Almost half of those working in the German music industry also work in music education and just under a third in non-musical activities in order to earn a living. The average monthly net income is 2,660 euros, although one fifth earn less than 1,500 euros. The study was carried out on behalf of the miz on the basis of a nationwide, cross-genre survey by the Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach (IfD).

While employees have an above-average monthly net income of €2940, freelancers earn significantly less at €2460 and a higher proportion of their income comes from non-musical activities. Gender-specific differences are also clear: on average, women earn 24 percent less than their male colleagues. Even if they are the main earner in a household, the gender pay gap is still 20 percent, according to the German Music Council's press release.

More info: https://miz.org/de/fokus/berufsmusikstudie

This year's Fritz Gerber Award will once again be presented to three Lucerne Festival Academy participants during the Summer Festival: cellist Elide Sulsenti, trombonist Romain Nussbaumer and percussionist Noah Rosen.

Cellist Elide Sulsenti was born in Catania in 1999. She studied at the Conservatorio di Musica di Cagliari with Oscar Piastrelloni and at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest with Miklos Perenyi. She is currently completing her studies at the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana in Lugano with Enrico Dinda. Percussionist Noah Rosen, born in Boston in 1995, specializes in contemporary music. He studies at the Basel Music Academy with Christian Dierstein and at the Boston Conservatory. The Swiss Romain Nussbaumer, born in 1999 in the canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, is currently studying trombone with David Bruchez-Lalli at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).

The prestigious sponsorship prize has been awarded annually to young, highly talented artists since 2015. It includes a scholarship worth CHF 10,000 to attend the academy and additional prize money of CHF 10,000. The Fritz Gerber Foundation for gifted young people has been active since 1999. It supports talented young people in the fields of crafts, culture and sport. Applications for the Fritz Gerber Award are possible via an open call. The jury is made up of Michael Haefliger, Director of the Lucerne Festival, and the composer and conductor Heinz Holliger.

Andreas Schaerer will be artist in residence at the Saalfelden 2023 Jazz Festival with four different formations. He will be performing with the Finnish guitarist Kalle Kalima, the American bassist Tim Lefebvre, his Swedish colleague Björn Meyer, the Swiss percussionist Julian Sartorius and the Serbian "Professor of Creative Music Technology" Svetlana Maraš.

First held in 1978, the Saalfelden Jazz Festival takes place annually in August in Saalfelden am Steinernen Meer in Austria (in the wider Salzburg area). Since 2016, there has also been a smaller offshoot festival, Drei Tage Jazz, which takes place in January. The anniversary edition in 2019 attracted a total of 25,000 visitors over five days. A total of 80 concerts were held on various stages, around 60 of which were free to attend.

According to the press release, Brandy Butler has developed into one of the most important cultural mediators and activists in the city of Zurich in recent years. She is also part of and a driving force behind various local and national initiatives. For example, she has been organizing the highly acclaimed Drag Story Time for years. She also organizes the Black Performance Lab, in which "queer people of color (PoC) performers can reorient themselves". Most recently, she organized the Space Lab at Tanzhaus Zürich, where the PoC art scene from all over the world was able to work together and network in new ways.

The City of Zurich Art Prize, endowed with CHF 50,000, will go to filmmaker Cyril Schäublin in 2023. The award for special cultural merit will be presented at the cultural awards ceremony on November 24, 2023. The art prize will be presented at a separate ceremony.

Stefan Roth is a leading figure in the Thurgau and Swiss brass music scene, writes the canton of Thurgau. As a conductor of various formations, he has had a decisive influence on this genre and stands for the highest quality and great joy in playing. He is characterized in particular "by his great musical diversity and his commitment to wind music, even outside the conductor's podium". As a conductor, he not only combines musical qualities, but is also able to inspire children and young people for brass music to a high degree.

Stefan Roth was born in Winterthur in 1980 and spent his youth in Aadorf. He now lives in Scherzingen. He decided to study trombone at the Zurich University of the Arts and successfully completed a Bachelor of Arts in Music with Jan Cober and Piet Joris at the Maastricht Conservatory in the Netherlands. After two years of master's studies, in 2012 he became the first Swiss to earn a Master of Arts in "Windband Conducting" with distinction at the Bern University of the Arts. In July 2016, he achieved second place at the International Conductor's Competition in Augsburg.

Wise Music Group has acquired the shares from the Hinrichsen Foundation and will become the owner of Edition Peters Group in partnership with Christian Hinrichsen, whose family connection with the company began in 1863. Wise includes Chester Music, G. Schirmer, Associated Music Publishers, Novello & Co, Éditions Alphonse Leduc, Première Music, Le Chant du Monde, Edition Wilhelm Hansen, Unión Musical Ediciones and Bosworth Music GmbH.

