The Federal Council announced today that it now considers the situation in Switzerland to be "extraordinary" in accordance with the Epidemics Act. Among other things, this means that "public and private events (are) prohibited from midnight today. All stores, markets, restaurants, bars and entertainment and leisure facilities such as museums, libraries, cinemas, concert halls and theaters, sports centers, swimming pools and ski resorts will be closed." (...) "The supply of food, medicines and everyday goods to the entire population is guaranteed." Schools will also remain closed until April 19.

The current media release can be viewed here:

https://www.admin.ch/gov/de/start/dokumentation/medienmitteilungen.msg-id-78454.html
 

The Federal Council already promised support for the sports and cultural sector on Friday, March 13: "The Federal Council also intends to make additional funds available for the cultural sector. In an urgent procedure, the FDHA is drafting a temporary bill for additional economic measures that can be used in addition to other instruments to cushion cases of hardship in the cultural sector. In this way, the Federal Council aims to prevent the existence of recurring cultural events from being threatened and, in particular, to support self-employed and freelance cultural professionals in emergency situations. As part of the drafting of the law, it is also to be examined how the cantons, as those responsible for the cultural sector, can be included in the funding."

The exact nature of this support is being worked out. The Federal Council is endeavoring to find concrete solutions quickly.

The program of the March meeting of the Parliamentary Group on Music included Explanations on the new Cultural Dispatch 2021-2024. Business as usual, one might have thought. Nevertheless, never before have so many association representatives and members of the National Council and Council of States gathered in the Schmiedstube hall in Bern as this time. It was obvious: there was an elephant in the room - the forced shutdown of the cultural sector due to the coronavirus, which is putting event organizers, freelance musicians, technicians, concert logisticians and ticket providers in financial difficulties. After the presentations by the Federal Office of Culture (FOC) and Pro Helvetia on the cultural strategy for the next four years, there were also emotional votes, with urgent appeals to the councillors to find solutions to limit the devastating economic damage that is looming for the music industry.

Pro Helvetia Director Philippe Bischof felt compelled to remind those present not to confuse the issues. And indeed, there is basically good news to report on national cultural policy. The Federal Council wants to increase spending again. David Vitali, Head of the Culture and Society Section at the BAK, explained where the priorities lie with regard to music.

Firstly, there is the Youth+Music (Y+M) program launched with the last dispatch. Following an encouraging evaluation, the training of Y+M instructors is to be "adjusted in terms of content" and certification integrated into the courses of study for music teachers at music universities. A database will make information on the program and course instructors transparently accessible. Performance and impact measurements are also to be expanded. From 2022, the Confederation also plans to offer its own program for the promotion of talented students, which will allow around 1,000 talented students to be identified each year. The core of the program will be a "music talent card", which will "provide access to suitable (cantonal) support services". However, according to Vitali, the idea of a talent card did not meet with universal approval during the consultation process. For this reason, the federal government, cantons and other stakeholders will now work together to develop a framework concept.

According to Vitali, the federal government is also focusing on music school fees. The goal remains "equitable access to music education for all children and young people". An evaluation carried out here has also shown that the differences in fees for adults and young people vary significantly within the education regions. Around an eighth of music schools have no subsidized tariffs up to upper secondary level, around two thirds have no income-based tariff structure and over half have no extended subsidized offers for gifted students. This situation has hardly changed since 2016, Vitali admitted. The Federal Council's proposals on how to tackle this remain rather vague: it wants to further sensitize music school providers to the issue and re-evaluate them.

Director Philippe Bischof and Head of the Music Department Andri Hardmeier provided information on the near future of the national arts council Pro Helvetia. According to Bischof, the Arts Council wants to work more specifically to ensure that financial support is increasingly linked to fair pay for creative artists. Pro Helvetia would also like to promote equal opportunities between men and women. In addition, efforts are to be made to establish solid statistics on the cultural sector.

Andri Hardmeier explained that the cultural foundation wanted to take account of the fact that art and cultural forms are changing and merging ever more rapidly. Formats that do not correspond to the concept of works previously applied in the music sector are to be better taken into account in future as part of the promotion of works. Hardmeier mentioned, for example, site-specific or collective works, sound installations and sound art or multimedia works. The promotion of music theater is also to be "consolidated and further developed". Pro Helvetia is also concerned with the cross-cantonal and international dissemination of new works.

