Julia Hagen was born in Salzburg in 1995 and initially studied with Enrico Bronzi in Salzburg, Reinhard Latzko and Heinrich Schiff in Vienna and finally with Jens Peter Maintz at the University of the Arts in Berlin and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt at Kronberg Academy.

The jury, chaired by Lucerne Festival Director Michael Haefliger, announced that the Austrian musician would receive the award after the final at the Vienna Musikverein. The prize is being awarded for the twelfth time and includes prize money and a concert with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Lucerne Summer Festival. Previous winners of the award include Patricia Kopatchinskaja (2002), Sol Gabetta (2004) and Vilde Frang (2012).

The prize is an initiative of the Lucerne Festival, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gesellschaft für Musikfreunde Wien and the Credit Suisse Foundation. It is awarded every two years (alternating with the Prix Credit Suisse Jeunes Solistes).

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has selected the research project of Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences and Arts with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media (HMTMH) and the University of Sydney, Australia, as one of the first projects at universities of applied sciences for funding. The aim is to improve the health of music professionals and to develop the new discipline of musician physiotherapy.

The interdisciplinary team includes participants from the fields of physiotherapy, medicine, computer science and musicology. In addition to an eleven-strong team from Osnabrück, a scientist from the Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media (HMTMH) and a scientist from the University of Sydney, Australia, are also involved. The cooperation with the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) also integrates the field of artificial intelligence.

The team was able to gain the German Music and Orchestra Association (UNISONO), the German Society for Music Physiology and Musicians' Medicine (DGfMM), the Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA) and the Australian Society for Performing Arts Healthcare (ASPAH) as practice partners.

More info:
https://www.hs-osnabrueck.de/nachrichten/2023/12/bundesweit-unter-den-besten-zehn-forschungsvorhaben-deutsche-forschungsgemeinschaft-dfg-foerdert-projekt-der-hochschule-osnabrueck/

Vlček was awarded the special prize for the best interpretation of the Penderecki Viola Concerto in the version for cello. Vilém completed his MA SP Soloist in Danjulo Ishizaka's cello class at the Basel University of Music in summer 2023. Born in the Czech Republic in 1998, he was a scholarship holder of the Rahn Kulturfonds in 2020 and 2022 after numerous other awards and winner of the first prize cello of the Rahn Music Prize.

The International Krzysztof Penderecki Cello Competition is held every five years by the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow to mark the composer's milestone birthdays. This year's jury consisted of Elżbieta Penderecka (director), Zdzisław Łapiński, Julius Berger, Anne Gastinel, Liwu Ji, Kangho Lee, Ivan Monighetti, Arto Noras, Csaba Onczay and Amit Peled.

Wojciech Chałupka was born in Kluczbork in 1999. He began his training in his home town in Szymon Binek's saxophone class. In 2012, he became a student of Bernard Steuer in Katowice. In 2017, he moved to Warsaw, where he continued his studies with Pawel Gusnar and Alicja Wolynczyk as well as the composer Dariusz Przybylski. He has been a student of Lars Miekusch at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) since 2019.

Andrzej Koszewski, who died in 2015, was a Polish composer, musicologist and music teacher. He is considered Poland's most important choral composer of the 20th century.

The 43-year-old musician and composer won over the jury with his "Sarnersee" project, according to the press release from the two half-cantons. The starting point was a night-time panoramic photograph of the shoreline, on which only scattered points of light could be seen in the darkness. The structure of this image is transferred to a barrel organ perforated tape and thus defines the tonal basis of the composition based on it. The work will ultimately be performed with the participation of a "wild orchestra" consisting of musicians from the Lake Sarnen region.

Britschgi grew up in Wilen and trained as a blacksmith and wagon maker. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and Krakow and has worked as a freelance artist, conceptual designer, composer and musician. Since this year he is responsible for the musical program of the Obwald Festival.

