According to Sonart - Music Creators Switzerland, it has become apparent that there is a lack of regular artistic exchange at a national level in Switzerland. There is a lack of "a showcase that is visible throughout Switzerland and also attracts attention abroad". Together with the Swiss Musicians' Association and other organizations, a representative place of exchange is therefore to be created, "as has long existed in Solothurn for film and literature".

A management personality is therefore being sought to lead the project on a mandate basis from January 1, 2023. Applications can be submitted until November 4.

The detailed job advertisement can be found on the Website of Sonart - Music Creators Switzerland. Link.
 

The aim of the trilateral performance mandates is to define a multi-year funding framework so that the supported cultural enterprises can work on their development without constant financial pressure. In addition to securing and strengthening support from the municipalities and the canton, the mandates are also intended to reduce the administrative burden. In fact, according to the canton's media release, these institutions have been receiving various forms of support from the Department of Culture for several years, resulting in a high administrative burden on both sides.

The three agreements signed for the pilot phase concern the associations Grand Mirific in Bruson (Palp Festival), Ferme-Asile in Sion and the music village of Ernen. The canton and the municipalities concerned have undertaken to provide increased support to the beneficiaries of the performance contracts. As a result, the canton has increased the average support by 50% over four years.

At the end of the defined period, the department will carry out an assessment to determine whether such agreements enable the objectives to be achieved and whether it is appropriate to extend them to other cultural institutions.

Within the framework of Lullabyte, a total of ten doctoral students are being trained in this interdisciplinary field of research and are acquiring profound skills that are relevant to research, industry and the cultural sector. The doctoral students, who are based at the participating universities, are investigating the effects of music on sleep in very different settings and with different interests.

In addition to TU Dresden, the Radboud University Medical Center from the Netherlands, the University of Stuttgart, Aarhus University from Denmark, the FEMTO-ST Institute and the Paris Brain Institute from France, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra from Spain, the Royal Institute of Technology from Sweden, the Université de Fribourg from Switzerland and the Berlin start-up Endel are also involved.

The MSCA Doctoral Network is funded by Horizon Europe for four years. MSCA stands for Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions and includes the EU's career funding program for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in the field of excellence of Horizon Europe. The ten doctoral positions will be advertised from November 1, 2022. Further information on the open positions is available directly from the partner institutions.

Johanna Jellici grew up in Brussels, Berlin and Barcelona, according to the ZHdK press release. She studied German literature and linguistics in Tübingen. This was followed by several years of study and work in Tokyo and San Francisco as well as studies in singing, electro-acoustic composition and music education in Leipzig.

Jellici's work includes CDs, sound installations, live electronic performances and compositions as well as exhibitions and has been shown in museums, exhibitions and at international festivals. As a singer, she has performed on stage with Nina Hagen, the Sinfonietta Basel and many more. She tours nationally and internationally with her current formation Jellici Baldes Spacetracker.

Johanna Jellici has taught and held management positions at institutions in Vienna, Leipzig and Basel. In recent years, she has been a member of the management team of the Jazzcampus at the Basel University of Music FHNW. She has lived in Zurich since 2001 and works as a singer, installation artist, composer and voice coach.
 

The music school initiative of June 30, 2021, which was submitted in the form of a general suggestion and which calls for the implementation of the national music school initiative as well as a good music school offer for all children and young people and uniform employment conditions for music school teachers, was recommended to the cantonal council for approval.

The BKK supports the proposal, the initiative should be declared valid and adopted. The canton of Schwyz should create a corresponding legal basis.

On September 23, 2012, the Swiss people approved the national federal decree on the promotion of youth music. Over 55% of the Schwyz electorate voted in favor of better youth music promotion. Despite this clear yes vote, the canton of Schwyz still lacks a cantonal legal basis for the services provided by music schools. The cantonal music school initiative calls for this to be enshrined in law.

One-off grants are awarded four times a year on the recommendation of the Cantonal Commission for Cultural Activities (CCAC). The two-year grant aims to support musicians or professional ensembles from Vaud in a new creative project, the writing of a major musical work, the dissemination of their productions on a national or even international level, or the simultaneous realization of several major projects.

Applications for 2023-2024 must be submitted online by November 15, 2022.
More info: vd.ch/culture-appels-projets

Although the swing feeling is one of the most important characteristics of jazz, it was long believed that swing could be felt but not explained. Only the sequence of eighth notes played at different lengths, downbeats and offbeats, is an easily audible component of swing. However, this characteristic alone is not sufficient for swing.

To clarify this question, the research team designed an experiment in which they manipulated the timing in original recordings with piano in various ways on the computer. The strength of the swing feeling in the recordings was then evaluated in these manipulated recordings. In a first study, the team was thus able to prove that random timing deviations do not contribute to the swing feeling, but can even reduce it.

However, the swing is apparently considerably enhanced if only the downbeats are delayed evenly by around 30 milliseconds, while the offbeats of solos remain in sync with the rhythm section. Downbeat delays were thus identified as a cause of the swing feel.

Original article:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42005-022-00995-z

Born in 1989, Martin Reck graduated from the Basel Music Academy with a Bachelor's degree in Audio Design and is currently studying for a Master's degree in Electroacoustic Composition at the ZHdK Zurich. His works combine influences from acousmatic, pop and club music into narrative music of magical realism. Live performances, his own voice and the development of electronic instruments are central components of his artistic practice.

The purpose of the Nico Kaufmann Foundation is to support young musicians who are ready to give concerts. It offers an annual scholarship to musicians who have not yet reached the age of 35 and are resident in Switzerland in the year of the call for applications.