This is not enough for the Swiss Music Council. As it writes in a statement, it would like to see "the development of longer-term development strategies for the three genres of folk music, contemporary music (pop, rock, jazz, new classical music) and classical music". The German Initiative Musik gGmbH or the European Agenda of Music (EAM) of the European Music Council could serve as a model here. Furthermore, although the Music Council acknowledges that the visibility of Swiss music abroad has been "substantially improved" in some cases, its members perceive music exports as too fragmented and therefore not powerful enough. In order to improve its effectiveness, the music sector believes that exports need to be more coordinated and better funded.

According to Count Waldstein's ideas and wishes, Beethoven was to live in Vienna "Mozart's spirit from Hayden's hands" received. Due to the circumstances (Mozart had died unexpectedly ten months earlier), the classical triad had already been named in 1792, even before Beethoven had been able to develop his own style. This privately imposed obligation on his departure from Bonn was, however, more likely to lead to Beethoven soon exploring his legacy creatively and independently, not always allowing himself to be swayed by the well-meaning Haydn. (Brahms had it with Schumann's prominently printed essay New lanes far more difficult to roll the publicly imposed burden off one's own shoulders).

What Waldstein could not have known in the days of his farewell, of course, and what still amazes him today, is that Beethoven based his Quintet for Piano, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon in E flat major op. 16, which he sketched in Berlin in the spring of 1796, very specifically on a work by Mozart - the Piano Quintet K. 452. "for the best thing I have ever written in my life". It is not only the instrumentation, which was unusual for the time, and the key of E flat major, which was convenient for wind instruments, that are identical, but also the movement sequence and character. Beethoven demonstrates even more in the Andante cantabile pays musical tribute to his role model: the theme plays, recognizable to everyone, on Zerlina's "Batti, batti, o bel Masetto" from the Don Giovanni on. However, an incident handed down by Ferdinand Ries on the occasion of a Viennese performance of the piano quintet shows that Beethoven not only began to fantasize during the cadenzas of his piano concertos, but also knew how to expose himself in other places: "In the last Allegro there is a stop a few times before the theme begins again; during one of these Beethoven suddenly began to fantasize, took the Rondo as his theme and entertained himself and the others for quite some time, which was not the case with the accompanists, however. They were indignant and Mr. Ramm was even very upset. It really looked strange when these gentlemen, who expected to start again at any moment, kept putting their instruments to their mouths and then calmly taking them off again. At last Beethoven was satisfied and fell back into the rondo. The whole company was delighted."

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Link to the project homepage "52 x Beethoven"

In a press release, the Swiss Music Council, Sonart - Music Creators Switzerland and many other associations announced that the cultural and performing arts sector was "delighted with the constructive exchange with the federal authorities" on March 12.

The common goal is to preserve the diverse Swiss cultural landscape as well as its locations, organizers and jobs. To achieve this, all stakeholders must and want to pull together. Quick-acting measures are needed to prevent or at least mitigate the damage caused by the coronavirus crisis, which could have a lasting impact on the industry in particular, but also on the economic development of the country as a whole.

The demands are as follows:

"1. temporary unemployment insurance in the cultural sector for self-employed persons and all those for whom short-time work would not apply now (e.g. sole proprietors, freelancers, management, owners and partners)
2. uncomplicated access to short-time work for all SMEs in the cultural sector
3. compensation for canceled events, including artist compensation
4. emergency fund for cultural professionals and businesses facing existential threats
5. public funding for culture must continue to flow, cultural sponsors (including private ones) should coordinate their efforts
6. continued direct involvement of organizations of creative artists and event organizers in the design and implementation of concrete measures"

Margrit Zimmermann's list of compositions is extensive and covers all musical genres apart from opera. She devoted a great deal of attention to chamber music and chose unusual combinations of instruments and soundscapes. A pianist by training, the piano was close to her throughout her life. Everything was written on it, mainly at night, whether the large orchestral scores, the string quartets or the actual piano compositions. The Erard grand piano in her house in Bern's Schönberg district was her working instrument and place of work, on which she piled up sketches and finished, written compositions. One central work was literally written for the piano: In the Etudes bianchi-neri the black upper keys are set against the white lower keys, as if the keyboard had two manuals.

