The files contain letters and letters of application from Leipzig students and provide new insights into the organization of Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata performances. For the first time, the sources prove that the Leipzig Council specifically supported student singers and instrumentalists with scholarships: »Leipzig's church music was not based on artistic excellence alone, but on a functioning communal support structure,« says musicologist Bernd Koska.

One outstanding find is a previously unknown letter from Johann Sebastian Bach from 1740 for his preferred bass Gottlob Friedrich Türsch. In addition, the oldest surviving letter of application from Georg Philipp Telemann and a reference from Johann Christoph Gottsched for Johann Friedrich Doles were also found.

The finds were made by project team member Bernd Koska as part of the »BACH Research Portal« research project of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, based at the Leipzig Bach Archive. The Leipzig City Archive is presenting the finds in a special exhibition until April 23.

More info:
https://www.leipzig.de/newsarchiv/news/handschriften-von-j-s-bach-j-c-gottsched-und-g-p-telemann-im-stadtarchiv-leipzig-entdeckt

Arens is currently Artistic Director of Operations and Director of the Academy of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, where he has worked since 2022. Previously, he was Senior Director of Production at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Director of Audience Development for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Casting Manager (interim) for the Paris Opera.

He has also worked as a consulting producer for the Spoleto Festival (USA), as artistic production manager for the Badisches Staatstheater and as assistant director at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music. Cameron Arens studied musicology (B.A.) at Yale University and double bass as part of a master's degree at the Yale School of Music.

Jean Denes, the former opera and casting director at Theater Basel, is moving to the artistic direction of the Grand Théâtre de Genève after six seasons.

According to annual statistics from the Bachtrack.com site, living female composers have become significantly more important, with Caroline Shaw and Anna Clyne in the top ten most-performed living composers. In 2025, there is also an increasing prominence of non-white composers, with Gabriela Ortiz's performances almost doubling since 2024. Other sound creators who will become more important in the 2020s include Jessie Montgomery and Carlos Simon (both USA), while South African composer and cellist Abel Selaocoe has experienced a meteoric rise in recent years, with the number of his works performed almost tripling between 2024 and 2025.

The busiest conductor was Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the busiest orchestra was the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The most frequently performed composers were Beethoven, Mozart and Bach, the most frequently performed work was Vivaldi's Four seasons, followed by Ravel's La Valse, an episode of Ravel's 150th birthday. Accordingly, the most frequently performed solo work was Ravel's Piano concerto in G major. The most frequently performed operas were Mozart's Magic fluteBizet's Carmen and Puccini's La Bohème.

All statistics:
https://cdn.bachtrack.com/files/467517-DE%20Annual%20classical%20music%20statistics%202025.pdf

Hepp, who grew up as the son of a concert singer and a secondary school teacher in Rüti in the Zurich Oberland, produced Switzerland's first pop album with the group Les Sauterelles. From 1968, he hosted «Hits à Gogo», the first pop music program on Swiss television. In the same year, he founded the group Krokodil with drummer Düde Dürst. He went on to work with everyone who was anyone in the Swiss jazz and rock scene.

Hepp was also a pioneer of the ecological movement: in 1987, he was one of the co-founders of the Green Movement, a forerunner of the Green Party in Graubünden. In 1991, he founded the legendary Hepp Choir, in which Dodo Hug and Vera Kaa, among others, also sang. After 2011, he ended his career on stage and as a recording director. He has now died in Frauenfeld hospital after prolonged health problems.

In 2026, there will be 9,748 designated posts, 33 fewer than in 2024, writes the German music and orchestra association Unisono. The orchestra promoters are actually filling far fewer positions. There are currently just 9292, 456 of which are vacant. According to Unisono Co-Managing Director Robin von Olshausen, there are many reasons for this. A shortage of skilled workers, regional location disadvantages and sometimes long recruitment processes make it difficult to fill positions. The Erfurt Philharmonic Orchestra (21%), the orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin (18%) and the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne (14%), for example, have worryingly high vacancy rates.

