The ring is awarded for life. The first recipient was Friedrich Cerha, who appointed Holliger as the next recipient before his death. A soundtrack with music by Berg is cast into the ring. The Alban Berg Foundation was established by Helene Berg in 1968 to preserve the memory and works of Alban Berg.

Heinz Holliger was born in Langenthal in 1939 and studied oboe and composition at the Bern Conservatory. From 1958, he continued his studies in Paris with Yvonne Lefébure (piano) and Pierre Pierlot (oboe). Between 1961 and 1963, he studied composition with Pierre Boulez at the Basel Academy of Music. After winning first prizes at international music competitions (Geneva 1959; ARD International Music Competition 1961), Holliger began an intensive international concert career as an oboist.

The new, transdisciplinary and transinstitutional ZKK, co-directed by Sylvia Sasse (UZH) and Judith Siegmund (ZHdK), is dedicated to the role of the arts and culture in contemporary social debates. By joining forces with the ZHdK, joint projects in research and teaching are to be encouraged and promoted. With the ZHdK, the arts and their theories are now entering into a new kind of dialog with university science. Artistic practice and the theories of the arts will provide new perspectives and unforeseeable collaborations.

This also includes the establishment of a bridge professorship for Digital Cultures and Arts, which will be filled by image and media scholar Roland Meyer from 1 July 2024 as part of the digitization initiative of the Zurich universities (DIZH). Meyer will research and teach at both the UZH and the ZHdK. His areas of focus include algorithmically networked image cultures, operative images of facial and pattern recognition, forensic image practices, generative AI and synthetic media as well as new body and perception relationships in medially expanded spaces. During the kick-off, he will co-moderate the panel "Art With/Against AI".

The kick-off event on May 24, 2024 at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich will be dedicated to this cross-university collaboration: lectures and discussions will present artistic and cultural-theoretical approaches to pressing contemporary issues.

More info: https://www.zkk.uzh.ch/de.html

In addition to the main prize, Zurflüh won the prizes for the best song interpretation (1500 euros), the best aria interpretation (1500 euros) and a concert engagement with the Beethoven Philharmonic Orchestra (1000 euros). The jury consisted of Kammersängerin Angelika Kirchschlager (chair) as well as Thomas Böckstiegel, Samantha Farber, Franziska M. Kaiser, Michael Linsbauer, Sebastian Schwarz, Daniela Spering and Justus Zeyen.

Chelsea Marilyn Zurflüh grew up in Pieterlen. She completed her Master of Arts at the Bern University of the Arts with the highest grade. She has been a member of the International Opera Studio in Zurich since September 2021. She was first prize winner of the Marianne & Curt Dienemann Foundation Music Competition, winner of the Migros Culture Percentage Singing Competition, the Kiefer-Hablitzel/Göhner Music Competition and first prize winner of the Elvirissima Singing Competition.

The new study "Value Creation of the Music Industry in Austria 2024" shows that around 117,000 jobs are directly and indirectly linked to the Austrian music industry - that is as many jobs as in the entire mechanical engineering sector and significantly more than in the IT or financial sector. It generates fiscal effects amounting to 4.35 billion euros, or around 2.8 percent of Austria's GDP.

The study was commissioned by the Austrian Film and Music Industry Association, the Association of the Austrian Music Industry - IFPI Austria and the music collecting society AKM in order to identify and rectify a glaring statistical problem: The music industry has so far lacked a clear classification in the political and economic system.

More info:
https://www.akm.at/studie-zur-wertschoepfung-der-musikwirtschaft-in-oesterreich-2024

Flavian Graber comes from Liestal and already has an impressive career behind him: over 500 concerts have taken him to festival stages in Switzerland and Europe. His successes include five studio albums and various TV and radio appearances. His songs have also found their way into the soundtracks of several films. After twelve years of English-language indie pop, he switched to a solo career with dialect singing, accompanied by guitar or piano.

Graber has hosted the "SongwriterCircle" at the Palazzo Theater in Liestal since 2020. The aim of the format is to promote songwriting and the exchange of ideas between musicians in the region. He also initiated the "Hiking Concerts", where concert guests hike with the artist while listening to his dialect songs and the sounds of nature. These events range from sunrise hikes and matinees followed by lunch to evening walks with views over the city or hikes through the vineyards with wine tasting.

Albrecht studied at the Academy for School and Church Music in Lucerne, graduating in 1987 with professional diplomas in organ and choir conducting. After a further year of study in Vienna, he obtained his concert diploma for organ with distinction in 1991 under Monika Henking at what is now the Lucerne School of Music, where he has been a lecturer in conducting (choral conducting) and score playing since 1989. In 1996, Stefan Albrecht took over from his father Roman Albrecht and has been working as a church musician in the parish of Ingenbohl-Brunnen ever since. He conducts the Singkreis Brunnen, the Allegro children's choir, the Schwyz-Brunnen orchestra, the Brunnen orchestra, the Urschweizer Kammerensemble and, since 1992, the Engadiner Kantorei. He also conducted the Schwyz Youth Orchestra from 2015-2023.

The Mauz Music Club, which has existed since 2017 under the direction of André Kälin and Astrid Gerber, is a concert and cultural venue in Einsiedeln. Pirmin Huber studied jazz at the Lucerne School of Music and has established himself in contemporary new Swiss folk music and electronic music.

Stefan Albrecht receives a prize of 10,000 francs. The cultural sponsorship prizes for the Mauz Music Club and Pirmin Huber are endowed with 5,000 francs each.

