Since taking up his post in 2023, Titus Engel has had a significant artistic influence on the Basel Sinfonietta, writes the orchestra, and has led it to great success. This includes guest appearances at venues such as the Philharmonie Essen and at new music festivals such as the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik and the NOW! The most recent Naxos recording of works by Sofia Gubaidulina, which was released by the New York Times was named one of the best classical albums of 2025. (to the SMZ-Review by Torsten Möller)

Founded in 1980, the Basel Sinfonietta is a symphonic orchestra specializing in contemporary music. It has commissioned numerous works and has presented more than 240 world premieres and national premieres since its foundation.

Born in Freiburg in 1997, grew up Mullener grew up in a family of musicians and began playing the piano at the age of four. At the age of 17, she turned to jazz and Afro-Cuban musical traditions, which she studied in Havana. She then studied at the Bern University of the Arts and won the international SOFIA prize in 2022.

After their debut album Reflejos (2019), she founded the Manon Mullener 5tet, with which she combines modern jazz with Afro-Cuban influences. The album Insomnia (2023) took the ensemble on an international tour, while the most recent work Stories (2025) attracted a great deal of attention for its energy and originality.

Established in 2007, the prize is awarded each year during the festival (June 25 - July 4, 2026). Recent winners include Bruno Spoerri, Franco Ambrosetti, Othella Dallas, Nolan Quinn, Christoph Grab, the Swiss Jazz Orchestra and Elina Duni.

The study by the Mileva Institute is a first step towards continuous monitoring of SRG's cultural services in these two areas, writes Suisseculture. The objectives in cultural production and distribution for the cultural areas explicitly mentioned in the concession are bindingly regulated by industry agreements, including the Music Charter, and documented with annual reports - with the exception of literature, where corresponding efforts are underway.

SRG's role in the Swiss cultural landscape is indispensable in these areas and was one of the key arguments for the Swiss electorate to vote clearly against the SRG halving initiative on March 8, 2026.

Using a sample («artificial week») from the year 2025, this study shows what the SRG's TV and radio programs as well as its online and social media offerings are doing for culture and the arts in Switzerland, but also makes it clear where there is an urgent need to catch up.

The whole statement:
https://www.suisseculture.ch/?article=die_studie_zu_den_srg_kulturleistungen_ist_ein_erster_schritt

Talented musicians complete an apprenticeship as a commercial clerk EFZ in four years instead of three. Thanks to the extension of the apprenticeship period, apprentices have an average of a quarter of their working time available for musical training. The program is aimed at talents in genres such as pop, rock, punk, RnB, rap, soul and metal. After completing their apprenticeship, they receive an EFZ in business administration and a diploma in music. The training is organized as part of a training company network.

Wemusic has an experienced partner at its side in the form of BWD Bern (Bildungszentrum für Wirtschaft und Dienstleistung), which supports the «Apprenticeship & Music» project both ideally and financially. The BWD Bern has been successfully offering the «Teaching & Sport» model since 2005. Whether sport or music, the aim is to support young people who strive for excellence in their respective disciplines.

Wemusic, founded by the Academy for Contemporary Music Switzerland, Helvetiarockt and Petzi, is a non-profit association in accordance with Article 60 ff. of the Swiss Civil Code with headquarters in Bern and an office in Fribourg-Fribourg. It concentrates on the areas of contemporary music with a focus on the musical promotion of children, young people and amateur musicians.

More info:
https://wemusic.ch/lehre-efz-musik/

For the twelfth time, the Fritz Gerber Foundation and Lucerne Festival will present the «Fritz Gerber Award» to three young talents in the field of contemporary music in summer 2026. This year, the Italian double bassist Pietro Elia Barcellona, the Swiss-American violinist Benjamin Frueh and the Portuguese percussionist Bárbara Ribeiro will receive the highly endowed award. They each receive prize money of 10,000 francs. In addition, the foundation will enable them to take part in the Lucerne Festival Academy 2026, also worth a total of CHF 10,000 each.

The «Fritz Gerber Award» is aimed at young artists who are either Swiss nationals or have lived in Switzerland for at least three years. They are selected by a jury consisting of Sebastian Nordmann, Artistic Director of the Lucerne Festival, Mark Sattler, Co-Head of Contemporary and Dramaturg of the Lucerne Festival, and Jack Adler-McKean, Coaching Program Coordinator of the Lucerne Festival Academy.