Unison is particularly concerned about the increasing uncertainty surrounding funding in public broadcasting. Radio orchestras, choirs and big bands are increasingly affected by this. There are currently concrete plans at SWR and SR to cut jobs at the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie. This step would affect an excellent orchestra that is very strongly anchored in the region and is still suffering from the consequences of a previous merger.

At least once a year, the city of Lucerne invites people to the «Lucerne Culture Talks». In this format, current topics, challenges and opportunities in the cultural sector are discussed. Mayor Beat Züsli, Director of Education, together with the Department of Culture and Sport, provides information on current cultural projects and cultural policy developments in funding. At the same time, cultural professionals are given the opportunity to share their experiences, perspectives and concerns.

The aim of the new format is to intensify dialog, promote professional exchange and provide impetus for future topics with expert presentations. The aim is to identify challenges and develop solutions together in order to further strengthen the diversity of Lucerne's cultural scene.

More info:
https://www.stadtluzern.ch/aktuelles/newslist/2726378

Savall initially studied violoncello in Barcelona until he chose the viola da gamba as his instrument due to his enthusiasm for Renaissance music. He completed his studies in Basel at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where he would later teach viola da gamba himself. He has been tirelessly committed to early music since the late 1960s. Not only as a performer, but also as a scholar who researched medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, writes the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. Savall will receive the highly endowed prize of 250,000 euros in 2026 for his life's work.

The Ernst von Siemens Music Prize has been awarded annually since 1973 by the private Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, which is based in Switzerland. The foundation supports composition commissions, festivals, concerts with premieres and revivals, academies, symposia and the publication of musicological works. In 2026, it will once again increase its funding budget and award a total of 4.3 million euros in funding. At 3.3 million euros, the largest share of the funding will go to contemporary music projects worldwide.

Born and raised in Rome, Pietro Rizzo studied violin - first in his home town, then in Siena and Dallas. He then went on to study orchestral conducting at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam. Engagements have taken him to the Aalto Theater in Essen as principal conductor, he was principal conductor at Gothenburg Opera and he is a regular guest conductor at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki. Pietro Rizzo will make his debut at the Bregenz Festival in summer 2026. Between 2001 and 2019, he held a guest professorship at the International Opera Academy (IOA) in Ghent.

Pietro Rizzo emerged as the clear favorite against more than 30 competitors in a seven-stage application process over several months. He will take over from Modestas Pitrenas at the start of the 2026/27 season. At the same time as Pietro Rizzo's election, the contracts of two other directors were extended early: Barbara-David Brüesch and Frank Fannar Pedersen will remain Head of Drama and Head of Dance respectively until at least the end of the 2030/31 season.

Against the backdrop of a growing shortage of specialists due to declining student numbers, unfilled or eliminated positions and a lack of support for church music associations, there is an urgent need for action. In order to secure the future of church music, a joint commitment and strategy is needed from those responsible in churches and society.

Recent surveys by the German Music Information Center (miz) confirm the high social relevance of church music: of the 16.3 million amateur musicians nationwide, 23% make music in church and of amateur musicians aged 16 and over, 23% say they have come into closer contact with music through churches. 3300 full-time professionals form the backbone of voluntary musical engagement and support cultural life in church congregations and communities with concerts, rehearsals and music education.

The whole statement: 
https://www.musikrat.de/fileadmin/redaktion/news/2026/01_2026/2026_01_21_DMR_Positionspapier_Zukunft_der_Kirchenmusik_sichern.pdf

Born in London in 1954, Arman was educated in his home city at Trinity College of Music. From 1983 to 2000, he conducted the Salzburg Bach Choir, with whom he first appeared at the Salzburg Festival in 1995. From 1998 to 2013, Howard Arman served as Artistic Director of the MDR Radio Choir in Leipzig and from 2011 to 2016 as Music Director at the Lucerne Theater. He will take up his new post in Munich from the 2026/27 season.