In the 19th century, Edition Peters was best known for its association with composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Grieg. In the 20th century, the catalog included Gustav Mahler, Hugo Wolf, Richard Strauss, Morton Feldman, George Crumb and John Cage.

Today, the catalog presents contemporary composers such as Mark Andre, Sally Beamish, Daníel Bjarnason, Gloria Coates, James Dillon, Jonathan Dove, Sebastian Fagerlund, Brian Ferneyhough, Bernd Franke, Ash Fure, Bernhard Gander, Emily Howard, Clara Iannotta, George Lewis, Elena Mendoza, Shawn Okpebholo, Roxanna Panufnik, Roger Reynolds, Rebecca Saunders, Tyshawn Sorey, Erkki-Sven Tüür and Errollyn Wallen.

According to its press release, the cantonal government is gradually implementing the "tipping initiative" approved by the people at the end of 2020 to strengthen Basel's youth and alternative culture. Clubs will now be able to apply for support for high-quality live programs. This is subject to fair fees and remuneration.

The planned integral model for club promotion envisages close cooperation between the Basel Music Office, the Culture and Gastronomy Association and the Basel-Stadt Culture Department. The music office will be responsible for promoting high-quality live programs on behalf of the canton. To this end, its supporting association will receive a total state contribution of CHF 2.895 million for the years 2024 to 2026.

Smaller investments in the operational infrastructure are also to be made possible as part of the new club funding. For example, smaller construction measures that help to defuse noise conflicts are to be supported. These applications will be assessed by the Culture Department. In addition, the Government Council has approved a state contribution of CHF 640,000 to the Culture and Gastronomy Association for the years 2023 to 2026 in order to establish a tandem model for mediation between residents, authorities and event organizers. The club promotion package costs a total of CHF 1.0685 million per year. It is therefore subject to a referendum.

On March 28, the government council decided on a further step towards implementing the "tip initiative": it increased funding for the promotion of youth culture and determined that GGG Kulturkick, which is supported by GGG Basel, will be the first point of contact for the promotion of individual projects in youth culture.

More info:
Canton of Basel-Stadt and City of Basel - Basel plays a pioneering role in promoting club culture throughout Switzerland

The strategy was developed with the help of Winterthur's music schools, the city's youth music and the elementary school. The Competence Center for Research in Music Education at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts provided technical support for the work. It formulates five strategic directions and nine measures for a four-year period: The musical participation of the population is to be facilitated, basic training with equal opportunities is to be ensured, musical talents are to be promoted and music-making in groups is to be further developed. Popular programs include the Winterthur Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Conservatory's youth choirs. Accents are also to be set in modern music.

According to the city's press release, the city and Winterthur's music schools can only implement the strategy together. The music schools have signed a cooperation agreement to this end. This is a milestone in the "Dreiklang" project of the Winterthur music schools, which aims to merge the music schools with the support of the city. The next step is for the city to draw up a joint service agreement with the music schools, which will cover the entire range of services required by the Music School Act, from entry level to university entrance.

The aim is for the new Winterthur music school, with its overall offering, to take on a supra-regional service mandate and thus be able to provide services for the communities supporting the current youth music school and beyond.

More info:
https://stadt.winterthur.ch/gemeinde/verwaltung/stadtkanzlei/kommunikation-stadt-winterthur/medienmitteilungen-stadt-winterthur/eine-neue-musikbildungsstrategie-fuer-die-stadt-winterthur

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The support will enable Erlangen-based music computer scientist Meinard Müller to further develop deep learning technologies that extract complex features and hidden relationships directly from music signals. As with the analysis of image data, this involves pattern recognition - pitches, chords and rhythm, but also vocal lyrics. For example, algorithms that are able to find the right song based on a pre-hummed melody or make suggestions for songs with a similar rhythm are used for this purpose.

Meinard Müller has been Professor of Semantic Audio Signal Processing at the International Audio Laboratories Erlangen, AudioLabs for short, since 2012. AudioLabs is a joint project of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, in which the MP3 format was developed.

More info:
https://www.fau.de/2023/03/news/leute/musikinformatiker-der-fau-erhaelt-dfg-foerderung-von-125-millionen-euro/

Res Marty has an exceptional voice, which has made him a sought-after performer in numerous concerts, writes the canton of Schwyz. He also devoted himself intensively to the life and work of the composer Joachim Raff, who was born in Lachen. From his father, he took over the presidency of the Joachim Raff Societywhich he has been running, with a brief interruption, for a good four decades. A few years ago, Marty wrote a Biography of the composerwhich is now considered a standard work. He is the initiator of the Raff archive with adjoining museum in Lachen.

