With "Förderung konkret", a new handbook is now available that provides guidance on funding practice. According to the canton's press release, a key component is the procedure in addition to the funding requirements and criteria. The most important change is that there are now only two submission deadlines for applications of CHF 10,000 or more - at the end of February and the end of August. Smaller project contributions can still be applied for on an ongoing basis.

The second part of the cultural concept is the "Perspectives" section, which reflects on the focal points of the last cultural concept and contains an overview of the resources used. The second part also captures the voices of various cultural stakeholders. They formulate their perspectives on cultural promotion in the coming years. Pictures by Bühler-based artist Regula Engeler give the publication a further perspective.

More info:
https://ar.ch/schnellzugriff/medienmitteilungen-der-kantonalen-verwaltung/detail/news/das-fuenfte-kulturkonzept-gibt-impulse-fuer-die-zukunft/

Lietha's politically incisive songs and virtuoso music enriched the attitude to life of three generations, writes the canton of Graubünden. As a publisher and passionate book collector, he "made a significant contribution to the preservation of Graubünden's cultural and artistic history".

Walter Lietha, born in Chur and raised for the most part in Graubünden, has written countless dialect songs as an author, poet, interpreter and critic of the times. In the 1980s, he worked with Max Lässer in the Lietha-Lässer band, which included Corin Curschellas, Joel Reiff, Sal Celli and Pedro Haldemann. Today he is also active as an antiquarian bookseller and director of Calven Verlag in Chur, and has been running his own antiquarian bookshop "Das Narrenschiff" for several years.

The jazz musician Rolf Caflisch receives a recognition award. He is "a virtuoso jazz drummer and a gifted string-puller of jazz in Graubünden". Thanks to him, there is "jazz from and for Chur and Graubünden that shines far beyond the canton". Sponsorship awards go to folk musician Anita Dachauer, performer Livia Rita Heim and pianist, composer, singer and performer Cinzia Regensburger, among others.

Born in 1963, Jojo Mayer is largely self-taught. He received his first permanent engagement with Monty Alexander's band at the age of 18 and toured extensively throughout Europe at jazz festivals such as Montreux, Nice and Athens. This career start led to collaborations with jazz greats such as Dizzy Gillespie and Nina Simone. In 1991, he moved to New York and shortly afterwards became a member of the experimental rock band Screaming Headless Torsos.

Jojo Mayer later led the movement of an entire generation of drummers who recreated machine sounds on acoustic instruments. In his career, he has "explored the limits of what can be played, renewed percussion playing and thereby established himself as one of the most innovative and globally influential percussionists of his generation", writes the Canton of Zurich.

A 2025 Medal of Honor will also be awarded to the literary figure Ilma Rakusa and the actress Heidi Diggelmann. The Golden Medal of Honor is awarded "in recognition of the life's work of an exceptional literary figure and intellectual who has left her mark on Zurich's cultural landscape and will continue to do so".

With this program, the Confederation is implementing the requirement of Art. 67a para. 3 of the Federal Constitution that musically talented people are to receive special support. In collaboration with the Appenzell music school and a representative of the music department of the St. Antonius Appenzell grammar school, the cultural office has designed the program for the canton and is now implementing it, according to a press release.

The grants are between CHF 1,000 and 2,500 per year, depending on the level of support a talent is at. The grants are linked to requirements. For example, the recipients must take additional lessons in their main subject and additional lessons in music theory or ensemble playing.

The program will be implemented from the 2025/2026 school year and is designed in such a way that the beneficiaries can attend as many local events as possible. Details of the program can be found online at www.ai.ch/junge-talente-musik.

Born in Germany in 1971, Markus Poschner has been Chief Conductor of the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana since 2015 and Chief Conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz since 2017. From this year, he will lead the Basel Symphony Orchestra as chief conductor. He has signed a five-year contract. He will not extend his contract with the Bruckner Orchestra, which runs until 2027. At the start of the 2027/28 season, he will also become Principal Conductor of the Utah Symphony Orchestra.