Rehearsal rooms for musicians, studios or public performances: According to the city's announcement, life is returning to Dreilindenpark as part of a temporary use. The city of Lucerne and the Lucerne Jazz School Association have concluded a usage loan agreement, which regulates the temporary use of Villa Vicovaro and the Ökonomie building. From August 2026 to December 2028, the association will make the premises available to various artists and event organizers by renting them out. The temporary use makes a contribution to the Cultural Agenda 2030, with which the city of Lucerne provides infrastructure for cultural professionals and event organizers as well as low-threshold access to cultural spaces.

The city of Lucerne provides the buildings to the association free of charge and makes an operating contribution, while the Lucerne Jazz School Association acquires additional third-party funding. The Lucerne Jazz School Association has drawn up a usage and operating concept for the operational use and day-to-day running of the building.

More info:
https://www.stadtluzern.ch/aktuelles/newslist/2874781

David Lichtsteiner is a school musician and composer with extensive pedagogical experience, according to the university's press release. He studied composition with Erik Oña in Basel and School Music II. His artistic focus is on composition and arrangement for concert and theater formats, particularly in the field of choral music. He has taught at various grammar schools and teacher training colleges.

He was also involved in setting up the composition workshop of the New Orchestra Basel and the Northwestern Switzerland School Music Day. He is currently working on the research project «Gymnasialer Musikunterricht als Spiegel einer praxisbasierten Didaktik» at the FHNW University of Teacher Education. Together with Yana Bibb, he directs the CampusChor Muttenz with around 80 students.

According to the city's press release, the investigation was triggered by a postulate that called for a critical review of the permanent exhibition. The report shows how Wagner worked in Lucerne and how the museum came into being in the 1930s. The City Council reaffirms that anti-Semitism is incompatible with the principles of the City of Lucerne and is consistently rejected. The museum presents Wagner's anti-Semitism transparently, critically and without whitewashing.

The city council commissioned the Swiss Society for History (SGG) to carry out an academic project. The research focused on two phases: Wagner's time in Tribschen from 1866 to 1872 and the years when the museum was founded between 1931 and 1956. An independent scientific advisory board accompanied and reviewed the project.

The report by historian Patrik Süess comprehensively demonstrates that Richard Wagner's anti-Semitic statements were very clear and unambiguous. During his years in Lucerne, Richard Wagner consolidated central parts of his radical nationalist and anti-Semitic stance and published his revised pamphlet «Das Judenthum in der Musik». It also becomes clear that the founding of the museum in the 1930s took place at a politically charged time and that individual actors had links to National Socialist circles. The study presents these developments transparently and provides a well-founded historical classification.

More info:
https://www.stadtluzern.ch/aktuelles/newslist/2873023

The political level of the National Cultural Dialogue (NKD) has taken note of the ongoing work at the specialist level of the NKD to organize a first «Swiss Cultural Forum». The aim is to focus on the importance of culture for society. According to the federal government's press release, the event will take place on June 19, 2027 in La Chaux-de-Fonds as part of the «Capitale culturelle suisse». It is aimed in particular at stakeholders from the fields of culture and cultural promotion, specialist areas such as business, education and research, social affairs and health, politicians at all levels of government and the media.

Culture and other socially relevant areas such as health, education and research, social affairs and the economy influence and are mutually dependent. The first edition of the «Swiss Cultural Forum» aims to give greater visibility to these diverse relationships. The National Cultural Dialogue (NKD) was launched in 2011 and brings together representatives of the political authorities and cultural promotion bodies of the cantons, cities, municipalities and the federal government.

How Ludwig van Beethoven worked can be traced today in more than 7500 surviving pages of sketches. A large proportion of these have been handed down in 70 surviving sketchbooks, which have been the subject of scholarly research since the 19th century. The «Beethoven's Workshop» project has now produced the first digital edition of one of these sketchbooks: the so-called «Notirungsbuch K».

Beethoven used the book in spring 1823 to sketch parts of the Ninth Symphony and the Diabelli Variations. Early sketches for the later «Ode to Joy» can also be found in it. After Beethoven's death, the sketchbook was divided into several parts. The seven surviving individual parts are now in the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and the National Library in Paris.