Every year, talented musicians from the Musikschule Konservatorium Zürich (MKZ) take part in the competition. Four solo acts and three bands qualified for the final at the Moods jazz club via video casting. There they sang and played in front of a packed house and faced the five-member jury.

19-year-old Ambraze (real name: Anaïs Nowik) was the winner in the solo category. She began singing lessons at MKZ in the sixth grade. She is currently studying at MKZ's Pre-College with Anna Känzig. The Gian Rungger Quartet came out on top in the band category. The four young musicians presented two original compositions. The quartet, led by Christoph Irniger, has been playing together in this line-up since 2022.

The prizes of the Förderstiftung Musik und Musikschule Konservatorium Zürich (FMZ) are awarded annually for "outstanding artistic achievement". In view of the very high standard of the competition, the jury's decision was not an easy one. All participants receive professional coaching to further their careers.

More info:
https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/ssd/de/index/departement_schul_sport/medien/medienmitteilungen/2023/dezember/231204a.html

Under Minder's leadership, the Vaud Culture Agency (SERAC) was reorganized and expanded in order to implement new laws on cultural life and artistic creation as well as on movable and intangible cultural heritage. In particular, this has led to a strengthening of cultural promotion, writes the canton. This includes support for cultural creation with new calls for projects and grants as well as the development of cultural mediation, including in institutions.

Nicole Minder took office in 2015 and has been actively involved in strengthening intercantonal policy, including the arrangements of the Conference of Heads of Service and Delegates for Cultural Affairs such as Cinéforom and the Observatoire romand de la culture.

According to the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), the quartet consists of ZHdK students Oskar Rzazewski, Wojciech Chalupka and the two saxophonists Łukasz Dyczko Mastalerz. Rzazewski is currently studying saxophone in the Master Specialized Performance, soloist with Lars Mlekusch. Wojciech Chalupka completed his Bachelor of Music with Lars Mlekusch as an exchange student and is currently studying for a Master's degree in Composition.

Every year since 1974, the Orpheus Swiss Chamber Music Competition has honored outstanding chamber music ensembles. Around 800 prizewinners have been supported to date - many of whom now belong to the Swiss, European and global elite.
The prizewinners' concerts always take place as part of the Swiss Chamber Music Festival Adelboden. Other organizers are constantly including Orpheus prize-winning ensembles in their concert series.

Meret Lüthi and her long-standing continuo team recorded the demanding cycle of "Rosary Sonatas" by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644 - 1704) on period instruments and in Dolby Atmos format. Together with the lavishly designed booklet, the recording provides an insight into the sound world of the late 17th century and the interpretation process. The CD was produced in collaboration with Bayerischer Rundfunk and released under the Swiss label Prospero.

Classica is a monthly French magazine for classical music and a partner of Radio Classique, Victoires de la Musique, the Grand Prix Lycéen des Compositeurs, Mezzo TV and Fnac. The Choc de Classica honors outstanding recordings every month, with a Choc de l'année awarded to the best at the end of the year.

The first movement of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony is now available worldwide as an open educational resource under a Creative Commons license, professionally recorded on historical instruments by the Hofkapelle München, recorded and edited by Maximilian Kremser and Julia Chen, who are studying film composition at the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts (HMTM). The recording in individual tracks means that individual instruments or groups of instruments can be listened to in the Open Music Academy's multi-track player.

In addition, a music education tutorial was created as part of the project, in which each instrument can be discovered and the soundscape of the symphony is ultimately created through interaction.

The sound recording makes it possible to click through individual parts and instrumental groups, writes the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts, and as an open educational resource (CC-BY license) opens up new ways of understanding the composition. "Operation Beethoven" is a joint project of the Open Music Academy at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich in cooperation with the Hofkapelle München.

Link: openmusic.academy

The tuba was invented in 1835 by the chamber musician Wilhelm Wieprecht and the court instrument maker Johann Gottfried Moritz in Berlin for a rich bass register in military bands. It was there that the traveling composer Hector Berlioz heard it a little later and was entranced: The effect made by a large number of bass tubas in a military orchestra was beyond imagination. Richard Wagner encountered the instrument in the Parisian workshop of saxophone inventor Adolphe Sax.