Margrit Zimmermann described her music as free-atonal and traditional. The latter refers to the notation and the formal structure. Her tonal language moves in the non-tonal, dissonant border area. It is characterized by the horizontal and vertical layering of fourths and sevenths, and consequently also by their inversions, fifths and seconds. The composer used tonal extensions in a playful, improvisational way to create pointed effects and wrote her own signs in the scores with explanations in front of them. A heavy chain rattles along with the piano, forearms have to be rolled over the keys, winds and strings play in quarter tones. She devoted a theoretical work and graphic illustrations to the organization, tuning and use of quarter-tone music.

Margrit Zimmermann's works have found their interpreters, small and large stages, and have won several awards.

Born in Bern in 1927, Margrit Zimmermann trained as a pianist in Bern with the pianist and composer Jeanne Bovet and later in Paris with Alfred Cortot, where she was fortunate enough to attend a composition course with Arthur Honegger for a year. She later trained as a conductor and founded her own orchestra in Berne in 1973. In 1978, she completed eight years of composition studies at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan with a Diploma di Composizione.

Margrit Zimmermann's catalog raisonné can be viewed at musinfo.chcompositions are available in the library of the Bern University of the Arts. A CD brings together the works Quadriga and Piano Time for piano, Pensieri for tenor, guitar and flute, a string quartet and the Orphic Dances for flute, clarinet, viola, violoncello and piano (available from gerber.iris@gmx.ch). In the book Nachtwerk - Homage to a female composer, published in 2011 by Publisher Zytglogge Oberhofen/BaselIris Gerber Ritter, Margrit Zimmermann's former pupil and interpreter, talks about her life and work.

On February 23 of this year, Margrit Zimmermann passed away after a long illness at the age of ninety-three. Her final resting place will be the Schosshalden cemetery in Bern.
 

Following the transfer of assets, Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich AG intends to carry out an ordinary increase in the share capital of CHF 100,000 to a maximum of CHF 2,650,000 at an Extraordinary General Meeting. The date of the Extraordinary General Meeting can only be set once it is foreseeable that the Municipal Council of the City of Zurich will approve the transfer of the subsidy agreement.

A subsidy agreement exists between the City of Zurich and the Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich association, in which the City of Zurich undertakes to make contributions to the association on a calendar-year basis. As part of the restructuring, the subsidy agreement must be transferred and adapted to Tonhalle-Gesellschaft Zürich AG with the approval of Zurich City Council.

The total nominal amount by which the nominal share capital is to be increased through the issue of a maximum of 25,500 fully paid-up registered shares with a nominal value of CHF 100 is a maximum of CHF 2,550,000. 23,000 registered shares will be offered to the public at an issue price of CHF 400 and 2,500 registered shares will be offered to the City of Zurich at an issue price of CHF 100.

More info: https://tonhalle.ch/ueber-uns/die-liebhaberaktie/

Swiss composer Alfred Felder celebrates his 70th birthday this year and achieves a long-cherished artistic goal: the premiere of an opera. The fact that it was a long road has to do with the major hurdles. The choice of material and the question of the libretto are one, the other the "apparatus": the Harmonie concert choir and its director Peter Kennel as well as the Musikkollegium Winterthur are raising the bar. Walpurgis Night, opera in 2 acts after Goethe's Faust I now being launched in Zurich and Winterthur.

Did Goethe and his "commonplace material", set to music in countless approaches and styles, have to do it? For Felder absolutely: The Fist-He had been fascinated by drama since his youth. And if you take a look at his work, you can say that it was heading towards this material, or more precisely, towards "Walpurgisnacht", the scene in the tragedy between the scene in the cathedral - Margarethe's Dies irae - and the final scenes surrounding Gretchen's execution. Unlike Goethe's drama, Felder's libretto, which he wrote himself, does not integrate the witch scene into the tragedy, but rather the tragedy into the witch scene.
 

Picture: zVg

The original dramaturgy is explained by Felder's interpretation of the mysterious and wicked witches' Sabbath: "For me, the central theme of Walpurgis Night is nature - and women as shamans. Their great knowledge of healing powers and elemental forces has always impressed me very much. Their joyful (witches') sabbats were always a sensual and spontaneous celebration of life for me." Her sympathy for the witches corresponded with her disgust at their persecution. Felder sees Goethe's fate of the child murderess as a witch hunt and goes his own way in his libretto: "I won't let Gretchen die at the end of my Walpurgis Night. As a rebel, she holds up a mirror to us and exposes the hypocrisy of this world. She is to experience mercy on the threshold of execution, as a sign that the patriarchal nature of our world will one day end. A utopian ending?"

