According to the federal government's press release, Erik Truffaz "does not allow himself to be held back by genre boundaries as a musician". Born near Geneva in 1960, the trumpeter combines jazz with hip-hop, drum'n'bass, pop and electronica in his "innovative and accessible compositions". Since his album "Bending New Corners" was released in 1999 on the legendary Blue Note label, he has been one of the outstanding personalities in recent jazz history. Truffaz has worked with a wide variety of musicians, including the singers Rokia Traoré and Sophie Hunger (Swiss Grand Prix Music 2016).

The winners of the 2023 Swiss Music Awards are

Carlo Balmelli (Arogno, Ticino) has been an important figure in wind music in Switzerland for decades. The musician, composer and instrument inventor Mario Batkovic (Bern) defies categorization and uses his accordion to develop music that touches on genres as diverse as classical, ambient, minimal music and metal. Lucia Cadotsch (Zurich) is one of the outstanding voices of contemporary jazz. She is constantly reinventing herself with her innovative and relevant projects. The four musicians of Ensemble Nikel (CH, ISR, USA, DE) Brian Archinal, Yaron Deutsch, Antoine Françoise and Patrick Stadler strive for a renewal of chamber music with their exploratory work. As a DJ and producer of electronic music, Sonja Moonear (Geneva) is one of the most recognized personalities on the scene with her combination of house, techno and experimental sounds. The composer Katharina Rosenberger (Zurich) challenges our listening habits with her art and sound sculptures and draws our attention to our own perception of music. As an improviser and singer with an exceptional voice, Saadet Türköz (Zurich) has established herself as one of the most influential personalities on the independent Swiss music scene thanks to influences from various musical traditions.

Special music prizes

The special prizes are awarded to important institutions and players in the Swiss music scene. They recognize personalities, venues, labels or educational projects that actively promote the status of music, the promotion of music creation and the dissemination of cultural heritage in Switzerland.

The Special Prizes Music 2023 go to:

The Helvetiarockt association, which campaigns for equal opportunities and more visibility for women, inter, non-binary, trans and agender people in jazz, pop and rock;

The Kunstraum Walcheturm, an independent cultural venue in Zurich that is of particular importance to the experimental cultural scene;

The rapper Pronto, who is one of the most influential personalities in the young Swiss trap and Afrobeat scene.

Ursula Benzing holds a doctorate in musicology and most recently worked as opera director and head music dramaturge at the Staatstheater Kassel. She designed repertoires, including unknown and little-performed operas as well as a complete cycle of Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen". In 2021, she received Kassel's KULTURpunkt Award for "the special promotion of baroque opera and in recognition of her lively exchange with the audience".

Jonathan Bloxham studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and at the Royal College of Music with Thomas Carroll before completing his studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Louise Hopkins. He began his career as Assistant Conductor with Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO). For the last eleven years Jonathan has been Artistic Director of the Northern Chords Festival in his home town of Newcastle upon Tyne. Jonathan Bloxham is an advocate of contemporary music and has commissioned several new pieces from young composers such as Vlad Maistorovici, Jack Sheen and Freya Waley Cohen.

Tanja Scartazzini took over as Head of the Office of Culture on 1 August 2021. According to the canton's press release, her work was "characterized by changes and special challenges". Under her leadership, the Office of Culture implemented the support measures in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tanja Scartazzini played a key role in the continuation of important major projects in the cultural sector, such as the project for a new state archive, which was approved by voters in 2022, and the new library project. Tanja Scartazzini oversaw the establishment of the cultural promotion region of St.Gallen and the surrounding area and provided important impetus for the further development of the St.Gallen Cultural Foundation and the harmonization of regional cultural promotion organizations.

Tanja Scartazzini is leaving the St. Gallen Office for Culture at the end of August to take over as Head of the Office for Culture of the City of Winterthur on September 1, 2023. The government regrets her departure and thanks Tanja Scartazzini for her commitment and achievements. Her position will be advertised shortly.

Munich Tetra Brass are Aljoscha Zierow (trumpet), Luca Chiché (trumpet), Christian Traute (trombone) and Jakob Grimm (bass trombone). They were the first brass ensemble to graduate from the chamber music course at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. The quartet has been awarded 1st prize at the Chieri International Competition and 1st prize at the 7th International Music Competition Berlin.

The ensemble specializes in the discovery, performance and expansion of quartet literature for brass. In concerts throughout Europe, it combines its repertoire into its own programs and regularly performs world premieres by young composers.

