Suisseculture sees a need for action on AI

The Federal Parliament is currently debating a motion for better protection of intellectual property against AI misuse. Suisseculture describes one of several possible solutions.

Flagged facade of the Federal Palace in Bern. Photo: william87/depositphotos.com

The Gössi motion (24.4596) is entitled "Better protection of intellectual property against AI misuse". Suisseculture supports the motion in the "well-founded view that licenses and remuneration will create an advantageous market order and that several copyright models will be available for this purpose". According to the umbrella organization of cultural associations, the concerns of science and business could be taken into account in the licensing and remuneration models. It describes one of several possible solutions.

The large language models, image, music and video generators and similar systems of generative artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT or Perplexity have circumvented copyright law and the principle of consent, Suisseculture continued. In addition, these models generated similar and new content based on large amounts of copyrighted data, which jeopardized economic investments and artistic interests.

To date, there has been a lack of legal certainty and transparency regarding this use of data. Swiss policymakers are faced with the task of finding solutions that reconcile the protection of creative works and achievements with innovation, the economy, academic freedom and access to cultural assets.

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

2026 service contract for Konsibern approved

Bern's municipal council, the city's executive body, has approved the 2026 performance contract for the Bern Music School Conservatory Foundation (Konsibern).

(Image: Konsibern)

The services provided by Konsibern are to be compensated with a sum of 4.48 million francs in the coming year. This includes additional costs of 107,000 francs. These are due to an increase in the number of schoolchildren and an increase in teachers' salaries, writes the City of Bern.

The operation of Konsibern is financed by contributions from the city and canton of Berne, school fees and grants from third parties. The funds from the city of Bern still require the approval of the city's voters as part of the budget vote on November 30, 2025, writes Konsibern.

The music school was founded in 1858 by the Bernese Music Society BMG. With the founding of the Bern University of the Arts HKB in 2000, the general music school department of the former conservatory was transformed into an independent institution and the Bern Conservatory Music School Foundation was established as a competence center for amateur music-making.

Thun promotes Lisa Mark

The city of Thun awards the art prize to visual artist Michael Streun. The cultural promotion prize is shared by sound artist Lisa Mark and filmmaker Yannick Mosimann.

Lisa Mark (Image: Tim Rod)

The city is honoring sound artist Lisa Mark (*1996) with a cultural promotion prize of CHF 5000. Mark completed a degree in Sound Arts and Contemporary Arts Practice at Bern University of the Arts. She impressed the jury "with her versatility". In her art practice, she moves between sound arts, visual arts and music, writes the city of Thun. In her interdisciplinary practice, she "explores sound and conscious listening with sensitivity", summarizes the jury.

The cultural prizes of the City of Thun are awarded on the recommendation of the Cultural Commission, while the cultural promotion prizes are awarded by the Cultural Promotion Prize Jury. Both committees are chaired by Councillor Katharina Ali-Oesch. The prize money comes from the Heinrich and Martha Streuli Fund, while the cultural promotion prizes have been sponsored by the Amtsanzeiger Verwaltungskreis Thun municipal association since 2004.

Bern sponsorship awards for new students

This fall, the Department of Music at Bern University of the Arts is awarding sponsorship prizes to eight outstanding new students for the first time.

 

Bern University of the Arts (Image: HKB)

According to the HKB press release, the prizes, each worth CHF 2,500, are being donated by a private foundation for the first time. They recognize "particularly talented and promising personalities who have impressed with their artistic quality and expressiveness in the aptitude tests". The aim is to provide targeted support and encouragement for students starting their studies at the HKB.

The award winners are Selma Aerni (MA Music Pedagogy Classical Music), Nathaniel Edelmann (MA Music Composition Contemporary Jazz), Sumanie Gächter (BA Music Sound Arts), Juliette Milone (MA Music Performance Jazz and Contemporary Music), Miquel Muñiz Galdon (MA Specialized Music Performance Classical Music), Dávid Mór Sándor (BA Classical Music), Laurin Stadler (BA Music Sound Arts) and Chloé Underwood (MA Specialized Music Performance Opera).

10th Neeme Järvi Prize awarded in Gstaad

This year, Joséphine Korda, Simon Clausse and Shira Samuels-Shragg were awarded the Neeme Järvi Prize of the Gstaad Conducting Academy.

From left to right: Müller, Samuels-Shragg, Korda, Clausse, Schläfli (Photo: Raphael Faux)

Over the past two weeks, up-and-coming conductors have had the opportunity to work with the Gstaad Festival Orchestra as part of the Gstaad Conducting Academy. Under the direction of Jaap van Zweden (Music Director of the Seoul Philharmonic and designated Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France), Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla (Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) and Johannes Schlaefli (Artistic Director of the Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra SJSO and the Alumni Symphony Orchestra Zurich), Brahms' Symphony No. 3 and Dvořák's Symphony From the New World and Richard Strauss' Don Juan and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5.