The Munich Bach Academy arose from the desire to continuously cultivate the music of Johann Sebastian Bach in Munich at a high artistic level. Since its foundation, it has developed into a permanent fixture in the city's musical life with concerts, projects and music education work. From the very beginning, its history has combined historical performance practice with the aim of presenting Bach's music in a new and lively way.

She will take up the new position on August 1, 2026, succeeding Felix Baumann, who will hand over the profile management at the end of the spring semester. He has been closely associated with the ZHdK for over 30 years and will retire in July 2026. With Daniella Gerszt, the Department of Music has gained an experienced specialist with proven expertise, particularly in music theory, writes the ZHdK.

Daniella Gerszt comes from Chur and studied piano and music theory at the Lucerne School of Music. Further piano studies took her to the Royal Academy of Music in London. She was a lecturer in music theory at the State University of Music Trossingen (Germany) and has been a lecturer in music theory at the Lucerne School of Music since 2011, where she has been study coordinator for Composition, Music Theory, Music Research, Artistic Research and Music and Digital Creation since 2020. She has been teaching music theory / aural training at Zurich University of the Arts since 2013 and is now taking over the management of the profile.

The Symphony No. 5 was the first to be released as part of the orchestra's Mahler cycle. It has already been awarded the German Record Critics‘ Award 3/25. According to the ICMA jury, the recording is characterized by «unparalleled precision, wonderful harmony and perfectly coordinated tempi».

In addition to the Tonhalle Orchestra, the ICMA (International Classical Music Awards) will also be showing the documentary film «The Alchemy of Music» by director Jan Schmidt-Garre and Swiss pianist Francesco Piemontesi, in which Piemontesi's older colleagues provide insights into the secrets of piano playing.

The ICMA have been awarded annually since 2011. They are awarded by independent media professionals. The ICMA awards ceremony always takes place in different countries, this year on March 18, 2026 in the Keilberth Hall in Bamberg.

Franz Manser began playing the Schwyzerörgeli as a primary school pupil, but soon switched to the hand organ and gave his first public performance at the age of 14. Since then, he has played in various formations and, according to the canton's press release, has become an integral part of the folk music scene. As a composer, he has written around 70 to 80 pieces, including numerous waltzes, Schottisch and Ruggusseli, which are now an integral part of the Appenzell repertoire.

His unmistakable style combined tradition with a lively joy of playing and made folk music famous far beyond the canton's borders, the canton added. In addition to his musical activities, Franz Manser ran a road construction business and ran a restaurant.

With this award, the Republic is honoring a conductor whose artistic integrity, intellectual depth and human greatness have shaped musical life far beyond Austria and will continue to do so, according to the laudation. Jordan combines precision with deep musical feeling, human greatness with artistic passion in his work. In his work at the Vienna State Opera, at the Paris Opera and on the world's great stages, he embodies a rare balance of analytical clarity and deeply felt, organic music-making.

Jordan was chief conductor of the Graz Opera House from 2001 to 2004 and of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra from 2014 to 2020. From 2020 to June 2025, Philippe Jordan was Music Director of the Vienna State Opera. At the beginning of the 2027/28 season, he will take over the position of Music Director at the Orchestre National de France.

In a personal message, Coll writes, according to the online magazine Slipped Disc, that he must step down from the management of his opera due to a recent mild transient ischemic attack. Enemy of the people at the Teatro Real in Madrid. However, he is recovering well and hopes to return to the podium once he has made a full recovery.

Coll served as composer-in-residence with Camerata Bern in 2018–19, a position that culminated in the world premiere of the double concerto Illuminated Pleasures with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Sol Gabetta as soloists and the composer himself as conductor. A violin concerto for Kopatchinskaja, commissioned by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the NTR Zaterdag Matinee and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, was premiered in February 2020. His Cello Concerto was premiered in 2022 with Sol Gabetta at the Philharmonie de Paris conducted by the composer and had its UK premiere at the BBC Proms 2024 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Tianyi Lu.