According to the city's announcement, cultural projects that generally fulfill the applicable Aarau cultural funding guidelines are eligible for funding. Applications are submitted by e-mail. A short project description with the purpose of the grant and account details is sufficient. The conception and implementation of smaller cultural and art projects, site fees or work yard services are approved. Projects already supported by the City of Aarau and those that do not comply with the funding guidelines are excluded. A photo of the event is sufficient proof.

The Cultural Promotion Commission has reserved a funding budget of 5,000 francs for Fast Lane until the end of the year. The maximum funding amount per project is 500 francs. The commitment will be made within a week by the Aarau Cultural Office after consultation with the committee members.

More info: https://www.aarau.ch/politik-verwaltung/aktuelles.html/204/news/8009

Benjamin Lang studied composition, music theory, conducting and musicology in Rostock, Salzburg, Hanover, Lugano, Bremen and Edinburgh. He completed his composition studies with a concert exam and a doctorate, and his musicology studies with a doctorate.

From 2010, Lang taught music theory and composition at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), becoming a professor in 2014. In 2016, he was appointed to the Hanns Eisler School of Music. He has been a professor at the Rostock University of Music and Drama since 2018.

Nowadays, music publishing no longer only means the traditional printing of sheet music and books, but also digital distribution and license management to a large extent, writes the University of Kassel. Almost every time music is played on YouTube or in the concert hall, royalties have to be paid to rightholders, and music publishers very often act as license administration offices. The practical relevance of studying in Kassel is primarily due to the fact that the regionally based publishing houses have been firmly integrated into the course.

In addition to typical courses in historical and systematic musicology as well as music education/music mediation, the course is characterized by numerous practical and future-oriented courses. These include the basics of layout and music notation, business administration and copyright law, as well as courses on digital music marketing, structural change in music publishing and a lecture series on new business models.

Within the University of Kassel, there is cooperation with the Institute for Business Law. A cooperation agreement has also been reached with Detmold University of Music. Last but not least, the new course promotes networking between the university and the region and yet remains a unique selling point - no other German-speaking university offers such a course.

More info: https://www.uni-kassel.de/uni/studium/musikverlagswesen-master

In her thesis, Hana Mustafi from the Kollegium St. Michael, Fribourg, deals with the question of how cultural identity affects the perception of music. Against a thoroughly researched theoretical background, she conducted an empirical study with 36 test subjects using a specially designed questionnaire and listening experiment, according to the expert Yannick Wey. With concisely presented, vividly conveyed and plausibly interpreted results, Mustafi succeeded in skillfully grasping the complex topic and analytically penetrating the metaphor of music as a "bridge of cultures".

More info: https://sjf.ch/musik-eine-bruecke-der-kulturen/

The "Ogygia" project by Linus Truninger (Kantonsschule Rychenberg, Winterthur) consists of a critically reflected transformation of the Calypso episode from Homer's Odyssey into a modern short opera. Its creator is responsible for the libretto, composition and initial sound staging, and places his work in the historical context of the adaptation of myths on the operatic stage, according to the appraisal by expert Leo Dick. With his artistic research, he demonstrates in an intelligent and sensually tangible way that myths are dependent on being constantly rewritten and updated in order to preserve their identity-forming power.

More info: https://sjf.ch/ogygia/

From a general perspective, according to the Oldenburg team, two hypotheses about the role of vocal pitch in music production can be distinguished: First, vocal pitch might have been fixed throughout the history of popular music to ensure the intelligibility of the lyrics and the audibility of the main melody on the one hand and the audibility of the accompaniment on the other. Secondly, one could hypothesize that vocal pitch is used more flexibly as a result of the development of music technology to convey certain artistic choices and intentions during music production.

The aim of the study was to empirically test these hypotheses using a large data set of more than 700 songs. The team quantified the lead-vocal-to-accompaniment level ratio (LAR) in a representative selection of well-known songs from popular music recordings spanning several decades and the development of the LAR for the four top songs on the Billboard Hot 100 list since 1946.

Two different phases were observed: The average LAR decreased from around 5 dB to 1 dB until around 1975, but remained constant thereafter. Comparing the LAR across the different music genres, positive values were found for country, rap and pop, values around zero for rock and negative values for metal. Solo artists had consistently higher LAR values compared to bands. These results form a basis for a central aspect of the music mix.

Original article:
https://pubs.aip.org/asa/jel/article/3/4/043201/2885300/Lead-vocal-level-in-recordings-of-popular-music?

According to her management, Eliana Burki's concert tours have taken her beyond Europe to the USA, South America and the Middle and Far East - and made her an ambassador for the Swiss national instrument in jazz, classical and world music.