Felder's view of Goethe's work can easily be related to current discourses. However, his music is not based on intellectual debates, but on experiences of the "other": In his oeuvre, the presence of the shamanic and mystical is striking. The oratorio âtesh is based on poems by the Persian mystic Rūmī, and the catalog of works also includes the Nightsong for flute, viola and harp, which is based on a healing ritual of the Navajo Indians. As a cellist at home in chamber music and symphonies, Felder also uses the Western tonal language as a composer, albeit in his own, free way, which allows him to speak of "tonalizations", of colourings of tonality: "The beginning of the opera is written in a D tonalization, I composed the end (dance) in an E flat tonalization. I colored the D tonality very dark, E flat tonality is actually the lightest tonality to my ears. So the beginning in D, then each scene in a different tonality until the end in E flat tonality - the biggest difference between dark and light, but in the music only half a tone apart, i.e. the smallest possible interval, but the greatest color contrast."

"Foreign" means of sound are used in a targeted manner: In the piano trio The second attention for example, it is the shaman drum; in the Rūmī-inspired open secreta "pure" violin concerto, so to speak, written for the regular line-up of the Musikkollegium, he has the orchestral musicians recite in a whisper. Felder emphasizes that he was never interested in novelty for novelty's sake: "The only novelty you might find in the Walpurgis Night The unusual percussion sounds - wine bottles, biscuit tins, newspaper, spoons, whiskey containers in which marbles circle - are a great sound to kick off the witches' dance."
 

Felder has long been associated with the opera's patrons, the Musikkollegium Winterthur and the Harmonie Zürich concert choir with its director Peter Kennel. In 2006, the choir commissioned âteshwhose great success also led to further projects, including a concert in 2016 to mark the choir's anniversary, in which Mendelssohn's Walpurgis Night Cantata and Felder's Scenes from Walpurgis Night from Goethe's Faust I were performed: the nucleus of opera.
With the reworking into a full-length stage work, he considerably expanded the panorama of Walpurgis Night. Faust (tenor), Mephistopheles (baritone) and the witches' choir were joined by the half-witch and the beautiful witch (mezzo-soprano), and the choral task now also includes the singing of the Dominican inquisitors. They announce Margaret's execution. And the fact that this third main character no longer appears merely as a vision on Walpurgis Night, but as a physical figure and solo part (soprano), is the composer's central decision. This points to the magical vanishing point of the work, which ends with Margarethe and the witches - "what an unexpected meteor" - in the feast of the night and the celebration of spring.
 

According to its press release, the City of Zurich is looking for a sponsor for the current "Tage für Neue Musik" for the years 2021 to 2023. The aim of this pilot project is to reorganize and reposition the festival in terms of both content and form. A suitable operating and program concept will be selected by a committee of external experts established for this purpose and chaired by the Director of Culture of the City of Zurich.

The city is supporting the festival during the three-year pilot phase with a one-off contribution totaling CHF 850,000. This is divided into an initial contribution of CHF 100,000 in 2020 and operating contributions of CHF 250,000 for each of the years 2021 to 2023. The festival will be evaluated during the pilot phase. Afterwards, further support from the city in the form of annual operating contributions can be reviewed and applied for from the relevant authorities.

The festival for contemporary music has been held annually since 1986. Due to limited financial resources, it was switched to a biennial rhythm in 2016. The reaction of the music scene and the experience with the replacement festival "Focus Contemporary Zurich West" in 2017 showed that an annual festival of contemporary music is highly valued in Zurich. The aim of this pilot project is to examine and evaluate a new direction for the content of the festival.
 

The costs arising from the postponement of an event are also taken into account according to the canton's avoidance notice. Subsidies for a canceled or postponed event can only be paid in the event of a deficit.

The State of Valais supports numerous events by granting subsidies, particularly in the areas of tourism, culture and sport. It undertakes to maintain the payment of the amounts granted for each event canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus epidemic.

In the event of cancellation, the promised grants will be retained by the beneficiaries, provided they relate to the costs incurred that have already been paid or still have to be paid.

In the event that the event in question is postponed, the amounts committed for the expenditure on the new date will be retained. Expenses incurred for both the originally planned and the postponed edition can be taken into account when proving the costs incurred. However, any losses from previous editions cannot be taken into account.

The departments concerned will make the promised payments, subject to compliance with the official recommendations by the organizers at the time of the decision to cancel or postpone the event. The link between this decision and the coronavirus epidemic must also be clear.
 

