September 1683.

Between Bremgarten and Augsburg

Gletle spent a total of 32 years with his family in Augsburg and published eight music prints there, seven of which have survived. He appears on all title pages as a citizen of Bremgarten and Augsburg cathedral bandmaster («Bremgartensi. Ecclesiae Cathedralis Augustanae Capellae magistro»). He was entered in the Bremgarten register of citizens every year until his death. The reason for this remains unclear. These and other questions about Gletle and his environment will be the subject of a conference at the University of Geneva from August 21 to 23, 2026 in Muri/AG. At the same time, the concert series «Music in the monastery church» works by Gletle and his musical environment.

Augsburg Cathedral opened up professional opportunities for Catholic laymen that would have remained largely closed to them in the Confederation: Chapel master positions in Swiss monasteries were usually filled by conventuals and required entry into a religious order. As a married family man, Gletle's employers were in fact almost exclusively cathedral and collegiate churches.

A judgment by the music theorist Sébastien de Brossard (1655-1730) shows how highly regarded he was during his lifetime. Among the composers of the German-speaking world, he particularly appreciated Johann Melchior Gletle and Samuel Capricornus (1628-1665). He wrote about Gletle: «His music is balanced and regularly structured, but at the same time - when necessary - brilliant and light. It is artistic, expressive, graceful and, above all, excellently adapted to the respective places, times and the actual meaning of the words [translation by the author].»

For a composer who is largely forgotten today, this is a remarkable achievement. In the run-up to the 400th anniversary of his birth, further works from his oeuvre, which has so far only been partially catalogued, were therefore transcribed - both for performances and for the critical classification of his oeuvre. The preparations for the conference and anniversary have also made the wide contemporary reception of his music visible: in Central Europe (Central Germany, Alsace, Switzerland, Austria, South Tyrol), in Central Europe and Scandinavia as well as in the Jesuit reductions of South America.

A citizen of Bremgarten who made a career in Augsburg and whose music was already being heard as far away as South America around 1700: Johann Melchior Gletle is one of the fascinating, still too little-known figures in the musical history of the Old Swiss Confederacy - with a global reach.

Further article on the topic: https://www.musikzeitung.ch/basis/smg/2026/06/johann-melchior-gletle-1626-1683-tagung-und-konzerte-zum-400-geburtstag

Zurich-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Schnyder has lived in New York City for around 30 years. Nevertheless, he still visits Switzerland regularly, giving concerts and master classes and engaging with the local cultural scene. The fact that his collaboration with Loc.Artium, the association founded by Valérie Probst to promote young talent, has worked particularly well since 2025 (previously with the Swiss Youth Music Competition Foundation) is due not least to the basic idea behind this project, which Schnyder has consistently lived by for decades: the relativization of genre boundaries, the active questioning of the distinction between serious and popular music and the consistent inclusion of musical traditions from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds.

Overcoming the constriction

Daniel Schnyder is one of the most versatile and internationally most-performed Swiss composers, whose oeuvre covers many genres from Renaissance and Baroque compositions to contemporary music theater. In a detailed telephone conversation, it quickly becomes clear that this is based not only on tireless creativity and curiosity, but also on a broad and detailed knowledge of music history across all lines of tradition. He is not primarily interested in positional references or theoretical discussions, but rather in recalling facts, insights and movements, some of them centuries old, which have often been insufficiently received or even deliberately ignored in the general development of modern music.

The effects of this development are obvious, explains Schnyder. The Second Viennese School and the serialism that emerged from it were postulated as absolute by the academic music business in the second half of the 20th century; however, the corresponding works are hardly ever performed today. The many counter-movements (summarized under the term «third-stream music», among others) that emerged as a reaction to this constriction have in most cases not penetrated the established concert scene. And its canon, in turn, has hardly developed any further for decades, as if the great confusion was to be countered with an equally resolute preservation of vested interests. The fundamental openness towards jazz music and other non-European music, which was particularly widespread in the first half of the 20th century, is something that is now being taken into account - but beyond the purely formal merging of jazz and classical music departments at music academies, the desired exchange between all those involved falls short of expectations.

