{"id":72778,"date":"2026-04-22T16:13:52","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T14:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musikzeitung.ch\/?p=72778"},"modified":"2026-04-23T09:19:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T07:19:26","slug":"zur-geschichte-der-schweizerischen-gesellschaft-fuer-neue-musik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musikzeitung.ch\/en\/berichte\/2026\/04\/zur-geschichte-der-schweizerischen-gesellschaft-fuer-neue-musik","title":{"rendered":"The history of the Swiss Society for New Music"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00abFamily photo\u00bb of the ISCM delegates on the occasion of the ISCM General Assembly at the ISCM World Music Days 2019 in Tallinn, Estonia, 2nd from left in the front row: Javier Hagen, 1st from right in the front row: Max E. Keller. Photo: zVg\/ISCM Switzerland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The history of the Swiss Society for New Music (SGNM<\/a>) from its foundation in 1995 until its dissolution in 2025 with the ISCM Switzerland<\/a> the Swiss representative of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM<\/a>). In the German-speaking context, the ISCM is generally known as the International Society for New Music (IGNM).<\/p>\n

A history spanning over a hundred years<\/h3>\n

ISCM Switzerland has existed since October 1922, the year the ISCM was founded, and is one of the oldest ISCM national sections. Several influential Swiss musical personalities were involved in the founding and early years of the ISCM. The German conductor and composer Hermann Scherchen, who worked at the Musikkollegium in Winterthur at the time and was closely associated with the ISCM founders, brought his employer, the Winterthur patron Werner Reinhart, onto the ISCM founding committee. Reinhart was then responsible both for substantial financial support for the first ISCM World Music Days, the ISCM festivals held annually in a different country, and for the founding of ISCM Switzerland as part of the Swiss Musicians' Association STV. The first ISCM Switzerland board included Volkmar Andreae<\/a> (Chair), Hermann Suter<\/a>, Emile Lauber<\/a>, Ernest Ansermet<\/a>, Werner Reinhart,<\/a> Reinhold Laquai<\/a> and Jean Dup\u00e9rier <\/a>seat. In the 1920s, ISCM Switzerland also organized the ISCM World Music Days twice: in 1926 in Zurich under Volkmar Andreae and Hermann Scherchen<\/a>, and in 1929 in Geneva under Ernest Ansermet.<\/p>\n

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Junghae Lee together with SGNM board members Egidius Streiff, Max E. Keller and Javier Hagen at the ISCM World Music Days in Tallinn, Estonia, 2019. Photo: zVg\/ISCM Switzerland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Part of the Swiss Association of Musicians<\/h3>\n

From 1922 to 1995, ISCM Switzerland was an integral part of the Swiss Association of Musicians (STV<\/a>), the most important and influential association for contemporary music in Switzerland at the time. At the time, the STV functioned in the same way as the Composer's Unions of the other ISCM member countries.<\/p>\n

Until the 1970s, the STV presidents also held the ISCM Switzerland presidency at the same time. From the 1970s onwards, there was a gradual desire for separate STV and ISCM Switzerland presidencies, but legally everything remained under one roof, that of the STV.<\/p>\n

In view of the impending ISCM World Music Days 2004<\/a> In Switzerland, ISCM Switzerland was separated from the STV in 1995 and incorporated into its own legal entity: the Swiss Society for Contemporary Music SGNM \/ Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Suisse pour la Musique Contemporaine SSMC, founded for this purpose in 1995 under the direction of Jean-Luc Darbellay. This step was intended to guarantee greater operational flexibility, which was the case until the ISCM World Music Days in Switzerland in 2004.<\/p>\n

Difficult situation after the World Music Days 2004<\/h3>\n

The downside of the founding of the SGNM in 1995 was that the supporting and representative membership structure of the STV was lost. The new association had only about two dozen members instead of over 1000: most of the Swiss IGNM local groups, a few other new music organizers and a handful of ensembles. And as soon as the ISCM World Music Days 2004 were over in Switzerland, the SGNM also lost its federal funding and its project secretariat.<\/p>\n

This was still the case when Javier Hagen took over the SGNM presidency in 2014. His assumption of the SGNM presidency was linked to the declared intention of resolving this dilemma and not continuing ISCM Switzerland as before, but rather reintegrating it into a coherent national structure. At the time, this meant returning to the STV.<\/p>\n

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Helena Winkelman at the ISCM World Music Days in Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2015. photo: zVg\/ISCM Switzerland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since the early 2000s, however, the STV has been undergoing a fundamental transformation under pressure from the Federal Office of Culture, which, as is well known, led to its dissolution and merger with other associations in 2017. Sonart<\/a> has led to. Therefore, from 2014 to 2023, until the definitive consolidation of Sonart after the pandemic, there was no real prospect of a return to the STV or the successor structure: the potential partners were in the process of disintegration or genesis.<\/p>\n

