The effects of the coronavirus are hitting the cultural city of Winterthur directly and hard, according to the city's press release. In order to provide cultural institutions and cultural professionals with concise information about the measures already taken at federal, cantonal and city of Winterthur level, the Culture department has set up a "Corona Infopoint" on the city's website. The most pressing questions are answered in an FAQ.

In addition, the city of Winterthur finances legal advice for cultural actors, which is organized and coordinated by the Kulturlobby Winterthur association. A team of lawyers specializing in employment law, social security law and contract law answers questions received from association members by telephone or in writing.

More info:
https://stadt.winterthur.ch/themen/leben-in-winterthur/kultur/infopoint-corona
 

As the management announced in mid-March, the current measures and entry regulations of the New Zealand government no longer allow events of this size to take place. The local organizers, the Composers Association of New Zealand (CANZ) and the Asian Composers League (ACL), are endeavouring to hold the 2022 festival at the same venues while largely retaining this year's programme.

Esther Flückiger was chosen to represent Switzerland at the ISCM World New Music Days in New Zealand (Link to the news from 13.11.2019).

The Forum Wallis has announced that it is evaluating whether the festival could take place later in the year or whether it should be postponed until next year.

The 6th Ars Electronica Forum Valais competition will be held in 2020. The deadline for entries has already expired.

The Forum Valais is the festival for new music of the Valais section of the International Society for New Music (IGNM-VS) and takes place every year at Whitsun at Leuk Castle. According to the festival, highlights in its 14-year history include Stockhausen's Helicopter String Quartet with the Arditti Quartet and Air Glaciers, Cod.Acts Pendulum Choir and performances by ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Recherche and Ensemble Modern.

From 2022, the canton of Basel-Landschaft will contribute at least CHF 9.6 million per year to the cultural center services of Basel-Stadt. According to the official press release, a review clause was added to the agreement following the consultation process. The two cantons will review the compensation every four years, for the first time in 2028. The cultural agreement has met with a positive response in the parliaments of both cantons: In January 2020, the cantonal parliament and a strong majority of the Grand Council unanimously approved the new cultural treaty. A referendum was not subsequently held in either canton. The governments of both cantons will now sign the agreement.

The new cultural partnership will ensure the continued existence of all the institutions concerned. The cultural agreement promotes the unbundling of responsibilities and at the same time strengthens the joint project-oriented funding of the two cantons. The distribution of funds to the institutions is carried out by the Canton of Basel-Stadt on the basis of criteria that are laid down in the contract. The governments of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft are convinced that the newly defined parameters form the basis for a future-oriented and sustainable cultural partnership.
 

The cancellation was made after careful consideration and consultation with the authorities, writes the festival management. Around 40 events in the Basel region are affected. Over 2000 children and young people from twelve European countries and Inner Mongolia would have traveled to Basel to sing for an audience of more than 30,000 people over the Ascension weekend from 20 to 24 May. This was neither justifiable nor feasible in the current situation. The organizers assume that large events will not be able to take place in May either and that travel restrictions and quarantine regulations will still have to be observed. In addition, many choirs have had to suspend their rehearsals, making it impossible to prepare for performances. Although the "sadness and disappointment" at this cancellation is great, the decision is "welcomed and supported in solidarity" by those affected.

The festival management will provide information online about any alternative offers. The next EJCF will take place on Ascension Day 2022.
 

The Rockförderverein Basel RFV writes: "Canceling the Soundclinic completely was not an option for the RFV Basel. The reason: musicians currently have to do without enough of their income. The RFV Basel is sticking to the adjudication of its planned competitions even in the Corona crisis and will continue to provide funding. However, there will be no live events, as is normally the case with the Soundclinic, for example.
The four-member, independent jury of Soundclinic experts met virtually last week and spent over two hours judging the eight songs in the final round from home (35 bands had applied). Their conclusion: "All eight deserved an entry, but the songs by Heizöfel!i, Luna Oku and Rhea König could have been a little more convincing in the end."

The young women of the band Heizöfel!i, the solo project Luna Oku by drummer Alon Ben and the young soul singer Rhea König will receive a grant. They can choose between professional coaching worth 4,000 francs each and a freely available contribution of 2,000 francs each.

The jury consisted of Anna Aaron, musician, producer, label maker, Basel, Severin "Sevi" Landolt, musician (Klaus Johann Grobe), former booker Radicalis, IG Musik, Basel, Miriam Lenz, music and culture journalist Keystone-SDA, music blog Rockette, Bern, and Niklaus Riegg, head of Popkredit Zürich, former artistic director of the Blue Balls Festival Lucerne, Zurich.

The announcement for the Soundclinic in the fall will be made after the summer vacations.