Promoting an open attitude

The fact that Maurice Ravel's Bolero and Georges Bizet's opera Carmen are still among the most frequently performed orchestral works and the most successful operas of all - and both are explicitly inspired by non-European music - Schnyder likes to make it clear that his views are neither new nor revolutionary. Rather, it is important to him to maintain and promote an awareness of an open attitude so that contemporary music creation can adequately engage with current society without blinkers. Criticizing existing structures would be out of place here, firstly because musical developments have always taken place as a reaction to social developments and secondly because the current music business is under strong pressure from new media developments. Nevertheless, Schnyder considers it essential to consistently counteract outdated prejudices and, above all, to convey this fundamental openness to young musicians in the first place.

In the Hirschmann Masterclasses, which Valérie Probst developed in response to a request from the Hirschmann Foundation, he has found an excellent field of activity for this. Although there is no shortage of foundations and other funding organizations in Switzerland, he considers this highly specialized project in particular, which still could not easily be conceived from within the existing academic structures, to be remarkable. He therefore regrets all the more that this year's final concert will no longer take place as part of the Lucerne Festival.

Combining cultural traditions with music

The Hirschmann Masterclasses take place every year in Switzerland or the surrounding countries and bring together music academy graduates with leading international musicians from different traditions. To date, the following composers have performed at the master classes: Fabian Müller, Klaus Ospald, Xavier Dayer, Philippe Racine, Jörg Widmann, Richard Dubugnon, Oscar Bianchi, Daniel Schnyder, Till Löffler, Felix Baumann and Daniel Fueter. In recent years, the focus has turned to music from non-European cultures together with Daniel Schnyder: In 2023, a diverse program entitled «Worlds Beyond Orchestra» was created, which was performed together with musicians from New York, including at the opening concert of the Lucerne Festival.

Last year, the course took place under the title «Silkroad». The program included connections between oriental timbres, rhythms and musical forms of expression as well as the classical music in which the young virtuosos are trained. Together with musicians from China and the Middle East, musical bridges were created between new compositions, traditional Arabic rhythms and well-known works of European classical music.

In this way, different cultural traditions were combined to create a multi-layered musical work that also reflected the urban soundscape of the present day. The classical string orchestra was augmented by the sounds of pipa and nay as well as traditional percussion instruments such as riqq, darbuka and frame drums. Quarter tones, unusual rhythms and melismatic melody lines lent the music additional nuances. The western saxophone provided a special contrast. It stands for the world of jazz, which has always absorbed influences from different traditions. At the same time, it embodies the principle of spontaneous musical invention, of improvisation, which is central to many Eastern musical traditions and has been given a new role in jazz.

This year, the Hirschmann Masterclass will focus on wind instruments and an in-depth exploration of African music traditions is planned for 2027. Registrations are still possible: https://locartium.ch/de/progr/worlds-beyond-2026-brassology

The free improvisation lasted forty minutes, a long time for an amateur ensemble that has only been playing this music for three years. The participants, four women and one man, made the instruments in the room resound in a variety of ways. It was not «their» instruments that they played, and so it is not possible to speak of playing in the usual sense of mastery. Rather, it was a joint journey of discovery, in which they were supported by two professionals, Peter Schärli on trumpet and Sylwia Zytynska on percussion. It all integrated effortlessly, creating a whole, which the five of them were amazed - and touched - by in conversation afterwards.

In this over 65s improv ensemble called Ad libitum, people from different backgrounds have come together with the common desire to make music, to finally play the instrument they have wanted all their lives. The result, which could be experienced as part of the «Atelier Création» festival, sounded promising and the project is recommended for imitation. As Zytynska, the artistic director, writes in the introduction to the program, it is about a place «where the focus is not on ability or knowledge, but on curiosity, presence and the willingness to listen and participate». And this was passed on to the audience on the first evening of the festival.

On the following day, the young generation performed, the ImproNext ensemble, which has existed at the Basel music school for a long time. The project is carried out every year in two age groups (12-15 and 15-19 years) - under the direction of Zytynska and violinist Egidius Streiff. The concept improvisation shown by the young people At the pulse of the city led to completely different sound spaces. Sound engineer Małgorzata Albińska Frank mixed in concrete sounds and noises from the urban working environment. A multi-layered soundscape revolved in the room. Perhaps one or the other of the participants will later make their way into the world of music, or perhaps they will «only» (but that is so much) go out into the world with an intense experience and open ears. On the trail of creativity.

