The main reason for this is that no publicly communicated search procedure has been initiated to date, writes Unison. Even if an interim solution were to be sought for the time being, this would not «release us from the need to carry out a regular, transparent selection procedure in parallel». Neither the reasons for the lack of a search procedure nor the strategic considerations of the city were communicated in a comprehensible manner. Such a handling of a central management function of a municipal orchestra is unusual, non-transparent and in need of explanation.

A public debate on the cultural policy direction of the city of Constance is long overdue, they continued in unison. This discussion concerns both the public and the employees. Both need a clear commitment that the city will continue to fully support its orchestra.

The Lake Constance Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1932. It is one of the most important cultural institutions in south-western Germany, shapes the cultural life of the university city of Constance and is also an important player in concert life in Switzerland. With over 60 permanently employed musicians, the orchestra reaches around 80,000 people at over 100 concerts a year.

The project with the full name «Project Animated Objects and Moving Sound Sources: Expanding Spatial Audio in Post-Instrumental Practice» investigates new concepts and methods in the field of spatial audio reproduction with a focus on embodied and object-based performative practices in contemporary music. It is funded for four years.

Under the direction of Rama Gottfried, the project combines various strands of research from the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) at ZHdK on the subject of spatiality. It links 3D audio rendering with Peter Fäber's work on «Moving Sound Sources», Daniel Bisig's research on movement analysis in dance and Gottfried's work in post-instrumental material theater and with animated objects as embodied presence.

Hanna Järveläinen and Germán Toro Pérez provide scientific advice for the project. A postdoctoral position and a PhD position will be advertised as part of the project next year.

David Flütsch grew up in Graubünden and studied jazz drums and music education in Zurich, according to a press release from the canton of Thurgau. He has lived in Weinfelden for ten years and runs a music studio called Sour Soul in Bürglen. His clients are both international and regional music bands. He is a musician, songwriter, composer, sound engineer and sound designer.

As an outstanding drummer, Flütsch is part of various bands. He also has his own signature as a producer. Many of the projects he has been involved in have been promoted throughout Switzerland and have received nominations and awards such as the M4Music Demotape Clinic, including his own project MonoDada.

With his current project, he wants to move away from purely commissioned work in order to have time to strengthen his own musical signature and find a clearly profiled, artistic independence. He would like to devote more time to his own musical projects.

The Canton of Thurgau awards personal grants once a year to artists from Thurgau who want to take their career a step further with a convincing project. The grants are endowed with CHF 25,000 each.

According to the team, creativity and pain are associated with complex sensory and emotional experiences, suggesting possible overlaps between their neural network models, learning rules and executive functions. Identifying and characterizing these commonalities could highlight the potential of creativity as a therapeutic approach in pain management.

In a recent article in the trade journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews the team presents challenges derived from current research. It highlights several relevant components, including physiological mechanisms, neural network models, learning rules, and the benefits of a multilevel approach, including for managing executive function impairments with pain sensitization in neurodevelopmental and clinical disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism spectrum disorders.

The article cites numerous studies that have linked creative expression such as visual arts and music to reduced pain perception, suggesting that holistic, therapeutic approaches that integrate the two are not only possible, but worth exploring. Finally, it presents a framework for future research on the relationship between creativity and pain, providing guidance for therapeutic options for managing chronic pain through creative acts.

Original article:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763426001077?via%3Dihub

According to a report by the New Music Newspaper the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that sampling may be permissible under certain conditions without the permission of the rights holder. However, a final ruling in the specific case is still pending.

The ECJ focuses primarily on so-called pastiches. These are uses that «are reminiscent of an existing work, but at the same time have perceptible differences. In addition, they must engage in a recognizable artistic or creative dialogue with the work». This dialog can take various forms, such as the open imitation of a style, an homage or a humorous confrontation.

At the center of the controversy was a two-second sequence that Pelham took from the Kraftwerk track «Metall auf Metall» (1977) without the music group's prior consent and used in a slightly modified version in his own song. Because the use of such samples from older songs is a common practice in the music industry, the dispute has a signal effect for the entire industry.