According to the announcement, ticket purchases already made will be refunded in full. However, the festival asks that, if possible, a refund be waived in order to limit the financial damage. Alternatively, the festival is offering to convert the purchase into a credit note for tickets for the 2021 festival edition.

Ticket buyers are asked to visit the festival's ticket return page by April 30. There they can submit a form with their choice to donate, receive a credit or a refund for all or part of the value of the tickets purchased. The festival team will then contact each ticket purchaser to confirm the return.

Conducting, instrumental and vocal programs as well as invitations already issued to course participants will be postponed by one year. The date for confirmation of participation will be announced at a later date.

Suisseculture writes that we are currently receiving "a great many questions regarding the measures adopted by the Federal Council". The association has therefore published a short summary of the most important questions.

Suissculture info page:
https://www.suisseculture.ch/index.php?id=23&tx_ttnews%5Byear%5D=2020&tx_ttnews%5Bmonth%5D=03&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=180&cHash=56f7a41f5d08d0a2dfdf834ab9b4a22f

Information for artists, the self-employed and companies is also available on the ZHdK website. The university's "Z-Kubator" has compiled an overview of useful sources of information. The list is updated on an ongoing basis.

When Prometheus once stole fire and brought it to mankind, he laid the foundation for civilization. The wheel and the deep plate soon followed as clever innovations. Recently, however, a widespread ignorance of social coexistence, the still unconquered hunger in the world and the now noticeable climate change is spreading - combined with socially acceptable doubts about science. It is thanks to Epimetheus, Prometheus' brother, whose name means 'the one who thinks after', that this could happen. Incidentally, he married the beautiful Pandora - the one with the box of all evil ...

Ludwig van Beethoven tells a somewhat different story in his ballet music The creatures of Prometheus op. 43, a commissioned composition for the Italian ballet master Salvatore Viganò (1769-1821), who worked in Vienna between 1799 and 1803 and became ballet director at La Scala in Milan in 1811. Neither a scenario nor the original choreography have survived. Nevertheless, the mythical events set to music in an introduction and 16 musical numbers can be reconstructed on the basis of the playbill: In Beethoven's reading, Prometheus breathes life into two human clay statues with the flame of heaven, but is unable to awaken their reason. After a higher voice prevents him from destroying his work, he leads the creatures to Mount Parnassus, where Apollo not only gives them reason and feeling, but also a sense of nature and art.

Although the ballet as a whole enjoyed considerable success with 29 performances, it did not meet with a lasting response from contemporaries. In the Newspaper for the elegant world it said quite soberly in 1801: "Whether Mr. van Beethoven was able to achieve what an audience like this one demands, given the unity - not to say uniformity - of the plot, I will leave undecided. But that he wrote too learnedly and with too little consideration for the dance for a ballet is beyond doubt. … This already begins with the overture. In any great opera it would be in its place and would not fail to have a significant effect; here, however, it is in the wrong place." And indeed, the overture is an almost symphonic movement with a slow introduction and a broad development section. It is probably no coincidence that Beethoven uses the opening seventh chord as an almost quotation-like reference to the effective opening of his First Symphony; the opening of the Prometheus-final, however, returns in the Eroica again.

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Link to the project homepage "52 x Beethoven"

The Board of Trustees of the Central Switzerland Cultural Foundation, consisting of the Directors of Education and Culture of the cantons of Central Switzerland, honors Fabian Römer with this award and prize money of CHF 25,000 as an "outstanding personality who has created a significant body of extraordinary film compositions with impressive creativity and empathy". His work is highly regarded in Switzerland and Europe.

Fabian Römer was born in Zurich in 1973 and grew up in Freienbach on Lake Zurich. After graduating from the cantonal school in Schwyz, he studied music (SMPV Zurich), majoring in violin with Slobodan Mirkovic, as well as piano and composition. In 1995 he co-founded the recording studio GYSKO Soundlab in Pfäffikon SZ. In the same year, he composed his first film score for the French feature film "Les Egarés" by director Gabriel Le Bomin. In 1998, he moved to Munich, where he still lives with his family. He teaches film music at the music academy there. Above all, however, he is a well-known European film composer and highly respected in the industry.

The Swiss-Belgian co-production "Le milieu de l'horizon" by Delphine Lehericey is awarded Best Feature Film 2020 at the Swiss Film Awards. Joanne Giger also receives the prize for best screenplay. The prize for best documentary film goes to the Hugofilm Productions GmbH production "Immer und ewig" by Fanny Bräuning. The music composed by Olivia Pedroli for this film also receives the award for best film music.