Listening Switzerland and Stellwerk as partners

One of the key features of this «Atelier Création» is the focus on the musical creativity of amateurs at the various interfaces (also known as "breaking points") to professionalism. The small Basel festival, which took place for the first time on the last weekend in May, deliberately left the campus of the Music Academy, the initiator and sponsor of the event, and sought out another place of creativity. Since 2010, the creative industry has moved into the cramped premises of the Stellwerk in St. Johann station. The Perron restaurant offers a small concert stage. As the host, the manager of the Stellwerk association, Xenia Fünfschilling, was also involved in the festival's program group, so the location was taken into consideration and contributed to the success of the event.

As Sylwia Zytynska is also the founder and artistic project manager of «Zuhören Schweiz», this association also played an important role. The «Hörminuten», silent moments of pause and attention - a genuine project of the association - opened the «Atelier Création» and were performed by young people and children in the middle of the city. In addition to the aforementioned performances, there was also a ceremonial dinner with musical interludes.

Showcase for the composition workshop

However, the actual starting point for this mini-festival was «Composition Plus», a workshop for young composers, which took place for the fifth time this year, led by composer Lukas Langlotz and conductor Matthias Kuhn. Until now, the year-long course has been completed internally. To make it more public, the «Atelier Création» was created, where the results of the «Songwriting» workshop under the direction of Anna Hirsch could also be heard. For both courses, professional accompanying ensembles were available to the amateurs on all working days and for the final concert. After all, it is essential that they check what they have thought up in their heads and put into the score while listening and correct it if necessary.

It was an incredibly stimulating atmosphere that could be experienced during the three working days or studios of «Komposition Plus». A process was set in motion. The participants brought their scores with them, were able to listen to them in full or in excerpts, discuss them with the two directors and the musicians and then continue to work on them. «It's something that the student composers hardly experience anywhere else, so it's a specialty of our Basel music school,» says Lukas Langlotz, pointing out that only the Young Composers Project at Künstlerhaus Boswil offers something similar.

Here you can want to be heard

One of the participants said that this was precisely what appealed to him and helped him to progress: Ronan Hughes, a geographer by profession, attended the workshops from the very beginning and benefited enormously. His powerful and clearly formed piece also testified to this Might. An extravagant line-up with trumpet, trombone, tuba, double bass and percussion was specified. It was challenging and led the five of them to very different solutions. Marcus Schmied, who works as a percussion teacher at the Gymnasium Leonhard, listened suggestively to the overtones and their Proportions inside. Tanja Bippus-Jäger, who has been working as an interdisciplinary artist for some time now, has developed a groovy and varied piece called G for God and G for Goethe. Caner Öztas and Gion Pinösch, on the other hand, the youngest, both about to graduate from high school, presented a very appealing piece of music: Öztas, by playing for Homesickness the instruments wandered through the room, and Pinösch, by playing in Departure reacted to the world situation and let his music end in peace. It all sounded very fresh - and also carried by the desire to stand out and be heard. Yes, that too is a moment that amateurs often don't quite dare to do: want to be heard.

https://www.musikschule-basel.ch/de/angebot/atelier-creation.html

Transparency note: The author took on a moderating role at the event and wrote an essay for the program booklet, so he is definitely committed to the project. However, it simply seems too valuable to him for it to go unmentioned.

The percussionist, composer and curator Alexandre Babel was a member of the KNM Berlin ensemble and artistic director of the Eklekto Geneva Percussion Center. He develops projects that question the expectations of the audience in terms of conquering new contexts. In 2021 he was awarded the Swiss Music Prize.

Joan Jordi Oliver is a saxophonist, composer and curator. He is currently artistic director of the ensemble TaG Neue Musik Winterthur and curates the concert series «Strom am Mittag» as well as various projects at the interface of contemporary, experimental and electronic music.

The new co-directors succeed Matthias Arter and Andri Hardmeier, who have been responsible for the artistic profile of the CNZ and have decisively shaped and further developed it in recent years with new formats and concert series.