The fact that (Joseph) Joachim Raff, the important but long overlooked composer of the Romantic century, had a particularly close relationship with Switzerland has come to the fore in recent weeks. The external occasion for the numerous (premiere) performances of his works is the 200th anniversary of his birth. Raff was born on May 27, 1822 in Lachen (SZ), lived through his youth there, his youthful years in Schwyz and his first professional years as a teacher in Rapperswil. The reason for the awakening interest in his work is the initiatives of the Joachim Raff Society (Lachen)which is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, and the Raff Research Center, which was officially opened in 2018. Following premieres of operas and oratorios in Switzerland and Weimar, Lachen celebrated its great son from September 15 to 18, 2022 with a chamber music festival and an academic symposium, as the example of this composer is a perfect illustration of how the promotion of compositions must go hand in hand with their academic study. The still young Lachner Raff archive has made a significant contribution to the edition of some works and has already achieved outstanding results in the collection, archiving and provision of documents.

The aim is still to arouse interest in this composer by researching his biography and environment, his aesthetic background and his creative development. To this end, the Raff Archive and Society have invited researchers to Lachen for the second time in four years.

After leaving Switzerland, Raff soon spent time in Weimar in the circle around Franz Liszt, where he also became involved with the Wagner phenomenon early on, which was reflected in his writings and his rapidly growing oeuvre. After working in Wiesbaden and four years as founding director of Dr. Hoch's Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main, he died on June 25, 1882.

The two-day event opened with a panel discussion on the edition of Raff's works, chaired by Hans-Joachim Hinrichsen. The discussion focused on different source situations and problems of detail, which are not always easy to solve, but also on commercial aspects. Subsequently, lectures focused on Raff's relationships with his numerous publishers (Severin Kolb, Dresden/Lachen) and on the significance of his music-writing activities for the propagation of Liszt's personality and work in the public of the time (Ulrike Roesler, Weimar). Raff's multifaceted activities and his connections to the various exponents of German-speaking musical life soon led to the remark that one could not understand the 19th century if one did not know Raff. One was reminded of this again and again. The discussion then turned to individual works: solo songs with orchestral accompaniment (Lena-Lisa Wüstendörfer, Zurich), the relationship between natural topoi and formal progressions in the Landscape Symphonies No. 3 (In the forest) and no. 7 (The Alps) (Stefan Keym, Leipzig) and the recently premiered opera buffa The jealous onesRaff's latest composition (Daniel Tiemeyer, Heidelberg). On the second day, a presentation on the relationship between early Wagner conductors and Raff via Hans von Bülow (Franziska Gallusser, Lucerne) and a biography of Raff's wife, the singer and actress Doris Raff-Genast (Heinrich Aerni, Zurich), focused more on the wider context.

As the once celebrated and frequently performed composer Raff fell into oblivion after the First World War, the question of how he was perceived in the context of the centenary of his birth (1922) was of particular interest in view of this year's anniversary (Simon Kannenberg, Detmold). An introduction to Frankfurt's music history, explanations of the founding of the Hoch Conservatory and an insight into Raff's not conflict-free tenure at this institute (Ulrike Kienzle, Frankfurt) led back into Raff's immediate environment. While Raff's Swiss years had hitherto been largely shrouded in darkness, Basil Vollenweider (Rapperswil) was able to contribute some surprising details about Raff's friend and family connections from his school days in Schwyz and his years as a primary school teacher in Rapperswil thanks to spectacular discoveries of sources, and reconcile these with later statements from Raff's own pen.

In summary, it can be said that the tracking down of such archival material and the processing of entire correspondences are of course welcome. However, as works by the composer are being heard more and more frequently, it is to be hoped that Raff research will soon be able to focus on their individuality, significance and differentiated classification in music history.

Born in 1989, Martin Reck graduated from the Basel Music Academy with a Bachelor's degree in Audio Design and is currently studying for a Master's degree in Electroacoustic Composition at the ZHdK Zurich. His works combine influences from acousmatic, pop and club music into narrative music of magical realism. Live performances, his own voice and the development of electronic instruments are central components of his artistic practice.

The purpose of the Nico Kaufmann Foundation is to support young musicians who are ready to give concerts. It offers an annual scholarship to musicians who have not yet reached the age of 35 and are resident in Switzerland in the year of the call for applications.

The DOV was founded in 1952 by professional musicians. It brings together almost all members of professional orchestras and radio choirs as well as freelance musicians, lecturers at music academies and students. According to the DOV, the level of organization is over 90 percent.

Unisono currently represents the interests of around 12,800 members. The association has seen a large influx of freelancers in recent years, who have relied on strong representation of their interests, primarily due to their experiences during the pandemic.

Website: dov.org

As a rule, only musicians who are studying professionally take part in the Fritz Kreisler Competition. Raphael Nussbaumer is a violin student in Philip Draganov's class and is currently studying at the MKZ Pre-College. He has already won prizes in various competitions such as the MKZ Classical Music Prize 2019, the Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition 2018 and the Swiss Youth Music Competition.

He has performed as a soloist with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Pre-College Orchestra of the ZHdK and the Zurich Academic Chamber Orchestra, among others. On this year's fall tour of the Zurich Youth Symphony Orchestra (JSOZ) in South Korea, Raphael Nussbaumer will perform the Sibelius Violin Concerto as soloist. After returning from South Korea, the JSOZ will perform at the Tonhalle Zurich.

Bureau Bureau is a duo consisting of Sonia Loenne (voc) and Michael Cina (dr/vib). They play experimental music with a focus on text. Current projects include a work for improvising orchestra on the subject of glacier melt, re-works for an ensemble of friends and a "Kirchenhall" program.

The competition for the ZKB Jazz Prize takes place as a festival at Zurich's Moods jazz club. The prizes include CHF 15,000 for first place and CHF 5,000 for second place. The prize money is to be used for the music; for studio productions, CD and label costs, for instruments, advertising or bookings.