Basel funding for concert programs

For the first time, contributions will be awarded for a four-year period. Between 2023 and 2027, the orchestras will receive contributions towards their artistic and administrative costs, which will enable them to implement six projects each for the benefit of a Basel audience and comply with the Swiss Musicians' Association's recommended tariffs. A total of eight instrumental ensembles and orchestras applied for program funding.

The following will now receive contributions: Basel Sinfonietta (CHF 4,044,600), Basel Chamber Orchestra (CHF 2,913,996), La Cetra Baroque Orchestra: (CHF 1,581,412), Ensemble Phoenix Basel (CHF 1,066,616) and the Klang Lab Ensemble (CHF 379,920). Camerata Variabile, which has received funding from the orchestra program funding since 2016, will receive a transitional funding contribution of CHF 60,480 for the last time for the 2023 to 2024 season. It no longer fully met the requirements of the call for proposals.

For the first time, two orchestras are being recognized for special achievements above and beyond the usual programming on the basis of the Ordinance on Programme and Structural Support for Orchestras, which came into force in 2022. The Basel Sinfonietta's grant includes funds of CHF 60,000 per year to support measures such as evening childcare, the promotion of young talent and children's concerts on a pro rata basis. The efforts of the Basel Chamber Orchestra to communicate music in a simple way and to design certain offers with a low threshold were also considered exceptional by the jury and are reflected in the funding contribution with CHF 40,000 per year.

The five independent jurors come from different areas of the concert industry: Beat Fehlmann, Director of the German State Philharmonic Orchestra Rhineland-Palatinate, Ludwigshafen; Norbert Graf, music journalist and music producer at SRF 2 Kultur, Schüpfen; Rico Gubler, Head of the Music Department at Bern University of the Arts; Lisa Nolte, Artistic Director of the SONIC MATTER festival and online forum, Zurich; Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer, conductor, Zurich. The non-voting advisory board members were: Dominika Hens, Commissioner for Cultural Projects Basel-Stadt, and Katrin Grögel, Head of the Department of Culture Basel-Stadt.