The RSO Vienna emerged from the Great Orchestra of the Austrian Radio in 1969. Marin Alsop has been Chief Conductor since September 2019. The orchestra is currently recording complete editions of Anton Bruckner's symphonies (with Markus Poschner) and all solo concertos by Mozart, Saint-Saëns and Goltermann in cooperation with the Swiss Orpheum Foundation for the Promotion of Musical Talent.

With 15 percent more regular symphony and choir concerts, the orchestras are focusing more on their core business and stabilizing their own income, according to unisono. Chamber music, education programs and concerts abroad were reduced. These are the key findings of the first nationwide concert survey since the coronavirus pandemic.

The figures show that the orchestras and radio orchestras are once again running smoothly, in many places with pleasingly high capacity utilization, explains unisono Managing Director Gerald Mertens. However, increasing financial cuts in public funding are causing concern. If concert halls, operas and orchestras had to cancel their own productions and festivals, this would be counterproductive for healthy artistic development and for attracting more audiences.

Founded in 1952, unisono (until October 2022 the German Orchestra Association, DOV for short) is the professional association and trade union for musicians in municipal, state and regional orchestras, radio orchestras, big bands and for radio choir singers, freelance musicians as well as lecturers and students at music academies.

Mathis studied in Lucerne and Zurich and made her debut in 1957 at the age of 19 as the second boy in Mozart's "Magic Flute". From 1959 to 1963 she was a member of the ensemble at the Cologne Opera House, and from 1963 at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In addition to her commitment to the music of Mozart and Bach, she also took part in world premieres, including the opera "Der Zerrissene" by Gottfried von Einem in Hamburg in 1964 and "Der junge Lord" by Hans Werner Henze in Berlin in 1965.

From 1992 to 2006, she was Professor of Lied and Oratorio Interpretation at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. One of her students is Diana Damrau. Her numerous awards include the Mozart Medal of the International Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg, the Hans Reinhart Ring, the Art and Culture Prize of the City of Lucerne and the Prix Mondial du Disque. Edith Mathis has also held the title of Bavarian Kammersängerin since 1979.

On www.vs-myculture.ch applicants can now access the funding relevant to them directly via a filter system and receive all the information they need to submit an application before they even have to create a user account. This standardized platform thus bundles all important information for preparing a funding application and replaces the information sheets previously offered for each discipline or area.

With this new platform, "the Department of Culture is dynamizing its digital environment and reaffirming its commitment to accessibility and support for artistic and cultural creation in Valais", according to the press release.

To introduce the new features of this platform, online training sessions will be offered on Thursday, February 13, 2025 in French (17:00) and in German (18:00). Interested parties can register by e-mail at the following address: sc-encouragement@admin.vs.ch.

Daniel Dettwiler teaches music theory and is a lecturer in the minor Producing Composing Music - advanced at the ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts). He is the founder of the recording studio "Idee und Klang", which specializes in the production of acoustic music, especially jazz and film music.

Daniel Dettwiler is considered "one of the most sought-after sound engineers for film music recordings", writes the ZHdK. He works closely with the young generation of Swiss composers such as Michael Künstle and Matteo Pagamici, Jakob Eisenbach and Mirjam Schnedl. They all studied at the ZHdK.

Pardini holds a Master's degree in business history, economics and political science and has been completing an MAS in Nonprofit Management & Law since 2023. He was a member of the management board of IG Kultur Luzern for several years. He currently works as Head of Cultural Policy at the Swiss Association of Cities and in this role is Managing Director of the Culture Cities Conference.

Judith Christen and Verena Randall will continue to co-head the Culture and Sport Department ad interim until Gianluca Pardini takes up his position in mid-March 2025. Letizia Ineichen left the department at the end of December 2024 to take up a new position at the University of Teacher Education Graubünden.