The Instrument of the Year has been chosen by the state music councils since 2008 and is the focus of attention for twelve months. Each federal state appoints its own patrons and has its own approach to achieving the transnational goal: To draw curiosity and attention to the many facets of the tuba.

More info: https://lmr-rlp.de/instrument-des-jahres-2024-ist-die-tuba/

Estelle Presler from Unterseen in the canton of Bern has been playing the violin since she was three years old. She is currently taking violin lessons at MKZ with Xiaoming Wang. Among other things, she is a prizewinner at the Swiss Youth Music Competition, where she was the youngest participant in her category to win first prize with distinction. She won first prize at the "MKZ Förderpreis Klassik" with the Sonata No. 3 in D minor by Eugène Ysaÿe and Mozart's Rondo in C major.

Laurin Caprez from Root in Lucerne won first prize on the marimba with a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach and two modern compositions by Eric Sammut and Steve Weiss.

Every year, talented students from the Zurich Conservatory of Music (MKZ) take part in the "MKZ Förderpreis Klassik" competition. There were twelve qualifiers for the final at the Florhofgasse music center. The prize was awarded in two age categories, with three prizes to be won in each category.

All award winners:
https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/ssd/de/index/departement_schul_sport/medien/medienmitteilungen/2023/november/231127a.html

In the 1990s, Seraina Rohrer helped set up an online portal for the Swiss music industry, among other things, according to a press release from the canton of Zurich. She developed a Master's program in film for various universities and universities of applied sciences and was media manager for the Locarno Film Festival for several years. She also began working as a curator, lecturer, trustee and columnist in Switzerland and abroad. From 2011 to 2019, she was director of the Solothurn Film Festival. She is currently Head of Innovation and Society at the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia and develops transdisciplinary funding programs, including a focus on "Art, Science and Technology".

Madeleine Herzog will remain head of the Canton of Zurich's Department of Culture until May 2024. She took over the position in 2014 and has succeeded in "restructuring the funding of cultural promotion and increasing participation in the field of culture", writes the canton. Herzog's time also included "the extensive support of cultural workers during the coronavirus pandemic". Rohrer will take over the office from mid-August 2024.

The total revision became necessary after the financing model and quality assurance of the music schools were reviewed. According to the law on elementary schools, the canton provides recognized youth music schools with a contribution of 50 percent of the eligible operating costs, according to its press release. The implementation of this subsidy is regulated in the Music School Ordinance (MSV). Since the current MSV came into force in April 1991, the demands on the teaching and management of music schools have changed.

The Office for Primary Education therefore set up a working group with the task of reviewing the funding model and quality assurance of music schools. The working group subsequently presented a report, which was submitted to the music schools in the canton of Thurgau and the music and education associations for consultation. The draft was revised on the basis of the feedback received.

The changes require a complete revision of the MSV. The quality requirements and framework conditions for teachers' salaries required for cantonal recognition will be the responsibility of the Office for Primary Education, which will issue guidelines. In recent years, the canton's share of eligible operating expenses was only around 48% instead of the required 50%. At the same time, the chargeable operating expenses had to be increased, as the infrastructure costs were taken into account too little. These adjustments will lead to additional costs of around CHF 0.6 million from 2024.

Born in Bern, Sophie Hogrefe completed a Master's degree in Communication and Cultural Management at Zeppelin University, having previously graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the Rotterdam University of the Arts. In her youth, she was a member of the Swiss national rhythmic gymnastics squad. She has also worked as a dancer at various international theaters and has worked in communications and cultural management for major foundations and companies.

For the coming year, she is responsible for the organizational and administrative aspects of the festival, while her predecessor is still in charge of implementing the artistic programme, i.e. engaging the musicians. From the 2025 festival, Hogrefe will also take over this part. The artistic director of the festival is Christoph-Mathias Mueller.