Original article:
https://www.nmz.de/politik-szene/musikwirtschaft/wie-weiter-im-streit-um-kraftwerk-beat-eugh-setzt-massstaebe

Based on a survey of around 1,200 musicians, the study comes to the conclusion that artists feel trapped in a so-called «streaming paradox»: Thanks to streaming, it has never been easier to be visible, but a decent income remains out of reach. At the same time, musicians report that they are under increasing pressure to become content creators and audience managers, constantly posting, interacting with their audience and promoting - just to get noticed.

However, the most striking result of the study is how differently musicians in different countries experience the same pressure. In Nigeria, 83% of musicians stated that their career had improved since the advent of streaming. In the Netherlands, only 14 percent said this. There are also interesting differences between genres and generations. These differences suggest that culture, expectations and economic context are shaping the way artists navigate the platform age in fundamentally different ways.

Original contribution:
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1123042

Juan David Toro graduated from the Granada Conservatory in 2023, where he studied with Professor Javier Linares Leyva. He has received numerous awards as a soloist. He has performed as a guest saxophonist with the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada (OCG) and the Joven Orquesta Sinfónica de Granada (JOSG). In May 2023 he was admitted to the Master's program in Performance at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) in Zurich under the direction of Lars Mlekusch.

There were over 200 applications for the competition from all over the world. Just over 130 were invited to the first round in Andorra, the first selection lasted three days, followed by the semi-finals and finally six candidates took part in the final with orchestra, which Juan David won.

The aim of awarding work grants is «direct and personal support». According to the canton's press release, the grants make it easier for artists to devote themselves to their work for a certain period of time. They should be able to engage with an experimental, innovative and artistic idea or deepen and develop their artistic skills in a targeted manner. Work grants primarily support artistically interesting, independent and feasible projects. The work grant is primarily intended for the personal artistic development of artists.

Eligible to participate are 2026 creative artists with a track record in the fields of visual arts, music, dance and theater as well as short and animated film who have been resident in the Canton of Schwyz for at least two years or have a close connection to the canton (origin, focus of artistic work). Groups can participate provided that their work and production location has been mainly in the canton of Schwyz for at least two years.

More info:
https://www.sz.ch/kanton/medien-und-datenschutz/medienmitteilungen/detailseite.html/8756-8757-8803-10391-10392/news/24839

According to a statement from the ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts), Ritzmann impressed the committee «with the vision and openness with which he would like to approach the artistic and pedagogical development of the Bachelor and Master School Music I and II degree programs». He will take up the new position on August 1, 2026.

In the ZHdK's school music program, instrumental and vocal basics are developed in practice and theory. Lessons in the main instrument or singing can be taken in the performance module area of jazz, pop or classical music. The main artistic subject is aesthetically expanded and didactically contextualized with the module areas of mediation and subject practice/science/research. Modules on music and movement, percussion, band practice and new media open up new perspectives.

The study published in the «Journal of the Acoustical Society of America» by a team led by Stefan Weinzierl from the Department of Audio Communication at TU Berlin was able to show that the color design of an auditorium measurably changes the room acoustic impression - in particular the perception of sound color.

The study investigated whether visual stimuli not only accompany the concert experience, but also influence the auditory impression itself. To do this, the researchers used VR glasses to place test subjects in virtual versions of the chamber music hall in the Berlin Konzerthaus, which differed in terms of color tone, brightness and saturation. A total of twelve differently designed color environments in shades of red, green and blue were tested, including different color schemes for seat covers and stage backdrops.

The visual design had a particularly clear effect on the perceived timbre. Cooler-looking, more saturated blue and green tones tended to be associated with a perceived «colder» sound impression. Darker halls with less saturated colors tended to achieve higher liking ratings. In contrast, the visual design had no influence on the perceived loudness.