Anja Gmür alias Kings Elliot grew up in Wilen bei Wollerau and Altendorf, attended school here and completed a commercial apprenticeship after graduating from high school. She moved to London in 2015 and uploaded her songs online. This led to contact with a music manager and a record deal with Universal Music in 2021. Since 2020, she has been touring the world as a singer with international stars of the music scene.

The 2023 Cultural Awards will be presented at a ceremony in fall 2023. Res Marty will receive CHF 10,000 as the prize money. The cultural sponsorship prize for Anja Gmür and Judith Keller is endowed with 5000 francs each.

According to the Birdsong press release, Patricia Kopatchinskaja has already written and performed a violin concerto and a series of duos. Some of her pieces have been performed in the Berlin Philharmonie with musicians from the Karajan Academy and in Lockenhaus by Nicolas Altstaedt and Vilde Frang and recorded for the Alpha label. This also applies to a duo with Pekka Kuusisto, which was performed in Oslo in September 2022.

The violinist often performs her pieces as an encore, often with members of the orchestras she has performed with. Together with clarinettist Reto Bieri, she has recorded some of her duos for violin and clarinet for Phantasmagoria, the Elbphilharmonie's video label. A composition for violin and four speaking voices was premiered at Radiokulturhaus ORF 2022.

The team conducted singing experiments with around 1800 test subjects from India and North America. In order to simulate the development of music through oral tradition, they were asked to pass on a total of more than 3400 melodies from one person to the next by singing - similar to the children's game "Silent Mail". Over time, the singers made mistakes, so that the music developed more and more in the direction of appealing and easy-to-learn melodies.

According to the study, oral tradition has a profound impact on the development of music. Among other things, this can be seen in the emergence of various musical structures. Some of these structures could be observed across cultures, such as small pitch intervals or arch-shaped melodic contours - melodies that first rise in pitch and then fall again.

However, the study also revealed clear cultural differences: participants from North America tended to follow the cultural conventions of Western music when passing on the melodies, whereas in India, common Indian scales were preferred. Teams from the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics (MPIEA) in Frankfurt am Main, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge were involved in the study.

More info:
Melodies in Transition - Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics

Esther Hoppe has made a name for herself internationally as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. After studying in Basel, Philadelphia, London and Zurich, she won first prize at the International Mozart Competition in Salzburg in 2002. As a violinist in the Tecchler Trio, she has won numerous prizes, including the German Music Competition, the Prix Credit Suisse and first prize at the ARD Competition in Munich.

From 2009 to 2013, she was also first concertmaster of the Munich Chamber Orchestra. In this role, she led the ensemble several times from the first desk, performing music from the Baroque to modern times. Esther Hoppe currently teaches as a professor of violin at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. She plays the "De Ahna" Stradivarius, built in 1722.

The Camerata Zürich was founded in 1957 by the Swiss conductor Räto Tschupp. Following Räto Tschupp, Marc Kissóczy and Thomas Demenga, Igor Karsko has been the orchestra's artistic director since the 20/21 season. In addition to new music, the orchestra's repertoire focuses on rarely performed and often rediscovered works from the Classical and Romantic periods.

The Spanish-born conductor and violinist has been associated with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg as a guest conductor since 2019 and has led the orchestra in concerts in Salzburg, guest performances and CD productions.

He is also Professor of Violin at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and a regular mentor and conductor of the Guildhall School Chamber and Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Hall in London. Previously, he was concertmaster of the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia for six years and concertmaster of the Musikkollegium Winterthur until the end of the 2020/21 season.

The study, led by the University of Cambridge, the Beethoven Center San Jose and the American Beethoven Society, the KU Leuven, the company FamilyTreeDNA, the University Hospital Bonn and the University of Bonn, the Beethoven-Haus Bonn and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, brings to light new insights into the composer's illnesses and raises questions about his recent ancestry and cause of death.

The international research team has succeeded in decoding Ludwig van Beethoven's genome using five genetically matching locks of hair. His hereditary predisposition, combined with his alcohol consumption, led to his severe liver disease. The genetic material of relatives living today also points to an extramarital relationship in Beethoven's paternal line.

It was previously known that Beethoven asked his brothers in a letter written in 1802 to have his illness examined by his doctor after his death and to publish the results. Since then, there has been uncertainty about the Bonn composer's state of health and cause of death, as the notes from Beethoven's doctor have never been found. In order to find out more about his illnesses and the cause of death, the international research team used modern archaeogenetic research methods.

Original article:
https://www.mpg.de/20018695/0320-evan-beethovens-genom-150495-x