The new digital edition brings these holdings together again virtually and makes it possible to experience the sketchbook in its original form for the first time. In contrast to printed editions, the digital format opens up new possibilities for presentation and communication. At the heart of the edition is the specially developed fluid transcription. It makes the editorial cognitive process visible by allowing users to use a slider to move from a digital facsimile of a sketch to a musical text that is readable and comprehensible by today's standards.

More info:
https://www.adwmainz.de/aktivitaeten/aktuelles/details/erste-digitale-edition-eines-beethoven-skizzenbuchs-veroeffentlicht.html

Anaïs Hess, born in 2002, lives in Villaz-St-Pierre. In 2024, she completed her bachelor's degree in flute at the Lausanne University of Music (HEMU). Parallel to her studies, she is involved in several regional music ensembles both as an instrumentalist and as a singer, with a repertoire ranging from classical to Celtic to electro-acoustic music, variety and pop. She is a member of the «Concerts du Cœur Fribourgeois» and teaches flute in Fribourg.

Anaïs Hess won a first prize at the Swiss Youth Music Competition (2022) and the Prix Musique of the Swiss Wind Music Association (2021). The scholarship will help Anaïs Hess to broaden her professional experience and continue her master's degree in music education at the HEMU.

The Pierre and Renée Glasson Fund for Music, established in 1995 and administered by the Office of Culture of the Canton of Fribourg, supports the activities of musicians from the Canton of Fribourg or the rest of Switzerland who live in the Canton of Fribourg. The scholarship from this fund serves as a contribution to the financing of a Master's or postgraduate degree course at a music college in Switzerland or abroad.

According to the city, the Funk am See open air festival has become an integral part of Lucerne's cultural life since it was founded in 1996. The non-commercial music festival takes place every two years on the Lido meadow and attracts up to 12,000 visitors over two days. The consistently low-threshold access is particularly characteristic. Admission is free. It enables people from a wide range of social and economic backgrounds to participate in cultural life.

At the same time, Funk am See has served as an important platform for young and regional artists for three decades. Numerous acts from Central Switzerland were able to perform here for the first time in front of a larger audience. The festival is supported by an honorary organizing committee and numerous volunteers, whose continuous commitment has made it possible to maintain and further develop Funk am See for 30 years now. The festival is thus exemplary of cultural work that originates from the grassroots and has a lasting impact on regional music and youth culture.

In an official statement, the Music Council expects culture - and cultural reporting in particular - to remain a core mandate of SRG. The current discussion about the future of SRF 2 Kultur is irritating and comes at a sensitive time. The SRG halving initiative was clearly rejected by the population. This result is also a clear commitment to the importance of culture, information and education in the public service.

The Swiss Music Council states: A reduction in the area of culture - particularly in central channels such as SRF 2 Kultur, Espace 2 and Rete Due - would substantially weaken Switzerland's cultural infrastructure and contradict the clear result of the vote. SRF 2 Kultur is a central media platform for music and culture in Switzerland - for artistic production, mediation, critical classification and public debate. The broadcaster fulfills an indispensable function, especially for those areas that hardly find a place in the commercial environment.

The Music Council sees culture as part of the public service with a clear social mission: it provides orientation, enables reflection and makes a significant contribution to a country's cultural identity. This is particularly true for minorities, for challenging formats and for those voices that would otherwise hardly be heard.

Link: musikrat.ch

Lydia Grün, President of the German Music Council, paid tribute to Gülke as «an outstanding personality who has set standards for decades - as a conductor, scholar, author and formative voice of cultural mediation work in the field of music». His work was characterized by the highest artistic and intellectual integrity. At the same time, he was an important source of inspiration and mentor whose judgment and experience carried weight far beyond his own discipline.

Gülke studied music and humanities in Weimar, Jena and Leipzig, worked as a repetiteur and dramaturge and increasingly turned to conducting from the late 1950s onwards. He worked as Kapellmeister at the Semperoper Dresden and as chief conductor in Stendal, Potsdam, Wuppertal and the city of Brandenburg. He has appeared internationally as a sought-after guest conductor and taught conducting at the University of Music in Freiburg and musicology at the University of Basel. From 2011 to 2014, he was President of the Saxon Academy of the Arts.