Olivia Pedroli was born in Neuchâtel in 1982 and initially studied violin. She released the albums "The Smell Of Wait" and "Sugary And Dry" under the name Lole. She then worked on a new work in Reykjavik with producer Valgeir Sigurðsson (Björk, Kronos Quartet) and the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. The result was the first album released under her own name, "The Den".

Between 2010 and 2013, Olivia Pedroli performed with her quintet at the Montreux Jazz Festival, the Nuits Botaniques in Brussels, Eurosonic in Groningen, the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg, the Jazzahead in Bremen, the Airwaves in Reykjavik, the Café de la Danse in Paris and Moods Zurich, among others. Olivia Pedroli also composed the soundtrack for Manuel von Sturler's documentary "Hiver Nomade", which won several European Film Academy Awards in 2012.

Matthias von Orelli -The HEMU Site of Sion is part of a tradition of excellence in professional string education in Valais. This tradition is a direct legacy of the major musical contribution of the Hungarian violinist Tibor Varga, active in Valais since the 1960s and until his death in 2003. After creating a summer academy in 1963, a summer festival in 1964 and an international violin competition in 1967, he decided in 1988 to open a year-round independent high-level school in Sion whose name would evolve over time until it became the Conservatoire Supérieur Tibor Varga. When the Hautes Ecoles de Musique (HEM) was set up in Switzerland in 2008, the arrangements made at the federal level provided for the creation of only two HEMs in French-speaking Switzerland, within the HES-SO, which endangered the sustainability of professional music education in Valais. Anxious to preserve the artistic and educational tradition developed in the second half of the 20th century and to continue to train high-level professional musicians in Valais, the cantonal authorities then initiated negotiations with the canton of Vaud to agree on the integration of the Tibor Varga Superior Conservatory at the Lausanne University of Music. A similar approach emanating from the canton of Friborg at the same time, the 3 cantons agreed on the creation of an intercantonal high school of music and signed the agreements which were to lay the foundations for the birth of the HEMU Vaud-Valais-Fribourg . The Tibor Varga Superior Conservatory thus gave way to the HEMU Site de Sion.

Today, the HEMU Site de Sion continues to affirm itself as a pole of excellence in the teaching of wind instruments and can count on a very high-level teaching staff to prepare its 60 bachelor's and master's students for a career as a performer and/or teacher. Collaborations continue to develop with the Tibor Varga Academy of Fine Arts, the Tibor Varga International Competition and the Sion Festival, as well as with many other artistic partners in Valais, Switzerland and internationally.

Mr. Aurélien D'Andrès, thank you for taking the time to give us this interview. How do you characterize the Sion site within the HEMU Vaud-Valais-Fribourg?

The HEMU is an institution that is spread across 3 cantons with very different identities and objectives. The challenge of the Sion site is therefore to actively participate in the creation and development of a global institutional project, while maintaining a direct link with the Valaisan territory, its specificities, its aspirations and its possibilities.

The entire structure of the HEMU has recently been redesigned. What impact has this had on the Sion site?

Every measure that touches on governance inevitably has an impact on the entire institution. We see a willingness to change the corporate culture towards a more participative approach. The implementation of this culture goes hand in hand with a greater involvement of students in the life of the school. Concrete measures such as the recent organization of the PulSion Winter Festival testify to the form this can take.

Vous avez un profond passé musical, pourriez-vous nous décrire brièvement votre vie professionnelle ?

From a strictly musical point of view, I come from an amateur background (I hold a higher piano and violin certificate from the Conservatoire Can-tonal de Sion), a background of incredible richness in Valais, and I therefore consider myself to be more of an amateur musician than a musician. After double training as an EPFL engineer and cultural manager, my professional career then took me to manage the Camerata de Lausanne, the Théâtre Le Baladin de Savièse and now the HEMU Site de Sion. I am currently developing my leadership skills by completing an Executive MBA at HEC Paris.

What do you think of the musical landscape in our country and especially in the canton of Valais?

We have a unique opportunity in Switzerland: the musical offer is rich and the standard of quality is very high. The presence of top-level music schools is not foreign. For its part, the Valais has a very strong relationship with music. The lack of adapted infrastructures has long limited the development of classical music during the rich period of the festivals of été, but the construction of a new concert hall in Sion and other projects in the canton should soon help us to give our events the amplitude they deserve.

In the context of the Swiss music academies, the question of the country's position within Europe is always on the agenda. In Valais, too, the borders with neighbouring countries are open - how do you perceive this situation?

Although bordered by high and majestic mountains, the Valais is a land of openness. We enjoy excellent day-to-day relations with our neighbors from Vaud, Bern, Ticino, Uri, Italy and France, and the tourist culture that is part of our ADN naturally encourages hospitality and exchange. Replicating ourselves has never been an option and I am very pleased that this may one day be the case in the future.