Table of contents

Focus

Lucky charm at the nursing bed
Interview. Musikspitex provides soul nourishment at home or in nursing homes. In one-to-one concerts, Mirjam Toews and her team turn their attention to people who are weakened, suffering from dementia or dying. An activation specialist and a relative confirm how touching this is. And we experience it with Mr. J.

Happier with Music
It's not that easy to increase your life satisfaction. Music can contribute to this, provided you listen to it with this intention. At least that's what an American double study has found.

Between satirical chanson and Fun Rock
Music and humor go well together. This was already known in ancient times, and even today artists make audiences happy with this combination. A few examples from French-speaking Switzerland.

An encouragement to sing in everyday life
The author sees unintentional, self-forgetful singing as a human right and encourages us to recapture this often lost happiness.

On the silken thread of happiness
Hard work, talent, perseverance and a pinch of people skills are the basic requirements for a successful career. However, it rarely works entirely without lucky coincidences. Led by our author, musicians report on favorable circumstances and the art of making the most of them.
Quotes from Janine Cathrein, Valeria Curti, Nicole Johänntgen, Joana Aderi, Richard Köchli, Simon Borer, Veronica Fusaro, Nik Bärtsch and Gini Jungi in full length

(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.

Kian Soltani au sommet
Considéré comme l'un des meilleurs violoncellistes de sa génération, il est un invité régulier des festivals les plus prestigieux. Returning to the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, Kian Soltani gave a highly acclaimed performance of Boccherini, with the complicity of the Camerata Salzburg. Entretien.

L'éternel jeu cristallin
De passion à surprise, du classique à la pop, du décloisonnement au grand écran
During the first season of the Grand Récital, on April 25th, Martha Argerich and Dong Hyek Lim played with passion and serenity, absolute complicity, with Martha Argerich's eternal crystal game. At the Cinémathèque, the pianist Lucas Debargue improvised on «Le Fantôme de l'Opéra».

Message: Erika Radermacher turns ninety 

Approaches to the cosmos
The Interfinity Festival in Basel has established itself in just a few years as a successful series of events that aims to combine music and science. The 2026 edition took place from March 7 to 20 under the motto «Exoplanets & Cosmos».

Shaping the future of art music
This year's edition of Classical:Next, the world's largest symposium for classical and contemporary music, took place in Budapest. Swiss participation was marginal.

SGNM: End of an institution
After thirty years, the Swiss Society for Contemporary Music hands over its mandate as ISCM Switzerland to Schweizer Musikedition. A look back at the history, crises and achievements of an association with a small budget and a large sphere of influence.

Baroque music from Switzerland? Absolutely!
Johann Melchior Gletle was born 400 years ago in Bremgarten in the canton of Aargau. His career took him to Augsburg as an organist and cathedral choirmaster.

A new concert hall for Altdorf
Since the winters have become warmer and the ski slopes shorter, the mountain regions have discovered summer tourism and with it, culture. Andreas Haefliger wants to convert the old arsenal in the cantonal capital of Uri for this purpose.

A house of folk music for everyone
Carte blanche for Markus Brülisauer

News: Fabian Renz becomes new SMZ Editor-in-Chief

A resonance chamber for Zurich's classical talents
The support landscape for young musicians in the canton of Zurich has been enriched by a new platform: «Zurich Youth Classical» ZYC aims to be more than just a competition. The artistic personality should take center stage.

Base

Articles and news from the music associations

Music education Switzerland

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

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

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)

 

Hans in Luck
Puzzle by Thomas Meyer

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Order issue for CHF 12.- (+ CHF 2.- shipping costs)

The quotes are listed in alphabetical order of first names. Hanspeter Künzler asked the musicians in the spring about «sliding doors moments» where chance and luck gave important new impetus to the path.

Gini Jungi (Annie Taylor)

Cool topic ... one that accompanies me almost every day, because I actually always have an incredible amount of «luck».

I've had a few thoughts on this and somehow I always end up with the same thing: Happiness is very often just around the corner, but you also have to be ready for it, see it and accept it.

Many moments when I was probably «lucky» also had to do with a lot of resilience, work and persistence. After all, it's not said for nothing: «Every man is the architect of his own fortune.» Because nobody was waiting for you, and you have to be proactive in order to take advantage of opportunities that could also be declared as «luck».