There are those who are always on time. They deliver their work in an orderly state ahead of time or on time, and they also leave the impression of a perfectly regular lifestyle. And there are those who simply always take a little longer. It's easy to use the bad word procrastination, but this is a special form of creativity that doesn't savor the allure of the "last moment", but only achieves the very best results under increased pressure. Entire opera overtures have been completed just in time overnight with this widespread creative disposition. However, until everything turns out well in the end, it is often necessary to postpone, put off and make excuses. Beethoven was not one of the most punctual composers either. After he had already given the Berlin publisher Scottish songs op. 108, the composition of the sonatas op. 109, op. 110 and op. 111, which were not only outwardly understood as a group, was also delayed. On May 31, 1820, he had announced all the works for July - but little had happened. Even the benevolent reminder in August from his friend Franz Oliva was of little help ("on the sonata to Berlin you must think"). Finally, Beethoven felt compelled to provide the publisher with information about the progress of the work - using familiar key words and phrases that have hardly changed in such situations over the centuries: "It will go faster with the 3 sonatas as last with op. 108The first is almost finished to the point of correction, and I am now working on the last two without delay."

The wait was certainly worth it. Schlesinger finally received the promised engraver's model at the beginning of 1821, but above all works that represent a conceptual departure at the end of Beethoven's sonata oeuvre. In the case of the E major Sonata op. 109 with a first movement that is not only small-scale, but also alienates itself from the usual structure with its imaginative Adagio interludes, a brisk, through-composed Scherzo in a minor key and a variation movement that soon proves to be the finale with its more or less clear references. It forms the core of the composition, also and especially with its touching expressive content: Full of song with heartfelt emotion.

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Link to the project homepage "52 x Beethoven"

The regulations are currently handled inconsistently by the various cantons, writes Suisseculture, but in principle it applies almost everywhere that all events (private and public) must be reported to the respective canton and that the public must be informed that no one who has visited the affected areas defined by the FOPH in the last two weeks will be admitted.

The following information on the individual cantons is subject to change. Anyone with questions about a specific event should contact the authorities of the relevant canton. All cantons provide corresponding information and contact addresses on their websites.

Link to the Suissculture compilation:
https://www.suisseculture.ch/index.php?id=23&tx_ttnews%5Byear%5D=2020&tx_ttnews%5Bmonth%5D=03&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=172&cHash=0f7d764ef005efe2e835fbbec954f755

The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra have long since left the stage when Kirill Petrenko returns because the audience won't stop clapping. The conductor bows and points behind him to the empty chairs. He wants to say that it is not him but the orchestra that deserves the applause, even though the musicians are already enjoying their after-work beers. Then the friendly little man scurries out again with quick steps. The audience in the Berlin Philharmonie has not often seen the new chief conductor since the end of August last year, because Petrenko is still tied up as General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Beethoven's 9th Symphony at the start of the season, also performed at the Brandenburg Gate, a New Year's Eve concert with soprano Diana Damrau and Gustav Mahler's 6th Symphony were the only programs Petrenko has conducted in Berlin so far.

In this fourth concert, the new chief conductor shows himself in the first part, with Igor Stravinsky's thoroughly brittle Symphony in three movements and Bernd Alois Zimmermann's sensual and groovy ballet suite Alagoanaas a rather sober sound organizer who often conducts with both arms in parallel, always has his head in the score and gives clear cues. Kirill Petrenko is not a zampano, but a craftsman. His markings are functional, not aesthetic: not one squiggle too many. He does not stage himself, but simply does his job. However, Petrenko can also be freer in his conducting and let things take their course, as is the case in the second part, with the perfectly balanced Symphonic dances by Sergei Rachmaninov. He gives the wind solos enough breath, the homogeneity of the strings is delightful. Everything is perfectly coordinated - the team is the star.
 

How precisely Petrenko works on the balance can be observed in the dress rehearsal beforehand. It is not a simple run-through, but a search and discovery of modeled transitions, clear rhythms and subtle dynamic differences. The new conductor speaks in a friendly but firm voice - and the Berliner Philharmoniker prick up their ears. "Kirill Petrenko comes to the rehearsal better prepared than anyone else I know," says cellist and orchestra board member Knut Weber in the subsequent interview. "He always knows exactly what he wants to correct and is very quick to do so. The tension in the orchestra is currently at a level I've never experienced before." At the press conference, there was talk of a long honeymoon and a spell that will last for a long time to come. "We're just getting to know each other," adds Andrea Zietzschmann, the artistic director from Sankt Georgen in the Black Forest. "He's not overly present in the first season. That's also good for this growing relationship."