Comment la promotion musicale est-elle perçue dans le canton du Valais ?

Globally quite good, considering that the Valais is a region that responds to music. However, the artistic, educational, tourist, economic and political milieux have been able to better coordinate their efforts in order to make the most of the incredible general dynamism that currently animates the canton.

Le Valais is an alpine and tourist canton - does this have an impact on your daily work?

Absolutely. Above all, it's a question of sharing values. The mountain man is an incredible worker who respects his environment and his roots. The tourist shows curiosity and seeks sharing, discovery, novelty, surprise, enchantment and pleasure. All this totally summarizes what we want to see emerge in our students in their daily musical practice.

Finally, a very simple question (or not!): what music do you like to listen to the most?

Le silence, à condition qu'il soit immédiatement précédé ou suivi de quelque chose de beau.

D'origine française, Etienne Lin étudie actuellement à l'HEMU Site de Sion dans la classe d'alto de Tatjana Masurenko, en 1re année de master en Interprétation orientation concert, après avoir également effectué son bachelor à Sion.

Etienne Lin, what does Valais represent for you? And especially Sion as a place of study?

Valais and Switzerland in general are very beautiful places for me. It's a unique opportunity to be able to study here, our site has no more than six hundred students, which favors exchanges and the construction of links between us.

Sion is surrounded by mountains and nature is never far away. For me, coming from the Hautes-Pyrénées department and from a city not much bigger than Sion, I'm not disappointed. It's very pleasant for me to grow up in a school and a small town, and that also applies to my relationship with the people. The setting and working conditions are pleasant, with access to the classrooms and our school premises 365 days a year.

The tradition of the violin in our school is a tribute to the former Conservatoire Supérieur Tibor Varga. Most people have already heard of the school created by the master violinist Tibor Varga, but his integration into the Lausanne School of Music has, it seems to me, been somewhat anonymous. Furthermore, we occupy premises that are not really adapted to our musical practice and have been provisional for a number of years...

I realize that the reason why we don't think of the Valais when we talk about music education is because we don't have enough visibility, but the quality and success of the teaching is there. All this should be resolved soon, I hope, with the construction of a new music school where we will take over the cantonal conservatory!

Until recently, you were president of the PulSion association. What does this association do and what are your tasks?

The main aims of the PulSion association are to create and improve student life at our school and to defend the interests of students where necessary. For the past two years, we have also launched a music festival entirely organized by the students: the PulSion Winter Festival. We also have other projects and events such as helping non-francophone students to learn French, organizing auditions or sorties...

You have a lot of contacts with other students. Where do you see the biggest challenges facing the Swiss music schools?

The artistic formations are fascinating but also very difficult to manage, I think, because of the great diversity of profiles, identities, needs, cultures and others. For example, there may be age limits of 15 years in the same promotion, some people are already plunging ahead in their careers at the same time as their studies...

I believe that the aim of the music schools is to adapt the training and courses offered, to offer new opportunities and to provide the best possible support for their students in their personal and career development.

The Merel Quartet has already successfully explored the music of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (and his sister Fanny) for an album (Genuin 11204: Felix: String Quartet in F minor op. 80; Four Pieces for String Quartet op. 81; Fanny: String Quartet in E flat major). The Swiss ensemble has now been joined by the young English Castalian String Quartet to record the Octet op. 20.

In the first string quartet in E flat major op. 12, however, the Merel Quartet is still among itself. The four perform the fast middle section of the Canzonetta as an elf dance, the Andante espressivo has great breath. And in the finale, Mary Ellen Woodside (violin 1), Edouard Mätzener (violin 2), Alessandro D'Amico (viola) and Rafael Rosenfeld (violoncello) combine lightness with a dramatic effect that creates a real pull. Only in the opening movement does the quartet take too many liberties in terms of agogic, so that the pulse is lost a little in the numerous small delays when quaver figures are played out too much or caesuras introduce new sections.

Together with Sini Simonen (violin 1), Daniel Roberts (violin 2), Charlotte Bonneton (viola) and Christopher Graves (cello), the octet creates a tonally balanced, narrative interpretation that ranges from fragile intimacy to orchestral power. The composer wanted the octet to play "in the style of a symphonic orchestra". The fusion of the two ensembles into a single, flexible body of sound is impressively successful. The way the tension in the development section of the first movement reverberates and the recapitulation is heralded in the rush of semiquavers chasing through the voices - that's great! A highly emotional Andante and an airy Scherzo are followed by a somewhat rumbling cello introduction and an extremely fast Presto finale that celebrates virtuosity and leaves a strong impression despite minor rhythmic inaccuracies.