For example: When I really wanted a US booking, I wrote to my current agent that I would be in L.A. next week and asked if he would go for a coffee with me. I didn't have a ticket to L.A. and no vacation planned. When I got lucky and he wrote «Yes, why not», I booked myself a ticket and flew to L.A. ... We've now played three US tours - lucky, but also proactive.

Otherwise, I would say that my «sliding moment» was as follows:

A friend asked me if I could draw a banner for the kebab stand where he was helping out in the summer. The stand with the banner was set up at the Zurich Openair and I was given Openair tickets as payment. So I stood there, not knowing that this evening would set everything in motion. I went to see a few bands and finally ended up at a concert by a band I had discovered a few weeks earlier on KEXP. Wolf Alice. After the concert, I knew I had to form a band so that one day we could support Wolf Alice. That looks like fun, that's what I want to do. And so it was.

On May 22 is the new album by Annie Taylor published.

Janine Cathrein (Black Sea Dahu)

I would like to answer without thinking it through to death: I came home from summer camp, where I had learned a few guitar chords for the first time. I was pissed off and just a few days later my dad came home with a guitar in his hand that he had seen by chance at a street flea market for 50 francs when he was on an assembly job, he was an interior decorator. What a stroke of luck that was for me, what an inspiration, and how nice that my dad immediately fed my passion for playing the guitar without hesitation.

Joana Aderi (composer, musician)

Personality-wise, I tend to immediately accept the reality on the other side of the sliding doors as the new normal. In retrospect, it then seems completely obvious to me that I slipped through these doors and everything turned out that way ... So no concise feelings of coincidence on my part.

However, there was an absolutely key moment in the process of prolonged psychotherapy. Namely, when my whole body deeply understood that self-worth and music can be decoupled. Since that day, I have really enjoyed exposing myself musically; before that, it was often associated with suffering.

Nicole Johänntgen (saxophonist)

In mid-August 2025, I was invited to give a talk on happiness. I had been working intensively on happiness and its meaning for around six months. I often use the phrase «But now I've been lucky in everyday moments. For me, there are different moments of happiness. I relate it to my vocation. I am a jazz musician and I love exploring my instrument and being able to pass on my love of music to other people through music.

I'm currently on tour in the south of France and Andalusia and the feedback to all my fellow musicians is that we look so happy, but we're also doing a balancing act between our socio-political situation and the lightness in our playing. We «succeed» in taking people with us. I experience this happiness at every concert. We practise and practise, but there is an energy that you can't practise, but which runs through the room like a magical thread. That's what I call luck and what is due will come to you at some point. Something I can't describe in words.

Nevertheless, I had two key experiences that brought me closer to this happiness, to feeling the power of music, the art of it and passing it on. I was still studying when I was invited to take part in the IASJ (International Association of Schools of Jazz) as a saxophonist in Helsinki. Under the direction of David Liebman, many jazz musicians came together, were divided into groups and played together. And then there was this one moment. I was playing in a band with the US drummer Brandon Lewis. We were playing a jazz standard and that's when it happened. I fell into a trance. I can only remember when I suddenly woke up. That was the end of the saxophone drum solo. I don't remember what happened in those two or three minutes? But it was so breathtaking that I realized I wanted to do that. For me, that was a very strong and concrete feeling of happiness in the music.

The same thing happened to me five years later. Again in the improv bath with drums and saxophone. And then I realized that something was happening. That's when I knew it was no longer a coincidence, it was meant to be. And this energy that was building up was reflected in the audience. A pure trance state.

Nik Bärtsch (Ronin, Mobile, solo piano)

 I would like to quote bandleader Pepe Lienhard: «When luck comes, you have to be ready.» I can't think of a moment that was pure luck. Fate is more likely, the interplay of preparation, intuition and forces beyond my control. We also often confuse fate and luck. Who knows what these forces are, whether they are real at all? Defensive people call luck privilege and creative people call luck opportunity.

Richard Köchli (blues musician, author)

I would start by saying that, as a devout Christian, there are two levels to this for me - it doesn't sound very spectacular or sexy: I am completely convinced and have experienced time and time again that «sliding doors moments» happen every day, even at work and especially on stage - the epitome of acting in the here and now. I have experienced so many such moments where I felt carried, inspired and free on stage, even though there was not the slightest reason for this (such as so-called «self-confidence»), only fear and uncertainty. So luck and coincidence in heaps; every successful, touching note (on guitar as well as vocals) is - I never play songs the same way twice - basically luck and coincidence. And just ... it's not my own merit.