The majority of the BKK thus follows the position of the Government Council. The development of a counter-proposal, which would have included an improvement in social security for cultural workers, failed because the demands of the initiative were not specific enough for an alternative proposal.

The Government Council is of the opinion that the implementation of the "tipping initiative" and the renewal of the cultural partnership with the canton of Basel-Landschaft as of 2022 have already introduced measures that significantly improve the conditions for independent music-making in the canton. It wants to wait and see their effect before deciding on further measures and recommends rejecting the initiative without a counter-proposal.

The trio consists of Matilde Michelozzi (cello), Emanuele Brilli (violin) and Sergio Costa (piano), who are studying chamber music with Patrick Jüdt in the Specialized Master's programme. Their mentor is Daniel Sepec, who will teach and rehearse with the trio in a course open to the public at the university.

The BUA announces further successes: Leo Cudré-Mauroux, Bachelor student in Patricia Pagny's piano class, has won 4th prize in the "American virtuoso international competition" and will play in the prizewinners' concert at Carnegie Hall in New York in September. Francisco Morais Fernandes, a student in Antoine Françoise's piano class, is one of the three current winners of the Fritz Gerber Award, which was established in 2015 by the Fritz Gerber Foundation and the Lucerne Festival.

According to the canton, the 2030 cultural strategy is flexible and adaptable. It was presented to the cultural partners and will be implemented together with all internal and external stakeholders in the canton of Valais.

In 2021 and 2022, 54 of 143 applications submitted in Valais were supported (34 in 2021, 20 in 2022). In total, the canton awarded just over CHF 7 million to cultural enterprises in Valais as part of transformation projects. Funding was provided in equal parts by the federal government and the canton.

More info

The team investigated the extent to which personal preferences for certain singing voices can be attributed to objective characteristics such as pitch accuracy or tempo and the extent to which the personal situation or individual characteristics determine preferences. To this end, they surveyed 326 people online and a further 42 in the Institute's laboratories.

In the introductory online experiment, a total of 96 a cappella vocal performances by 16 trained singers were rated according to personal preference. The evaluation showed that there was a wide range of liking and that there were major individual differences in the preferences of the test subjects. However, the team also found similarities in the average ratings, which in their opinion were - at least in part - due to the acoustic characteristics of the voices themselves.

However, this assumption was not confirmed after closer examination: the acoustic characteristics could only explain the ratings to a small extent. Instead, it was found that the preferences for certain voices were explained by the way in which the voices were perceived and interpreted by the listeners themselves.

Original publication:
Bruder, C., Poeppel, D., & Larrouy-Maestri, P. (2024). Perceptual (But Not Acoustic) Features Predict Singing Voice Preferences. Scientific Reports, 14,8977. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-58924-9

The ticket tax has been levied in the city of Lucerne since 1920 and contributes to a large extent to the funds available for the promotion of culture and sport in the city. Since 1990, there have been regulations governing the earmarked use of ticket tax revenue. Thus, 15 percent each goes to the fund for the promotion and support of cultural activities and to the fund for the promotion of youth sports. The remaining 70 percent is earmarked for various cultural and sports promotion purposes (cultural part 2/3 and sports part 1/3).

According to the city's press release, the implementation of the various measures, including the promotion of diverse cultural activities, the independent scene as well as youth and popular sports, will be carried out with funds from the ticket tax. This leads to "a broad and diverse range of cultural and sporting activities for the population" in both areas. Without income from the ticket tax, around CHF 5 to 6 million would have to be financed from general tax revenue.

To simplify the system, the City Council plans to abolish the current four funds and replace them with a single fund. The fund will be financed by the income from the ticket tax. The solution with just one fund for culture and sport allows more flexibility in the use of the money. The target value is for around 60% to be paid out to culture and 40% to sport.

More info: https://www.stadtluzern.ch/aktuelles/newslist/2129119

Johannes Keller studied early music (majoring in harpsichord), basso continuo and ensemble conducting at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. He is co-founder of the basso continuo ensemble "Il Profondo" and the duo "L'Istante" (with violinist Anaïs Chen). He regularly collaborates with Andrea Marcon, including as assistant for opera productions at the Theater Basel, the Frankfurt Opera and the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.

Ruedi Tobler is a musician and producer from Winterthur. In addition to band projects (John Gailo, Europa: Neue Leichtigkeit, etc.), he is on the road with his electronic solo project playmob.il and works as a music lecturer at the Winterthur Institute for Contemporary Music.

In addition to Keller and Tobler, the expert jury selected the following Thurgau artists from 68 applications: Sarah Hugentobler, video and performance artist, Bern, Isabelle Krieg, visual artist, Kreuzlingen, Bennett Smith, visual artist, Lucerne and Tabea Steiner, author, Zurich.

As part of the implementation of the task and financial reform of the Canton of Lucerne, the Department of Primary Education announced that it would cease subsidy payments to the Luzerner Kantorei association in 2023. The board of the Luzerner Kantorei association then decided not to renew the service contract with the city of Lucerne. To ensure that choral training in the city of Lucerne remains guaranteed for the currently more than 200 young singers, the choir will continue to operate as part of the Lucerne Music School from the 2024/25 school year. The City Council is requesting a special loan of CHF 1.73 million for this purpose.

For choral activities that go beyond the training offered by the music school, for example for camps, trips, competitions or large concerts, the choirs should be supported by a sponsoring association, similar to the wind orchestras of the music school. The report and proposal are expected to be discussed at the City Council meeting on June 13, 2024.