According to several international press reports, Widmann was forced to carry her violin, which cost millions, unprotected in the cabin on a Lufthansa flight from Helsinki to Leipzig last November. The ground staff had forbidden her to take the violin case with her, in accordance with the rules, because at 80 centimetres long it did not comply with the permitted dimensions. Previously, Lufthansa staff had always been accommodating.

Following discussions with the musician, Lufthansa (and with it Swiss) is now changing the rules for musical instruments in the cabin from March. The height plus width plus depth of the packed instrument may now not exceed 125 centimeters in total. This means that instruments that are longer than the regular maximum of 55 centimeters can also be taken on board.

Romano Zoppi began his professional career with an apprenticeship as a businessman. He subsequently completed various training and further education courses and graduated with a Master of Advanced Studies in Cultural Management from Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in 2014. He is already working as a project manager for cultural strategy at the city's cultural department and has implemented various complex and cooperative projects such as the development of the cultural space network, the cultural portal chur-culture.ch or the renewal of the city's cultural strategy.

From 2016 to 2025, he became known as the initiator and chairman of the Churer Werkstatt. He was also active first as co-project manager and later as a board member of Long Saturday and as owner of the music agency Sonic Service GmbH.

Helena Mettler will leave the city at the end of March, but will continue to support the cultural department in selected projects until summer 2026. The position of project manager at the cultural department will be advertised.

This year, Kaisa Helena Žigurs from Estonia unanimously won first prize in the highest category, Excellence (level 12). Žigurs is currently studying at the Zurich University of the Arts with Sarah O'Brien, having graduated from the Estonian Academy of Music and Drama in 2025. As winner of the first prize, Žigurs will give a concert at the Festival International Harpe en Avesnois and an opening concert at the next Concours Français de la Harpe.

Anna-Helena Hamann (Finland) and Denitza Dimitrova (Bulgaria) also won first prize in the highest division. Siyu Chen (China) won second prize, Anastasiya Uvarava (Belarus) and Meret Maria Meier (Switzerland) third prize.

The 15th edition of the Concours Français de la Harpe took place from February 13 to 15, 2026 in Limoges, France. The international competition comprised 12 repertoire categories. The jury members of this year's competition included Isabelle Perrin, Dominique Lacôte, Sylvain Blassel and Véronique Chenuet (who organizes the competition together with Marie-Monique Popesco).

Krzysztof Urbański has been Chief Conductor of the Bern Symphony Orchestra since the 2025/26 season. He is also Music Director and Artistic Director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana since 2022.

Under the direction of Urbański, the Bern Symphony Orchestra has continuously expanded its artistic and thematic range, the ensemble writes in its press release. Well-known works from the late Romantic repertoire are juxtaposed with combined rediscoveries and new discoveries as well as exciting works from classical modernism and the present day. In addition, the orchestra will continue to expand its international touring activities together with Krzysztof Urbański in the coming seasons.

The funding model, which brings together the canton, the host municipalities and the cultural institutions concerned, has «proven its validity in terms of funding stability, medium-term development and administrative simplification», writes the canton. An expansion to other structures is planned from this year.

The trilateral agreements between the canton, the municipalities and cultural institutions launched as a pilot project in 2023 are intended to strengthen cultural institutions in the long term by securing them a fixed, predictable funding framework. This is based on clear objectives and offers measurable indicators such as artistic activity, attendance figures, cultural mediation, working conditions, equal pay and sustainability. According to the canton, the controlling carried out after three years has shown clear positive effects.

More info:
https://www.vs.ch/de/web/communication/e/com-et-media/10108/45375476

According to the press release, Kultur Stadt Bern is guided by the principle of participatory justice. In a city with a diverse population, cultural promotion services should be as widely accessible as possible and reflect the reality of this diversity. The guidelines record the knowledge gained and should also be able to be used by other public and private cultural funding bodies. The main focus of the guide is on project funding and working with commissions and juries.

In light of social change, the city's cultural promotion department initiated a multi-year transformation process in 2020. Based on the key question «What can we do to promote diversity?», the attitudes and working methods of both the Culture Department and the commissions were analyzed and measures were developed and implemented.

These guidelines reflect the knowledge and experience gained by Kultur Stadt Bern. The reflection process was accompanied by external experts Anisha Imhasly and Rahel El-Maawi, who also wrote the guidelines on behalf of Kultur Stadt Bern. The process was financially supported by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia as part of the «Intercultural Society» initiative (now Innovation and Society) from 2020 to 2024.

Link to the guide:
https://www.bern.ch/mediencenter/medienmitteilungen/aktuell_ptk/neuer-leitfaden-fuer-eine-diversitaetsorientierte-kulturfoerderung/dokumente/leitfaden-diversity.pdf/download

A total of 802 people took part in the study, which consisted of eleven chamber music concerts with the same three string quintets, but with different format components. Questionnaires, physiological measurements and cameras were used to record individual experience and behavior. Among other things, the team measured the heart rate, evaluated emotions that were shown through facial expressions and recorded the evaluation, community experience and other dimensions of experience.

The study is part of the comprehensive research project «Experimental Concert Research», which aims to gain insights into the musical experience at concerts. With the results of several experimental live and streamed concerts, the team aims to establish a larger, empirically supported model of the music experience in concert.

More info:
https://www.aesthetics.mpg.de/newsroom/news/news-artikel/article/wie-konzertformate-das-musik-erleben-beeinflussen.html

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.