Three examples from my career where, due to lucky coincidences - and because of wonderful people who orchestrated it - there was a real jolt:

Example 1)
Polo Hofer. I came to Polo's attention in the late 1990s (I think it was a recommendation from Hank Shizzoe) and we met two or three times on stage and in the studio. Polo made me understand that I was an «artist» in his eyes (a good portion of honey, I enjoyed it); he also mentioned my name a few times in the media - and at some point in the early 2000s, in an interview for the renowned cultural supplement of a major daily newspaper, he had to answer various smart-aleck questions. One of them was: «Züri West or Patent Ochsner?» Polo, quick-witted as he was, answered: «Richard Koechli» ... That was the accolade for me in the scene.

Example 2)
At a blues concert in Lucerne, I think at the end of the 1990s, I was given the opportunity to spontaneously play slide guitar for one or two songs with renowned US bluesman Larry Garner. Larry said to me on stage afterwards: «I won't remember your name or your face - but I'll never forget your slide guitar.» That was my personal accolade in the blues scene; from then on I knew: «With the slide guitar (and only with it) you can play freely on any stage and in any context in the world at eye level. It's your joker.»

Example 3)
Especially at the beginning of my career - when I wasn't yet a singer and «only» worked instrumentally - I always dreamed of getting interesting jobs in the film music scene. I didn't have the slightest idea how I could open a door there (virtually every slide guitar job in the film and advertising industry at the time went to Max Lässer, and rightly so), and nothing at all happened for me in that direction. Almost 20 years later (2012), when I had long since stopped thinking about the film music dream, I suddenly received a request from Peter Von Siebenthal (ex-Züri West) - Peter was now a renowned film music producer and he was looking for blues music for a feature film. The project wasn't concrete yet; I sent him a few recordings of mine, then heard nothing more for a year - and then, I had already forgotten about the whole thing, I got the promise: you're playing guitar music for the film adaptation of Pedro Lenz's successful novel The goalie is ig. That in itself was a highlight for me - working with Peter was so relaxed, inspiring and free that I felt almost outrageous: I improvised to running movie scenes and had never before (and never since) earned such good money in such a playful way. But the real scoop came afterwards - when this film won the Swiss Film Awards in 2014 and we also received an award for the film music. By the way, one of us had to give the acceptance speech; Peter didn't want to under any circumstances, and I - as a stutterer - resorted to the trick of giving the speech in song (https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/kultur-extras/video/beste-filmmusik-peter-von-siebenthal-und-richard-koechli?urn=urn:srf:video:3c6a76a8-3e78-4061-84df-306493765c63). That became the attraction of the evening - everyone thought the Koechli was an incredibly original guy, haha, when it was just a (prepared) makeshift solution. Conclusion: I had long since given up on the movie music dream. If you give up on dreams, don't want to force anything and don't expect anything from fate - doors can suddenly open unexpectedly and you can, for example, win the Swiss Film Music Award with your first film music job. So for me, the formula «never stop dreaming» is definitely not true ...

All three examples show that these Sliding Doors moments are always and without exception made possible by people who do something for other people and give them a chance or «just» constructive feedback. This is human free will - God can only work through people and open doors. People don't have to play the game if they don't want to. However, every happy person tries to play this role - because they know that their happiness was only made possible by it.

Simon Borer (Long Tall Jefferson, Dandelion Honey)

Fai Baba and I knew each other more or less in passing from the music scene, having played at the same festival here or there over the years and briefly said hello, etc.

In late fall 2021, we got to know each other a little better at Till Ostendarp's big «BlauBlau Alle Sterne» in the attic of the Reitschule Bern. And then we arranged to meet in my studio on December 21, 2021 to hang out and play guitar. When we went down to the basement together, I quickly realized that my studio partner Paul Märki was stupidly already there - I had forgotten to make a reservation in our studio calendar, so stupid!

