Plamena Nikitassovas artistic focus is the study of the violin repertoire of the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods, with the aim of performing works from the 17th to 19th centuries by exploring the theoretical source material and the technical characteristics of the period.

In addition to her busy concert schedule as a soloist and chamber musician, Plamena Nikitassova was concertmaster of the Johann Sebastian Bach Foundation in St. Gallen from 2013 to 2017. In 2020, she also founded the chamber music series in Basel In the course of time.

Plamena Nikitassova, born in Varna, Bulgaria, began playing the violin at the age of five and was awarded a scholarship at the age of 16, which took her to Switzerland to study music. She studied classical violin at the Geneva University of Music and at the Vienna University of Music. After meeting the violinist Jaap Schröder (Amsterdam), Nikitassova turned to early music and completed her studies in Renaissance and Baroque violin with Chiara Banchini at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in 2005.

Chorwald is the second winner of the Ausserrhoden Recognition Award. According to the canton, choral singing has a long tradition in Appenzell Ausserrhoden and encourages a broad public to engage in cultural activities. Individual professional musicians such as Jürg Surber, the long-standing conductor of the Chorwald, are often able to motivate choirs with their enthusiasm and expertise. This year's cantonal recognition award is therefore also representative of the great commitment shown by other choirs in the canton.

Founded in 1983 as Gemischter Chor Wald AR from a merger between the men's choir founded in 1879 and the women's and daughters' choir founded in 1904, the Chorwald is now a regional choir with over 60 active members from all the surrounding villages.

The performer and choreographer Gisa Frank received the Culture Prize, which is endowed with 25,000 francs. She was born in 1960 and grew up in southern Germany and on Lake Constance in Thurgau. She has lived in Rehetobel since 1988. Gisa Frank, trained in contemporary dance, performative forms of movement and bodywork, has been active in the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden for more than twenty years.

German mezzo-soprano Janina Schweitzer has won the Grand Prix Opéra and the Audience Prize at the Concours International d'Art Vocal George Enesco in Paris, according to a statement from the HKB. The international George Enescu competition was founded in Bucharest in 1958 - but the singing section disappeared from the program in 2002. This pure singing competition was therefore re-established in Paris in 2014.

French soprano Iris Keller has won first prize in the singing category of the Concours International Leopold Bellan. In the competition, participants work on a free program that includes melodies, songs and operas.

Janina Schweitzer and Iris Keller are both studying for a Master's in Specialized Music Performance - Opera at the HKB and will be performing at 7.30 pm on 13 and 14 January 2025 as part of the Playtime Festival at Volkshaus Biel. Scenes from various operas will be shown on the theme of "generational conflicts".

According to the study, the results of two AI systems are rated significantly worse aesthetically than human solutions. The research group led by Reinhard Kopiez is critical of the current public debate about the musical and creative potential of AI and sees a tendency to overestimate it.

The Hanover-based music psychologists selected the opening bars of a melody from a largely unknown piece of music in the style of film music as the stimulus. Based on a melody continuation paradigm, a total of 111 compositions were created using ChatGPT and Google Magenta Studio. Music students generated a total of 57 continuation variants.

In a randomized blind test, 71 participants with above-average musical experience rated the aesthetic qualities of the melodies. The results astonished the music psychologists: The human solutions were rated significantly better than the AI versions on all scales, with the older Google Magenta Studio system still lagging behind ChatGPT.

Original article:
Schreiber, A., Sander, K., Kopiez, R., & Thöne, R. (2024). The creative performance of the AI agents ChatGPT and Google Magenta compared to human-based solutions in a standardized melody continuation task. Yearbook of Music Psychology, 32, Article e195. https://doi.org/10.5964/jbdgm.195

The 45-year-old Boris Brüderlin studied literature, theater and film studies at the universities of Lausanne, Bern and Berlin as well as dramaturgy at the Leipzig University of Music and Theater. After completing his studies, he initially worked as a production manager and dramaturge for various Swiss companies. He was also project manager of the Treibstoff-Theatertage Basel, a platform for young talent in the performing arts.

From 2013 to 2016, he was a commissioner for theater, dance and youth culture in the Department of Culture of the Canton of Basel-Stadt, developing cross-disciplinary funding instruments and chairing funding commissions and juries. For the last eight years, Boris Brüderlin was head of Reso - Dance Network Switzerland, was responsible for the Swiss Dance Days, among other things, and coordinated various national funding programs.

Boris Brüderlin is taking over as Head of Promotion from Sabina Brunnschweiler, who left the department at the end of March 2024 to become Co-Head of the Office of Culture of the Canton of St. Gallen. The Department of Culture is responsible for promoting contemporary cultural production in the canton of Zurich. It supports artists, projects and institutions and awards prizes and distinctions.

The Federal Council expects special attention to be paid to ecology and climate, gender equality, inclusion and fair working conditions for cultural professionals when funding projects. Managers should ensure an appreciative and inclusive working environment, and the foundation should also promote an inclusive and anti-discriminatory personnel policy.

Pro Helvetia provides legally prescribed services in the promotion of young talent, projects that are particularly innovative and suitable for providing new cultural impetus, art education, the promotion of artistic creation and cultural exchange in Switzerland and abroad.

The strategic goals:
https://www.newsd.admin.ch/newsd/message/attachments/90383.pdf

How do emotions and meaning arise in music? Almost 70 years ago, the music philosopher Leonard Meyer suspected that an interplay between expectation and surprise was responsible for both. According to Meyer, emotions and meaning in music arise from the interplay of expectations, their fulfillment or their (temporary) non-fulfillment.