Dissolution of the SGNM and takeover of the ISCM Switzerland mandate<\/h3>\n

At the 2019 ISCM General Assembly in Tallinn, Javier Hagen was nominated for election to the ISCM ExCom due to his many years of ISCM involvement. The structural weakness of the SGNM, which he repeatedly emphasized to the ISCM, prompted him to decline the election to the ISCM ExCom in favour of his Romanian colleague; the upcoming tasks at home in Switzerland were too pressing.<\/p>\n

From 2023, discussions regarding the return of the ISCM Switzerland to a national structure could be resumed. Based on the assumption that the ISCM primarily offers added value for composers, and possibly also for ensembles, this structure should meet the following criteria: maximum congruence with the reality of the ISCM, national reach, stable, i.e. permanently employed and professionalized administration. That used to be the STV. The new association Sonart fulfills these requirements structurally, but only to a limited extent in terms of content.<\/p>\n

Alternatively, discussions were also sought with the Swiss music publisher SME\/EMS. Together with the Musinfo database, it is also one of the former STV's decoupled projects. SME brings together the majority of Swiss composers as members. A modestly staffed office and a proactive and young board, which agreed to take over the ISCM Switzerland mandate in 2025, manage the business. With the resignation of the SGNM board and the dissolution of the SGNM after 30 years, the ISCM Switzerland mandate, which the SGNM took over from the STV in 1995, was transferred to the SME on July 1, 2025.<\/p>\n

Review of diverse SGNM activities up to 2025<\/h3>\n

The last active SGNM board - Max E. Keller, Egidius Streiff, David Rossel and Javier Hagen - brought ISCM Switzerland back into the public eye and online from 2014. It processed the historical documents in Switzerland, guaranteed a minimal structure and activity and maintained the international networking work with the ISCM with minimal resources and great commitment.<\/p>\n

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The jury of the ISCM Young Composer Awards 2014 in Wroclaw: Tomoko Fukui (Japan), Eva Lopzyc (Argentina), Javier Hagen (Switzerland). Photo: zVg\/ISCM Switzerland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Throughout Switzerland, the SGNM was responsible, among other things, for ensuring that new music was once again represented on the Swiss Music Council SMR thanks to an expansion of the board (2017), and it was involved with the STV in the preparatory discussions for the Sonart merger (2016\/17). From 2016, the SGNM held a seat on the board of Schweizer Musikedition SME\/EMS and secured its Liquidity when merging SME and Musinfo<\/a> (2016). She also successfully acted as a mediator for various IGNM local groups in the face of the threat of substantial funding cuts in various cantons (2015\/2016).<\/p>\n

The SGNM also re-established contact between the Swiss musicologist Anton Haefeli, the author of the reference book on ISCM history 1922-80, and the ISCM. In 2020 Anton Haefeli appointed honorary member of the ISCM at the suggestion of the SGNM<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Denis Schuler at the ISCM World Music Days in Wroclaw, Poland, 2014. photo: zVg\/ISCM Switzerland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Thanks to Anton Haefeli, the SGNM came across the founding correspondence of the ISCM in the Winterthur City Library in 2014 - a find of particular significance, as such documents have been lost in many countries due to wars and political turmoil. In view of publications for the ISCM anniversary in 2022, this discovery was more than timely. In the early years of the ISCM, almost all correspondence passed through Werner Reinhart's desk. The carbon copies of these documents are carefully and clearly archived in the Reinhart folder at Winterthur City Library.<\/p>\n

Within the ISCM, the SGNM was able to Extension of the official, historical ISCM communication languages<\/a> German, French and English. Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Russian were newly added as \u00abWelcoming Languages\u00bb. This was a groundbreaking step towards facilitating communication within the society (2018). The SGNM has also helped to initiate new memberships and re-entries such as Brazil (2017), China-Shanghai (2017) and Spain (2021).<\/p>\n

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David Philipp Hefti's \u00ab\u00e0 la recherche\u00bb at the ISCM World Music Days in Beijing, China, 2018. Photo: zVg\/ISCM Switzerland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 2019, the SGNM launched a call for the promotion of Swiss new music ensembles abroad for the first time as part of the ISCM Collaborative Series (Director: Max E. Keller). The HyperDuo<\/a> and played successfully in the fall of 2020 in the IGNM concert series in M\u00fcnster, Detmold and Berlin<\/a> in Germany.<\/p>\n

Measures during the corona period<\/h3>\n

In 2020, the SGNM successfully lobbied the Swiss Federal Assembly for the adoption of the COVID-19 Act, which was amended in favor of Swiss cultural life. It also initiated quota increases at national broadcasters abroad via the ISCM working groups - similar to SRF, which increased the quota of Swiss music in its programming to 50% during the coronavirus pandemic in favor of higher royalties for local musicians.<\/p>\n

The ISCM Virtual Collaborative Series (VCS<\/a>), which were launched in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic to maintain the promotion of contemporary music on social media in the face of the shutdown of concert operations, were initiated by the SGNM. By November 2023, the ISCM VCS will have a total of Works by over 250 composers from all over the world <\/a>have been presented, including the following 15 Pieces from<\/a> Swiss men and women:<\/p>\n