A little embarrassed, I introduce Paul and Fai to each other. While Paul packs up his things, Fai starts playing his guitar and we make small talk. Somehow the idea arises that the three of us could spontaneously record something together. Paul sits down on the drums, I take the bass and off we go. A few hours later, we walk out of the studio excited and a little incredulous with a finished instrumental tune called Winter Solstice.

Over the Christmas period, we proudly showed this music to our family and friends and they were delighted with it. So we had to get together again and see if it would work again - and it did! That's how our debut album came about Dandelion honey. We couldn't imagine what was still to come.

Next week we're going on another European tour with our second album Cherry blossom boogie, this time all the way to England. The show in London has been sold out for weeks. None of this would have happened if I had made a reservation in the studio calendar in December 2021.

Valeria Curti (solo bassoonist, lecturer)

I often ask myself why I am where I am in my career: lecturer at the Bern University of the Arts and solo bassoonist at the Musikkollegium Winterthur. Where would I be today if other doors had been opened to me?

I invested a lot in my training, especially between the ages of 14 and 25, I spent many hours with my instrument, the bassoon, filming, analyzing and improving myself every day.

Today I know that this investment alone would not have been enough. In mathematics there is right or wrong - in classical music, in art in general, it's all a bit more complicated ...

When I was 19 years old, I auditioned for the internship at the Musikkollegium Winterthur and was «lucky» that my playing suited the musical taste of the jury - especially that of the solo bassoonist at the time. I think he heard something in my playing that touched him. Of course, you shouldn't forget that I wasn't shortlisted for several other auditions before and after that moment.

I immediately felt very comfortable in the woodwind section of the Musikkollegium and was able to blend in well - the chemistry was right! And so it happened that I was able to develop musically and personally at the Musikkollegium Winterthur alongside my mentor. Three years later, the orchestra's second bassoonist, who had held the position for more than 30 years, «fortunately» retired and I managed to beat all the others at the audition.

Although I felt comfortable in the second bassoon position, I clearly felt that I wanted to show the world more of myself and my musical personality, and I auditioned for solo bassoon positions in Lugano and Munich - without success.

My career stepping stone was the result of a very sad event: My colleague, my mentor and role model, fell seriously ill and died the following year. He was not only the solo bassoonist at the Musikkollegium Winterthur, but also a lecturer at the Bern University of the Arts. And so it happened that I was able to follow in his footsteps after various procedures, both in Bern and in Winterthur. Sometimes it's difficult for me to play in his place because, depending on the piece, memories of him come up that make me sad. But now and then it happens that I don't play short passages like «me», but unconsciously like «him», for example in Brahms symphonies, which I have played alongside him several times and have unconsciously absorbed his style of playing. These moments then slip out of my mouth, so to speak. That often makes me smile.

I wish he was still sitting in his chair in Winterthur today and inspiring us all with his playing. I would simply have taken a different path and would probably be making and/or teaching my music somewhere else today, because I invested enough in it in my youth and today I have resources to fall back on, also thanks to my parents, who made this path possible for me.

Addendum from May 18: Just two days ago, my CV changed. I won an audition and will be playing as a solo bassoonist in the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome from next season.

Veronica Fusaro (singer, songwriter - recorded before her ESC performance)

I'm sitting in the make-up chair right now and have a minute to answer you 🙂 I don't believe in the one decisive sliding-doors moment when everything suddenly tips over. Looking back, it's more the sum of many small decisions, encounters and experiences that have shaped my path. These individual steps have gradually confirmed and strengthened me in what I do today. But what's exciting is that right now I have the feeling that a lot of things are condensing and suddenly becoming clearer, as if these developments are now coming together to form a bigger picture.

 

The dynamics that are becoming visible at European level and are reflected in the european Study affect Switzerland in a special way. This is because the mechanisms that decide which music is listened to are also at work here, but in a market that is additionally fragmented by several language areas.

Algorithms decide what is heard

Streaming platforms are the most important access point to music today. Which songs are visible there depends heavily on algorithmic recommendations and curated playlists.

These systems are primarily geared towards existing listening habits and global trends. This effect is reinforced by the market structure: a large proportion of the curated content is controlled at the international headquarters of the streaming providers, often without in-depth knowledge of local scenes or cultural contexts.

As a result, attention is concentrated on already successful content, while new, local or linguistically less widespread music has a much harder time reaching an audience.