Scientists led by Theo Geisel at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) and the University of Göttingen have asked themselves whether these philosophical concepts can be empirically captured using modern methods of data science. In total, researchers Theo Geisel and Corentin Nelias analyzed more than 450 jazz improvisations and 99 classical compositions, including multi-movement symphonies and sonatas.

According to the study, jazz improvisations are typically less predictable. Differences were also observed in some cases between different composers. For example, the researchers found that compositions by Bach offer more variety and surprises than works by Mozart.

More info: https://www.ds.mpg.de/4072514/241105_music_anticipation?c=148849

Barbara Balba Weber's recipe for creating diversity in the audience of classical concerts over the long term has been convincing across the board, writes the association. The concept is to include a dialogue group - for example a specific professional group, a music association or a special age group - as a "guest of honour" in the program every year. The following year, it is the turn of another dialog group, while the previous one is integrated into the festival as a "permanent guest" with an individual format. In this way, the diversity of the classical music audience can be increased year after year.

On November 21, 2024, Klassikfestivals Berner Oberland will hold a workshop for its members in Thun, where the winning project by Barbara Balba Weber will be presented in detail and various implementation options will be presented. The aim is for as many festivals in the Bernese Oberland as possible to take up the idea and implement a variant adapted to their needs.

The prizes are endowed with 15,000 francs each. South Korean Sang-min Ryu, who was also awarded the Nicati De Luze Special Prize, came third.

Caio de Azevedo holds a master's degree in composition from the Musikhochschule München, where he studied with Moritz Eggert. In 2023 he was a resident at the Cité des Arts in Paris. As a Brazilian composer living in Germany, the works have been performed by ensembles such as the MIVOS Quartet, Ensemble Recherche and the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie. He has composed numerous works, including the music theater piece Finita (2018) and the ballet in three acts for orchestra Macbeth (2019).

Léo Albisetti was born in Switzerland in 1997 and began his musical education with the piano. At the age of 19, he joined the composition class of Michael Jarrell, Luis Naón, Eric Daubresse and Gilbert Nouno at the Geneva University of Music. There he received a bachelor's degree and later a master's degree in mixed composition. He mainly composes for chamber music ensembles, but also for orchestra, harmony music, electronics and theater pieces.

According to the canton's press release, a total of 57 people were invited to the audition phase before the jury of the JTM-Vs commission, which took place from 29 April to 2 May 2024 at the new music center in Sion. In the end, 39 talented musicians from Valais received the first scholarships for this support program for young people between the ages of 4 and 25.

The aim of this support is to raise a high caliber of young amateur musicians and to prepare young musicians from Valais as well as possible for the transition to a music academy. The beneficiaries can then take advantage of a varied program of lessons, seminars and workshops that meet their specific needs and receive individual support. They can also use the money they receive to buy or maintain a musical instrument.

More info: aem-vms-vs.ch

Dawidiuk has been studying orchestral conducting with Johannes Schlaefli and Christoph-Mathias Mueller and piano with Till Fellner at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) since 2020, as well as organ with Martin Sander at the Basel Music Academy. He is currently a scholarship holder of the German Foundation for Musical Life and the Conducting Forum of the German Music Council for top young conductors. He was recently appointed Associate Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam. He will take over the position from the current 2024/25 season.

The Oscar and Vera Ritter Foundation awards a special prize to performers and/or composers for particularly outstanding achievements in their fields as part of its funding priorities. The prize is awarded exclusively by a selection committee. Applications are not possible. The Hamburg-based foundation was established in 1963 by Oscar and Vera Ritter and took up its activities after the death of the founders in 1967.

The contributions in the jazz, rock, pop category go to Domi Chansorn, Gini Jungi and Shuyue Miao Zhao. Tomas Korber will be supported in the classical/new music category. Asia Ahmetjanova receives the Half Year of Work. In all five sponsorship categories, a total of 21 artists and one collective will receive work years and awards totaling CHF 702,000.

The award for special cultural services is also presented. It goes to Karen Roth-Krauthammer, President of the cultural association Omanut, Forum for Jewish Art and Culture.

The prerequisite for the takeover of the service contract is that the voters of the City of Bern approve the 2025 budget on November 24, 2024. This budget also includes the funds for Konsibern. The music school's services are to be compensated with a sum of around CHF 4.3 million for 2025. This includes additional costs of CHF 282,000. These are due to an increase in the number of students, an increase in teachers' salaries and higher rental costs.

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.

The first prize is endowed with CHF 20,000, the second with CHF 12,000. A third prize was not awarded. Chelsea Marilyn Zurflüh was also awarded all but two of the special prizes, including the audience prize and the orchestra prize.

Chelsea Marilyn Zurflüh grew up in Pieterlen. She completed her Master of Arts at the Bern University of the Arts with the highest grade. She has been a member of the International Opera Studio in Zurich since September 2021. She was first prize winner of the Marianne & Curt Dienemann Foundation Music Competition, winner of the Migros Culture Percentage Singing Competition, the Kiefer-Hablitzel/Göhner Music Competition and first prize winner of the Elvirissima Singing Competition. Most recently, she won the Haydn Competition in Rohrau.

Born in Riehen near Basel in 1960, Dominik Sackmann studied organ in Zurich from 1980-84 and musicology, church history and Latin philology in Basel and Bern. He was music editor at Radio DRS2 from 1988-1993. He has been managing director of the Christoph Delz Foundation since 1994. He heads the Institute for Music Research at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and teaches music history, performance practice and chamber music.

The Benemerenti Medal of Merit ("to the well-deserving") is a papal decoration for services to the Catholic Church. It is also known as the Bene merenti and Benemerenti Medal. It goes back to various traditions of papal awards that honored both civilian and military achievements. (Source: Wikipedia)