More info:
https://publishing.aip.org/publications/latest-content/how-the-color-of-a-theater-affects-sound-perception/

The sponsoring association will receive a total contribution of 210,000 francs for the next three festivals from 2026 to 2028. The canton of Obwalden is thus continuing its support for the music festival at the same level as in previous years. The Obwald Folk Culture Festival needs the contributions to be able to plan and run the festival.

A newly staffed board under the leadership of President Tobias Lengen took over the organization of the festival at the start of the last funding period (2023 to 2025). Since then, new accents have been set both in the musical program and in the visitor infrastructure, writes the canton. While the 2023 and 2024 festivals with the guest countries Bulgaria and Finland had the same high visitor frequency as the previous years, the 2025 festival with the guest country Cuba set a new record: for the first time in the history of the Obwald Folk Culture Festival, all performances were sold out.

More info:
https://www.ow.ch/aktuellesinformationen/133678

Trauffer was awarded Best Solo Act this year; the dialect folk singer has been nominated 12 times and has already won twice at the Swiss Music Awards. Hecht were nominated four times and won in all four categories: Best Group, Best Live Act, Best Streaming Artist and in the Best Hit category for «Mon Amour».

The poetic pop artist Zoë Më was named Best Breaking Act. And the popular Bernese rapper Jule X earned the award for Most Rising Artist Social Media. Zurich musician Nina Valotti was delighted to receive an award in the SRF 3 Best Talent category, rapper Baby Volcano won the Best Act Romandie category and the Artist Award, with which Swiss artists and music creators directly determine who from their ranks receives an award for artistically outstanding music creation, went to neo-soul artist MISS C-LINE.

The Swiss Music Awards are the biggest pop-rock music awards ceremony in Switzerland. New talents and successful artists are honored in 14 categories at this promotional platform for Swiss music. CH-Media Entertainment organizes the SMA under license from the industry association IFPI Switzerland.

Revenue from paid streaming grew by 8.8 percent and contributed 52.4 percent to global market sales, according to the German Music Industry Association. There are now 837 million people worldwide using paid streaming subscriptions. Due to the sustained demand for vinyl (up 13.7 percent), the physical business also grew significantly overall (up 8.0 percent). The figures are taken from the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) Global Music Report 2026.

However, the threat to the industry from streaming manipulation is increasing worldwide, the association continues. Artificially generated view figures for manipulated or falsified content deprive creators and everyone else who invests in the music industry of important revenue. The music industry expects all players at every point in the streaming value chain to take proactive measures to detect and prevent fraud.

The Italian conductor Daniele Gatti will take on the role for three years from the 2026/27 season, while the Australian conductor Simone Young will take on the role in parallel from the 2027/28 season. The title entails four weeks of presence per season.

The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (OSR) was founded in 1918 by Ernest Ansermet. It is administered as a foundation and is mainly funded by the Canton and City of Geneva, is associated with Radio Télévision Suisse and functions as the opera orchestra at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

Tim Eipert, who is doing his doctorate under Fabian Moss, Junior Professor of Digital Music Philology and Music Theory at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU), has analyzed over 4,000 trope elements - inserted texts and melodies that occur in Gregorian chorales - from 163 manuscripts using a new digital model. It divided the tropes into several levels and four main clusters and used the individual insertions within the chorales to form clusters that can then be displayed on a map. The manuscripts come from areas that mainly comprise the present-day states of France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and the south of Great Britain.

It turned out that the spread of the clusters was severely restricted by the political borders of the time after the Treaty of Verdun. There was apparently little cultural exchange about the chorales beyond imperial borders at the time, explains Eipert. The musical tradition thus reflects the political fragmentation of Europe.

Eipert has already integrated the model into a university course: JMU student Jason Ackermann, for example, used it to analyze the comment columns under videos by Taylor Swift and Radiohead on YouTube and identify superfans.

Original publication:
Eipert, T. and Moss, F.C. (2026) ‘Inferring Communities of Medieval Music Manuscripts Using Stochastic Block Models’, Transactions of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval, 9(1), February 26, 2026, https://doi.org/10.5334/tismir.298