Language areas as invisible borders

A key result of the study confirms this: Language acts like a structural filter in the digital space. Users predominantly move within their own language spaces, so-called «language silos».

This has a direct impact on visibility: content in smaller languages is much less likely to be recommended and distributed than content in globally dominant languages.

English-language songs from Switzerland are not treated as «Swiss music» by the platforms, but as part of the global English-language offering. They therefore compete directly with millions of international releases - which makes their visibility even more difficult.

This dynamic is particularly relevant for Switzerland. With four national languages, a small market meets several cultural areas. What is evident on a large scale in Europe is condensed on a small scale in Switzerland: Diversity exists - but it is distributed across separate spaces of perception.

More supply does not mean more presence

The number of available songs is growing rapidly. At the same time, a large proportion of them remain practically invisible. The study proves it: Being online alone is not enough. The decisive factor is whether music is found at all.

In addition, there is a development that further exacerbates this dynamic: the use of artificial intelligence is increasing the amount of music produced even more. The result is a

additional intensification of the competition for attention.

This shifts the central question: no longer «Is enough being produced?», but «Who is being heard?»

Visibility as a cultural policy issue

The results underline the fact that cultural diversity does not automatically arise in the digital environment. In addition to platforms, curated formats, media and targeted promotion continue to play an important role in making different voices visible.

IndieSuisse, SONART and the umbrella organization Swiss Music Council are therefore increasingly addressing the question of how visibility can be strengthened in the digital space in an exchange with platforms, media and politics.

The audience also shapes what becomes visible

However, it is not only algorithms that determine visibility, but also user behavior. A large proportion of usage is based on predefined recommendations,
Trends or automated playlists. Active searches for new or unknown music are comparatively rare.

If you make conscious choices and don't just leave your enjoyment of music to the algorithms, you have a direct influence on what content becomes visible and spreads.

Opportunities to make Swiss diversity audible:

• Search specifically for Swiss music - instead of just relying on automatic recommendations
• Create and share your own playlists
• Use curated offers, such as playlists from labels or media (e.g. «IndieSuisseMonday #fresh»)
• Consciously recommend music

A topic with growing relevance

The question of the discoverability of cultural content is increasingly becoming a central challenge for culture, media and politics. As digitalization progresses, attention is shifting from production to distribution - and thus to the question of who becomes visible at all.

At the same time, technological developments such as algorithmic recommendation systems and generative artificial intelligence are reinforcing existing dynamics. Without targeted countermeasures, the diversity of cultural forms of expression in the digital space is increasingly at risk of being lost.

What the European study shows is therefore more than just a snapshot:
The visibility of music is becoming a central prerequisite for cultural diversity to actually take place.

IndieSuisse, SONART and the umbrella organization Swiss Music Council call on politicians and administrators to provide suitable framework conditions and contemporary regulatory responses in order to effectively counter this undesirable economic and cultural policy development.

 

This text is the Media release of the Swiss Music Council dated June 1, 2026

Compositions from the last 25 years provided a lively insight into her rich chamber music oeuvre. The program included five works: the much-played flute solo Mouvement from 1999, the spiky-virtuoso Scène I for violin and violoncello, the piano solo Daphne's song, composed in 2002 for Massimiliano Damerini and the Venice Biennale, premiered at the Bern Music Festival 2023 Canzona ad astra for baritone, clarinet and violoncello on text fragments by the astronomer Johannes Kepler, as well as a world premiere, A Dialogue between the Soul and Body, a composition commissioned by the Academy.

The new work is based on a text by the English baroque poet and politician Andrew Marvell, who describes the contradictions between body and soul as a conflict-ridden togetherness and opposition with no way out. A timelessly topical subject, not only for today's psychologists. The text inspired the composer to create a declamatory, gestural duet in the form of speech and counter-speech, with the interlocking voices supported by the five instruments in a lively commentary. With Maud Niklas (soprano), Robert Koller (baritone) and the musicians of the Munich ensemble der/gelbe/klang under the direction of Peter Hirsch, the work was a great success with the audience.

In a half-hour conversation with composer and academy member Nikolaus Brass, Bettina Skrzypczak also had the opportunity to talk at length about her works and her artistic views.

Link to the event