With her band I Alpinisti, but also as a soloist with the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra and the Munich Radio Orchestra, she has opened up a new repertoire for the alphorn. She has also incorporated jazz and funk as well as influences from the folk music of the countries she has visited. She is also one of the few Swiss musicians to have made a name for herself in the US music industry.

Burki was four years old when an alphorn ensemble at the finish line of a bike race sparked her passion for the instrument. Two years later, she convinced Hansjürg Sommer, the Alphorn Pope of Solothurn, to take her on as a pupil. Soon afterwards, she took part in the Swiss Yodelling Festival. At a later yodelling festival, she played a blues piece.

Rahel Kraft studied jazz singing and sound art in Lucerne and London. She has realized current performances and research projects in Japan, Sweden, Italy and at the Sitterwerk St. Gallen, among other places. Her book "Paradoxical Creatures" won a national prize for "The Most Beautiful Swiss Books of the Year 2020" in 2020.

The Thurgau grants are awarded by a jury made up of specialists from the cultural office and external experts. The number and quality of the applications received this year was exceptionally high, writes the canton. In addition to Rahel Kraft, the following artists were selected from 67 applications: Ariane Andereggen, (actress and performance artist), Liv Burkhard (photographer and filmmaker), Ray Hegelbach (visual artist), Fabian Kimoto (director and cameraman) and Julia Trachsel (comic artist).

In future, the municipal music school will be able to award further mandates to external institutions on the basis of a decision by the Chur municipal council and thus also ensure that other music promotion providers receive municipal contributions. The decision is part of a partial revision of the ordinance to the Cultural Promotion Act. Among other things, it is intended to reduce the administrative burden.

It thus rejects the original idea of expanding the list of defined institutions that receive financial support from the city in the area of extracurricular music promotion and places the municipal subsidies in a common pot. According to the city's announcement, this solution puts the music school in a strong position, but it comes with a special obligation and responsibility.

According to the MPIEA press release, the experiment was part of a series of concerts in which the Kammerphilharmonie transformed public spaces in Frankfurt into concert venues. On the evening of 11 September 2022, the ensemble performed two concerts with an identical program on the Bockenheim campus of Goethe University Frankfurt. The 60-minute performances included works by George Gershwin and Florence Price. They took place in the Festsaal of the Studierendenhaus and were simultaneously streamed in the Café KoZ located in the same building. The audience was invited to switch back and forth between the halls during the concerts to experience the qualities of both formats.

A total of 130 people attended the two performances, which were scientifically monitored by the MPIEA: 111 visitors took part in the pre-interview and 96 in the post-interview questionnaire. In addition, the researchers conducted a total of 38 in-depth interviews. The data collection was supplemented by video recordings made of the audience during the concerts. "As expected, the live experience was described as more intense and captivating overall, but the live stream also left a very good impression for the most part, especially in terms of the visual and acoustic aspects," reports Julia Merrill from the MPIEA.

Although almost everyone preferred the live situation, streaming formats were by no means considered superfluous - and not only as a worthwhile alternative in cases of limited mobility or for cost reasons, for example. For the further artistic exploration of live and broadcast formats, it therefore seems promising not to see such formats as competing with each other or to want to copy the other with one. Instead, it is important to be aware of the specific conditions and possibilities in each case and to develop complementary formats as artistic forms in their own right, which also make music tangible in different ways.

More info:
https://www.aesthetics.mpg.de/newsroom/news/news-artikel/article/live-vs-stream.html

According to its President Tilo D. Braune, the European Cultural Foundation would like to pay tribute to the diverse activities of Artistic Director Numa Bischof Ullmann and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra. Both of their commitments deserve "special attention and appreciation in the spirit of the European cause".

During Bischof's tenure, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra has given concerts on four continents in 30 countries and in over 100 cities. According to the orchestra's press release, Bischof has also entered into a strategic partnership with Warner Classics. In 2004, he launched a pioneering music education program, and in 2022 he initiated Lucerne's new international piano festival "Le piano symphonique".

The European Cultural Foundation aims to "stimulate a lively dialog between European countries and regions and contribute to a cultural exchange in Europe that supports politics, builds trust and promotes communication".

A total of 1.25 million euros will be made available for five years. To mark its 50th anniversary, the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation invited tenders for the endowed professorship throughout the German-speaking world and has now awarded the contract to Freie Universität Berlin.

According to Freie Universität Berlin, the aim of the professorship is "to anchor contemporary music from the 20th century to the present more firmly in academic discourse, to promote the examination of contemporary music at universities and music academies and to promote research-based teaching". It will be filled in the winter semester 2023/24 and thus start at the same time as a newly planned Master's degree course in "Music, Sound, Performance".

More info: https://www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de/we07/musik/