A shorter tour in the fall with him at the podium has already been completed, with two more to come this season. Above all, however, the Baden-Baden Easter Festival Kirill Petrenko, who has a strong connection to opera and was already General Music Director in Meiningen and at the Komische Oper Berlin before Munich, will open the season on April 4 with Beethoven's Fidelio. Slovenian drama director Mateja Koležnik will stage an opera for the first time in Baden-Baden, expanding Florestan's perception through dreams, reveals Andrea Zietzschmann. "With our Artist in Residence Marlis Petersen, we also have an excellent singer as Leonore."

Knut Weber is very much looking forward to the Easter Festival and promises a "firework display of content". The fact that all 16 of Beethoven's string quartets and the Great Fugue will be performed by 17 different ensembles of the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Kurhaus Baden-Baden is ambitious. "Especially in the chamber concerts, we also appreciate the many personal encounters we have with the audience. This direct contact is something very special in Baden-Baden," he says. In addition to guest conductors Herbert Blomstedt, Tugan Sokhiev and Swiss conductor Lorenzo Viotti, who is standing in for Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Kirill Petrenko can also be heard in the orchestral concerts: with Beethoven's Missa solemnis, exclusively in Baden-Baden, and Mahler's 6th Symphony, with which Simon Rattle bid farewell to the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Zietzschmann would like to market the Easter Festival even more internationally. She counters the recurring rumors that the Berlin Philharmonic would return to Salzburg with a self-confident smile: "We feel at home in Baden-Baden." And announces that Kirill Petrenko will only conduct opera in Baden-Baden from 2022. Not only Salzburg will be disappointed about this. But Baden-Baden can rejoice.

Messe Frankfurt has announced that it has decided to postpone Musikmesse 2020 due to the increasing spread of Covid-19 in Europe. "The health of exhibitors, visitors, partners and employees is Messe Frankfurt's top priority. The new date will be announced shortly. Visitor tickets will remain valid.

From today's perspective, the pop-up experience market 'Musikmesse Plaza' (April 3 and 4) and the 'Musikmesse Festival' (March 31 to April 4, 2020) can take place on the planned dates. These events are primarily aimed at a regional audience from the greater Frankfurt area.

The continued increase in the spread of Covid-19 in Europe required a new assessment of the situation in close coordination with the City of Frankfurt's health department. It should be avoided that participants of the fair come from risk areas and visit the fair with the disease. As these trade fair participants may also be infected with Covid-19, a health check is necessary to counteract the further spread of infection. This is an essential part of the infectiological risk assessment. The necessary implementation cannot be realized by Messe Frankfurt. In addition, there are increasing travel restrictions that make it difficult for potential visitors and exhibitors to participate in the trade fair.

Current information is available at www.musikmesse.com."

According to Sonart, the "professional association of freelance musicians", all those involved in concerts that are planned over the next two weeks must expect a major loss of income. If the measures are tightened or extended, i.e. events with fewer than 1,000 people are also canceled, or the state of emergency remains in place beyond 15 March, the losses will grow with each passing day.

As many musicians in ensembles, bands and sometimes orchestras are self-employed, such cancellations hit them particularly hard. This applies to the entire spectrum, from jazz and pop bands to opera and classical productions. Freelancers often earn large parts of their annual income during the short time in which performances take place and therefore have to cross-finance long preparation and rehearsal phases.

When concerts don't take place, the organizers are also directly affected. Canceled individual events are catastrophically affected. Even regular music event organizers often work with few reserves, so that cancellations of just a few weeks can lead to existentially threatening financial holes.

Sonart expects the Federal Council to be aware of the music industry as a whole, alongside the other eligible economic sectors, and to include it when discussing further measures and compensation options.

In an official press release, Sussculture writes that the Federal Council has made it clear that it intends to maintain the current level of funding during the funding period. The association sees this as a binding promise and hopes that parliament will follow this proposal.

Although Suisseculture considers the cultural expenditure of CHF 222.6 million from 2021 to be sufficient, it also notes that this de facto continuation of the status quo does not allow for any major development steps. This also applies in particular to the welcome measures in the area of music education: Here, an area of education is being supported with cultural funds. Should parliament tighten the budget framework, the association expects the Confederation to examine how other budgets can support these measures.

The whole statement: