Both won a prize of 7,000 francs each in the challenging three-part master’s examination, having received identical final grades. Pianist Nikita Kachaev earned his traditional soloist diploma, while guitarist Samuele Provenzi completed the specialization in contemporary music. With the support of the Bürgi-Willert Foundation, Provenzi will also have the opportunity to perform as a chamber music partner or soloist in the Bern Symphony Orchestra’s season program.

Nikita Kachaev completed his studies at the N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory of Music in St. Petersburg under Pavel Egorov, as well as at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he also completed a postgraduate program in performance in Oleg Vainshtein’s class. In 2026, he earned a Master’s degree in Specialized Performance (Classical) from the HKB in Bern, where he studied piano with Tomasz Herbut.

Samuele Provenzi is an Italian guitarist and artistic researcher. He studied at the Liceo Musicale G. Verdi in Milan and at the conservatories in Milan and Brescia. He earned his Master’s degree in Specialized Music Performance/Contemporary Music under Elena Càsoli at the Bern University of the Arts.

For his work Woven from Light – Reflections for Violin and Cello received David Philip Hefti a Gold Medal with Honorable Mention, as well as the additional Contemporary Music Prize. According to Hefti’s website, the jury unanimously praised «the exceptional artistic quality, the distinctive musicality, and the high technical standard of the composition.» The Artistic Committee of the international competition also specifically highlighted its outstanding quality.

The Contemporary Music Prize includes an invitation to release a digital album on the classical music label Orpheus Classical. Hefti will have the opportunity to curate a program of his own works centered around an overarching artistic or conceptual theme. The album will be released worldwide via digital platforms.

The goal of the Manhattan International Music Competition is to discover artists with outstanding personalities. The competition awards prizes that can serve as a springboard for an international career. These include solo recitals at Carnegie Hall, a CD recording with worldwide distribution, and five additional digital albums to be released via streaming platforms. In addition, there are cash prizes and numerous special awards.

Past prize winners have performed at major venues, including Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, La Scala, Wigmore Hall, the Barbican Hall, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Royal Opera House, and the Salzburg Festival. As soloists, they have performed with international orchestras.

According to German media reports, Julien Chavaz, who was born in Bern, will become artistic director of the Aalto Music Theater and the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra starting with the 2028–2029 season. He was selected from among 40 candidates. Chavaz currently serves as general director of the Magdeburg Theater.

Julien Chavaz studied agricultural sciences in Zurich and dramaturgy in Lausanne, and served as artistic director of the Neue Oper Freiburg (NOF) in Switzerland from 2018 to 2022. He has also worked as an assistant director at the Opéra de Paris, the Opéra de Lyon, and De Nationale Opera Amsterdam.

The Aalto Music Theater, the Essen Philharmonic, the Aalto Ballet Essen, the Schauspiel Essen, and the Philharmonie Essen are all part of the Aalto Music Theater and Philharmonie Essen, making it one of Germany’s largest theater and concert organizations.  Merle Fahrholz is currently the artistic director of the Aalto Music Theater and the Essen Philharmonic, while Andrea Sanguineti serves as the general music director of the Essen Philharmonic. Marie Babette Nierenz serves as the artistic director of the Philharmonie.

This year marks the fourth edition of Zurich Music Week, which brings together artists, industry professionals, and music enthusiasts in Zurich. On August 7, a master class will be held in the ZHdK’s large recording studio. It will be led by ZHdK lecturer Domenico Ferrari, an expert in the production of house and electronic music.

Starting in the fall of 2026, ZHdK will also launch «Vo do us – Song Sessions ZHdK» in collaboration with the Kellerbühne St. Gallen, a series of events for songwriters who perform in Swiss German. Three to four concert evenings are planned each year, during which selected students will have the opportunity to present their programs in full-length concerts. These collaborations are intended to increase the visibility of the Jazz & Pop program at ZHdK.

The findings from the project will be published in August 2026 and are intended to help further develop operational processes at the Opera House and Musical Comedy venues.

Students at HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management conduct interviews with staff members from the Technical Directorate of the Opera House and the Musical Comedy, analyze on-site processes, and draw on selected practical examples from comparable institutions. In addition, they examine communication channels, information flows, data storage systems, and production and staffing schedules to identify opportunities for improvement.

Based on this, recommendations will be developed to streamline work processes, speed up coordination between departments, and make information more readily available. The project will also examine how digital tools can better support day-to-day work in the future. The HHL Alumni Association e.V., the HHL alumni support association, is funding the project.

More info:
https://www.mynewsdesk.com/de/hhl-gemeinnutzige-gmbh/pressreleases/hhl-und-oper-leipzig-analysieren-prozesse-hinter-der-buehne-3458037

Bruch was born in Cologne and, along with Jacques Offenbach, is probably the city’s most famous composer. He was active during the second half of the 19th century. Although Bruch did not achieve the same level of fame as his contemporary Johannes Brahms, his First Violin Concerto became a global hit and is a staple of the violin concert repertoire.

The letters comprise the correspondence between Max Bruch and his Berlin colleague Ernst Rudorff. In addition to offering insights into Bruch’s creative process, they contain a wealth of information about German musical life in the second half of the 19th century and, in particular, its interconnection with the cultural, historical, and political events of the time. For example, topics such as anti-Semitism and militarism are discussed, making the collection of letters an extremely valuable historical resource.

More info: https://idw-online.de/de/news873992

At the legislative level, the municipal music school system is mentioned in one provision each of the Elementary School Act and the Secondary School Act. However, there is currently no standalone, comprehensive law governing music schools. The Cantonal Council has therefore tasked the government, through a motion, with creating a separate legal framework for music schools. According to the canton’s press release, the new Music School Act regulates the responsibilities, organization, and funding of music schools and provides legal certainty for a well-established program.

The government of the Canton of St. Gallen is now submitting a draft of a new music school law for public comment. The basic structure of the music school system will remain unchanged. The law governs the responsibilities, organization, and funding of music schools. At the same time, it adheres to the tried-and-true principle whereby the municipalities or school districts, as the operating bodies of the music schools, continue to enjoy a high degree of autonomy in matters of content and organization. The canton continues to limit its role to establishing the legal framework.

More info:
https://www.sg.ch/news/sgch_allgemein/2026/07/regierung-gibt-musikschulgesetz-in-vernehmlassung.html

Anastasia Dziadevych, a native of Ukraine, studied at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv and in Zurich with Rudolf Koelman, Alexander Sitkovetsky, and Ilya Gringolts. She is a recipient of the Rahn Music Prize and the first violinist of the Gertler Quartet. She is also currently gaining orchestral experience with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. Since 2021, she has been supported by the Lyra Foundation.

The Kiwanis Competition recognizes the hard work of these young musicians and aims to provide them with a valuable reference for their future careers. Following the awards ceremony, the winners will perform in the traditional Kiwanis Winners’ Concert.

With this award, the classical music festival in Sion is awarded a grant of 20,000 francs. The Valais State Council thereby recognizes the quality and exemplary nature of the festival’s productions and events, its international reach, the event’s lasting impact, its cultural and economic effects on Valais, and its sound and sustainable funding model.

The festival is the legacy of a musical tradition spanning more than 60 years, founded by the Hungarian violinist Tibor Varga. Since May 2017, the three events founded by Tibor Varga—the Music Academy, the Sion Festival, and the International Violin Competition—have been united under the Fondation Sion Violon Musique (SVM). In 2018, a junior competition was also added to this structure, dedicated to fostering the next generation of musicians and upholding the highest artistic standards.

According to the library’s announcement, the archive serves as a valuable repository of history for researchers, the curious, and the history of Fribourg—a history that the concert hall has significantly shaped since its inception in 1983. As the heart of Fribourg’s nightlife, Fri-Son is indeed one of the first venues for underground culture and alternative music to emerge in French-speaking Switzerland.

Throughout its history, it has gained national and even international recognition by welcoming legends such as Muse, Cat Power, Nirvana, NTM, the Beastie Boys, Christine and the Queens, The Young Gods, the Foo Fighters, Stromae, and Théodora to its stage.

The collection is undergoing a comprehensive archival processing in the Cultural Heritage department under the direction of Candice Rey, who is responsible for the music archive at the KUB. After a cleaning phase, the documents will be sorted, organized, described, and cataloged in Fri-Memoria in order to preserve the archive permanently and, at the same time, facilitate its future use.

Hector Herzig had studied trumpet and served as president of the Swiss Association of Music Schools until 2012. As an entrepreneur, he offered consulting services to music schools through his company, Herzka, among other things. He had been a member of the Langenbruck municipal council since 2004 and became its chair in 2008. From 2011 to 2019, he led the Basel-Landschaft chapter of the Green Liberal Party (GLP).

After studying music at the Zurich University of the Arts (trumpet), he served as director of the Liestal Music School from 1991 to 2007, he directed the Liestal Music School and, from 2006 to 2012, as president of the Association of Swiss Music Schools, played a decisive role in shaping music education at the national level, including as a co-initiator of the «jugend+musik» initiative.  On September 23, 2012, the Swiss people subsequently adopted the new Article 67a, «Music Education,» into the Federal Constitution with an overwhelming 72.7 percent “yes” vote.

Under the leadership of Nuria Gorrite, head of the Department of Culture, an initial meeting was held at the Maison de l’Élysée, attended by more than thirty organizations representing, at the regional or national level, the interests of the fields of theater, music, cabaret, dance, the visual arts, photography, the audiovisual sector, digital arts, books and literature, as well as cultural mediation and technical and administrative professions. The main associations supporting amateur arts were also present.

The revision also aims to better define cantonal cultural policy as «a public policy serving the entire population.» It is intended to «clarify the state’s responsibilities and enhance the transparency of government action by clarifying the cooperation between the canton, the municipalities, the central cities, private partners, intercantonal institutions, and the federal government.».

Access to culture, participation, inclusion, cultural education, and the dissemination of works throughout the canton will be key focal points of these considerations. Culture is not limited to the promotion of artistic creation; it must enable everyone to participate in and benefit from cultural life.

Original article (in French):
https://www.vd.ch/actualites/communiques-de-presse-de-letat-de-vaud/detail/communique/le-canton-de-vaud-lance-la-revision-de-sa-loi-sur-la-vie-culturelle-et-la-creation-artistique

Suisseculture and Suisseculture Sociale welcome the initiative as an important political signal and a step in the right direction. It addresses a professional reality that the social security system has so far failed to adequately reflect. Suisseculture is the umbrella organization for professional cultural organizations in Switzerland and Swiss copyright collectives.

The text of the initiative states: «This legislative amendment is intended to make it possible to treat the income of cultural professionals who engage in multiple gainful activities—both as self-employed individuals and as employees—as income from employment on a flat-rate basis.»

The parliamentary initiative aims to better reflect the professional reality of cultural workers: Cultural workers often work both as self-employed individuals and as employees at the same time. They have multiple, often changing sources of income; the balance between self-employment and employment can sometimes shift from month to month. This reality makes classification under social security law and administrative processing very complex. As a result, affected cultural professionals often have significant gaps in their social security coverage.

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

The document is a 44-page manuscript booklet containing the composition lessons that Mozart gave to Marie-Louise-Philippine de Bonnières de Guînes (1759–1795), an accomplished harpist and daughter of the Duc de Guînes. It was discovered and identified in February 2026 in the music department of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) and offers valuable insights into how Mozart designed and conducted his composition lessons.

The BnF’s Music Department houses the world’s largest collection of Mozart’s autograph music manuscripts outside of Salzburg—Mozart’s birthplace and the headquarters of the International Mozarteum Foundation—and the Berlin State Library.

Original article:
https://www.bnf.fr/en/actualitesEN/discovery-unpublished-autograph-manuscript-mozart-bnf-music-department

Jonathan Bloxham, together with Opera Director Ursula Benzing, has been shaping the artistic development of the opera at the Lucerne Theater since the start of the 2023/24 season. In the upcoming season, he will serve as music director for the new productions of «My Fair Lady» and «The Flying Dutchman.» He will also conduct the revivals of «L’elisir d’amore» and «I Capuleti e i Montecchi.».

Bloxham’s conducting career began in 2016 as an assistant conductor with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. Since 2024, he has been chief conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, and since 2022, he has also served as resident conductor and artistic advisor to the London Mozart Players.