The first prize, worth 60,000 francs, went to Qianchen Lu for her work "Nine Odes to the Night", the second, worth 25,000 francs, to Erqing Wang for "The Gaze of Nmemosyne" and the third, worth 10,000 francs, to Ramón Humet for "Bird in Space".

An audience award was presented for the first time, in which viewers of the live stream worldwide were able to take part alongside those present in Basel. The more than 600 participants chose "Nine Odes to the Night" by Qianchen Lu. The prize is endowed with 5000 francs. Qianchen Lu and Erqing Wang will also be included in the Universal Edition.

Qianchen Lu was born in Anhui, China, in 2000. She is studying at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music (2018-2023, Bachelor; 2024-ongoing, Master) in the class of Qian Shen-Ying. Her compositions span a wide range of genres, including vocal and choral music, instrumental solos, chamber music and large orchestral pieces.

Erqing Wang is a Chinese composer whose work spans orchestral and chamber music. He is currently studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz with Annesley Black. He was previously trained by the composers Wenchen Qin, Stratis Minakakis and Beat Furrer. Ramón Humet was born in Barcelona in 1968. He has been awarded the Olivier Messiaen International Composition Prize and the Queen Sofia Composition Prize, among others.

The company of cultural manager Christoph Müller organized the Basel Composition Competition for the first time in 2017 in collaboration with the Paul Sacher Foundation, which was co-initiated by Wolfgang Rihm, among others. Since 2019, the specially established Basel Composition Competition Foundation has been organizing the biennial competition.

According to the HMTM, Jürgen Ellensohn has most recently held a professorship at the Würzburg University of Music since 2019. He also taught as a professor at the Stella Vorarlberg Private University for Music (2022-2023) and at the Vorarlberg State Conservatory (2015-2019).

Jürgen Ellensohn was principal trumpet with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (hr-Sinfonieorchester) for 15 years. He held the same position with the Bern Symphony Orchestra from 2003 to 2005. To this day, he is a guest in many orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. He has also appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras, working with conductors such as Kirill Petrenko, Andrés Orozco-Estrada and Matthias Pintscher.

The researchers used the KIKI to compile a ranking list for the cantons of Switzerland. Based on the data for 2024, the canton of Zug takes first place with just under 60 out of 100 theoretically possible points, followed by Basel-Stadt and Zurich. The cantons of Vaud, Neuchâtel and Geneva are close behind in fourth to sixth place. This is followed by a broad midfield with scores between 31 and 41.

The KIKI consists of a weighted sum of 101 individual indicators that have been grouped into four thematic areas "Knowledge and Environment" and "Creation and Growth" with a total of eight thematic pillars. Data sources include the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), the Federal Finance Administration, the federal innovation agency Innosuisse, the OECD and the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property.

More info:
https://www.hslu.ch/de-ch/hochschule-luzern/ueber-uns/medien/medienmitteilungen/2025/01/29/kiki/

In the top 10, Joana Mallwitz (Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and the first woman to head one of Berlin's major orchestras), Nathalie Stutzmann, Kristiina Poska and Marie Jacquot (Principal Guest Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and, from 2026/27, the WDR Symphony Orchestra), who each hold a leading position in their respective organizations, have increased the number of their engagements by more than 80 percent.

Three young female conductors under the age of 30, Stephanie Childress, Nil Venditti and Ana María Pantiño-Osorio, have each more than doubled the number of engagements since 2023. 13 percent of all concerts listed in the Bachtrack database were conducted by women, compared to 11 percent in 2023. Nevertheless, male conductors are still clearly in the majority, and no woman has been in the top 20 in terms of engagements since 2019.

Bachtrack was founded in January 2008 and lists over 30,000 events every year. The annual Bachtrack classical music statistics are based exclusively on the events listed by the website. Although Bachtrack claims to be "the largest website for classical music", the entries are not complete and necessarily only represent a part of the overall picture.