This year's main winner is Joséphine Korda (1996), who is currently Conductor in Residence at the Académie de l'Opéra in Paris. She will be guest conductor of the Bern Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, the Orchestre de chambre de Lausanne and the Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn. Other prizewinners are Simon Clausse (2000) from France - he will be guest conductor at the Musikkollegium Winterthur - and Shira Samuels-Shragg (1997) - she will be able to work with the Basel Symphony Orchestra.

The Neeme Järvi Prize honors those participants of the Gstaad Conducting Academy who are particularly impressive in their development. Since 2015, the prize has been awarded directly after the final concert by a jury made up of teaching staff, festival management and members of the partner orchestras.

Verbier Festival expands to China

Verbier Festival is setting up a "Verbier Festival in Asia" in Shenzhen, China. The first edition will take place from January 30 to February 8, 2026 and will include over 25 concerts and events.

Shenzhen (Image: getarchive.net)

Performers will include Martha Argerich, Lang Lang, Joshua Bell, Mischa Maisky, Janine Jansen, Mikhail Pletnev, Gautier Capuçon, Bryn Terfel, Bruce Liu, Daniel Lozakovich, Alexander Malofeev, Marc Bouchkov, Timothy Ridout, Daniel Blendulf and many more. The Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra will be at the heart of the festival as the orchestra in residence under the direction of its music director Gábor Takács-Nagy. There will be six concerts.

The Verbier Festival is thus consolidating its activities with a winter event. The organizing partner is the Chinese agency Wu Promotion, which was founded in 1991 and has partnerships with the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, among others.

Prix Yves Paternot 2025 goes to Anton Beliaev

The Prix Yves Paternot, which is awarded at the Verbier Festival to the most promising graduate of the Academy for Young Professional Musicians, goes this year to baritone Anton Beliaev.

Anton Beliaev (Image: Verbier Festival)

The award was announced after Beliaev's performance in the title role of Eugene Oneginthe opera performed this summer as part of the Academy's Atelier Lyrique, accompanied by the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra under the direction of Stanislav Kochanovsky.

Anton Beliaev graduated with honors from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Yekaterinburg in 2020, where he studied with Valery Gurevich. In the same year, he began his bachelor's degree with Michail Lanskoi at the Berlin University of the Arts, where he is currently completing his master's degree. He has been a member of the Semperoper Dresden Opera Studio since the 2023/24 season.

Yves Paternot was the founder of the Friends of the Verbier Festival and a member of the Board of Trustees. To honor his commitment, his friends created the Prix Yves Paternot after his death. The prize is endowed with CHF 10,000, includes an invitation to perform at a future Verbier Festival and entitles the recipient to funding of up to CHF 15,000 for artistic and professional development.

Double success for Jorge Rodriguez

Flutist Jorge Rodriguez, who recently completed his master's degree in Basel, won the Moyse Competition in Bulgaria and the Cluj Competition in Romania.

Jorge Rodriguez in Cluj (Image: HMB)

Jorge Rodriguez was awarded 1st prize at both the Moyse International Flute Competition in Sofia, Bulgaria (June 28 - July 2, 2025), and the Cluj International Flute Competition in Romania (July 5 - 12, 2025). According to the Basel University of Music, it is particularly remarkable that there were only three days between the two competitions.

As part of his success, Jorge will have the opportunity to perform as a soloist with various orchestras in Italy and Romania in the coming season. Jorge Rodriguez recently completed his Master's degree in Solo Performance at the Basel University of Music in the class of Felix Renggli.

Lübeck Brahms portal goes online

The Brahms Institute at the Lübeck University of Music (MHL) houses a collection on Brahms and his environment that is unique in the world. It is now available to the public digitally.

Letter from Brahms to Avé-Lallemant (Image: Brahms-Portal)

The Lübeck holdings have been digitally recorded and semantically networked according to the latest standards. The focus is on the musical oeuvre: based on the objects in the collection, a large number of scholarly texts have been written that shed new light on the background to their creation and publication. Almost twenty authors from the German-speaking musicology community have dealt with the objects in the Lübeck collection.

As a lighthouse project for digitization, the Brahms Portal was financed by the structural and excellence budget of the state of Schleswig-Holstein and the Possehl Foundation Lübeck with 800,000 euros. All content is open access and based on the FAIR principles, according to which research data is recorded sustainably. Around 10,000 data records have already been linked in this way. The collection is not yet complete, but will be successively continued in the future.

Link: brahms-portal.com

Yunchan Lim honored with Berggruen Prize

Pianist Yunchan Lim has been awarded this year's Olivier Berggruen Prize as part of his recital at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy.

Olivier Berggruen presents Yunchan Lim with the prize (Image: Raphel Faux)

Yunchan Lim, together with his teacher Minsoo Sohn, impressed the audience in the Rougemont church with a program that included arrangements for two pianos of Richard Strauss' Rose CavalierBrahms' Sonata and Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances.

Yunchan Lim won the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022 at the age of 18. Since then, he has made his debuts with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. In April 2025, he gave his recital debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Yunchan Lim will receive the Olivier Berggruen Prize after Alexandra Dovgan (prizewinner 2023) and Kate Liu (prizewinner 2024).

Established by the German-American art historian, curator and writer Olivier Berggruen, the prize includes a concert as part of the festival program and a trophy, which this year was designed by the Geneva-born artist Olympia Scarry, who now lives in New York. Berggruen comes from a family of patrons and is artistic advisor to the Gstaad Menuhin Festival.

 

 

Bern Tschumi Prizes go to Karpova and Lucjan in 2025

This year's Eduard Tschumi Music Prize of the Bern University of the Arts goes ex aequo to the pianist Ekaterina Karpova and the violinist Marta Lucjan.

from left: Marta Lucjan (picture: Bettina Matthiessen), Ekaterina Karpova (picture: HKB)

Ekaterina Karpova graduated with honors from Gnessin College (2016) and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow (2021). She completed her second Master's degree in Specialized Music Performance at the Bern University of the Arts (HKB) under the direction of Tomasz Herbut.

Marta Lucjan is a Polish violinist dedicated to the research and performance of contemporary music. She studied at the HKB under the direction of Corina Belcea (Master Specialized Performance, specialization in New Music). In addition to her academic activities, she is the founder and active member of the Aventurin Quartet.

The Eduard Tschumi Music Prize is awarded annually to the best graduate of the HKB's Specialized Music Performance Master's programme. This year's two winners have identical final grades. The prize is endowed with 7000 francs each. With the support of the Bürgi-Willert Foundation, the winner in the soloist specialization also receives the opportunity to perform as a chamber music partner or soloist in the Bern Symphony Orchestra's seasonal programme.

Death of Sir Roger Norrington

Sir Roger Norrington, who was Principal Conductor of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra from 2011 to 2016, has died at the age of 91.

Sir Roger Norrington (Image: ZKO/Youtube)

Norrington was an outstanding pioneer of historically informed music-making. He was chief conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra of the SWR for 13 years. From 1997 to 2006 he was chief conductor of the Camerata Salzburg. From 2011 to 2016, he conducted the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. He is an honorary conductor in Stuttgart, Salzburg, Zurich and with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

 

Bloxham becomes Principal Conductor of the London Mozart Players

Jonathan Bloxham, who has been Music Director of the Lucerne Theater since 2023, is expanding his engagement with the London Mozart Players.

Jonathan Bloxham (Image: Kaupo Kikkas)

Bloxham has been Resident Conductor and Artistic Advisor to the London Mozart Players since 2022. This season, he is leading their concert series in St Martin in the Fields and Fairfield Halls and conducting a tour of Switzerland with four concerts. He will take up his new post in the coming 2025/26 season.

Jonathan Bloxham began his career in 2016 as Assistant Conductor with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. He studied cello at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal College of Music and graduated with a Master's degree from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He later trained as a conductor with Sian Edwards, Michael Seal, Nicolas Pasquet and Paavo Järvi.

Founded in 1949 as the UK's first chamber orchestra, the London Mozart Players (LMP) is an ensemble of international musicians. It is based at Fairfield Halls in Croydon, Surrey.

 

 

Nott takes over as music director at the Gran Teatro del Liceo

Jonathan Nott, Music Director and Artistic Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, has been appointed Music Director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.

Jonathan Nott (Image: OSR)

The British conductor succeeds Josep Pons, who has been appointed Honorary Conductor after fourteen years in this position. Opened in 1847, the Gran Teatre del Liceu is the largest opera house in the Catalan capital of Barcelona and is located on the Rambles in the city center. It is also the second largest organizer of Wagner festivals, just behind the Bayreuth Festival.

Born in 1962, British conductor Jonathan Nott has been Principal Conductor of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and Music Director of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra since 2014. He has been Music Director and Artistic Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande since 2017, with a contract that has been extended until 2026. He will take up the post in Barcelona in the 2026/27 season for an initial period of five years.

Death of Latvian cellist Marta Sudraba

Latvian cellist Marta Sudraba, who completed her master's degree in 2000 in Basel with Thomas Demenga, has died in Vienna at the age of 50.

Marta Sudraba (Image: facebook.com/GidonKremerMusic)

According to the online magazine Slipped Disc, Sudraba was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1975. She studied music in Riga, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and at the Basel Academy of Music with Thomas Demenga, as well as with Heinrich Schiff at the Vienna Academy of Music.

In 1997 she joined Gidon Kremer's Kremerata Baltica, where she led the cello section and took part in the ensemble's tours and recordings. The following year she became a member of Kremer's trio. Sudraba has also played with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Orchestra de La Scala in Milan, among others.

As a chamber musician, she has worked with Kremer as well as with Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Thomas Quasthoff, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Ilya Gringolts, Per Arne Glorvigen, Joshua Bell and Vadim Sakharov. She was also a guest at the Verbier Festival.

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