In a press release dated January 21, the Basel University of Music and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis announced that Georges Starobinski will take over as director from September 2013. Together, the two institutions form the FHNW School of Music/Music Academy Basel, which, in addition to the "classical" artistic and music education programs, also includes the jazz, research and development departments as well as the Electronic Studio Basel.

Georges Starobinski trained as a pianist, musicologist and conductor in Geneva and Munich. He then spent three years as a répétiteur with conducting duties at the Theater Basel and later lectured at the University of Geneva. He has been a full professor of musicology at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) since 2004. He is a regular lecturer and researcher at the Collège des Humanités de l'Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Lausanne and at the University of Geneva. As a sought-after accompanist, he regularly gives concerts with renowned singers. In recent years, he has been invited to give lectures, concerts and lecture-recitals at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel. Georges Starobinski has lived with his family in Basel for many years.

Photo: zvg
 

Draugsvoll will be accompanied by the Ensemble Symphonique Neuchatel under the direction of Alexander Mayer. Gubaidulina's "Introitus" for piano and chamber orchestra and Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. 14 will also be performed on this concert evening.

"Fachwerk" is dedicated to Geir Draugsvoll, who holds a chair for accordion at the Copenhagen Academy of Music and presented the world premiere of the work on November 13, 2009 together with Anders Loguin (percussion) and the Amsterdam Sinfonietta under Reinbert de Leeuw in Ghent (Belgium).
 

The work was carried out as part of the fifth School Dance Award, which is organized by the Sports Section, the Primary School Division and the Culture Division of the Department of Education, Culture and Sport (BKS) as part of voluntary school sports.

According to a report from the canton, over 300 young people "generated enthusiasm and applause with their performances" at the Culture and Congress Center in Aarau. Project manager Christian Müller was also delighted. He said he was always amazed at the great choreographies the groups rehearsed in six months.

The first- to third-place winners in the lower secondary level category and the first- and second-place winners in the upper secondary level category will represent Aargau at the intercantonal final of the cantons of Aargau, Bern, Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt and Solothurn in Bern on March 16, 2013.
 

Eligible to participate are artists from the Canton of Schaffhausen (no age limit) who are either entitled to reside in the canton, have been resident in the Canton of Schaffhausen for at least three years or have previously resided in the Canton of Schaffhausen for at least 15 years.

The production location (studio location) is considered the place of residence. A panel of independent experts decides on the award. An annual sum of 110,000 Swiss francs is available. The closing date for applications is April 30, 2013

More info: www.sh.ch

The Cultural Promotion of the Canton of St.Gallen awards annual grants to artists. The grants support artists in the fields of applied and visual arts, literature, music, theater and dance with a budget-independent, fixed contribution.

The support is intended to give artists the time they need to work out their ideas, projects or works or to further develop their artistic activities. As of this year, it is also possible to submit an individually tailored further education idea that includes a special residency or stage that specifically promotes further development.

The work contributions are intended to enable projects that give new impetus to artistic work or also offer the opportunity to try out other forms of collaboration and encounters.

An additional funding opportunity is a stay in the studio apartment in Rome. An apartment in the lively San Lorenzo district is available there for three months at a time. This allows projects to be realized whose starting point and source of inspiration is the Eternal City or urban space in general.

The selection process is carried out in two stages. In each category, a three-member jury of experts assesses the project submissions and nominates the applicants for the second stage. In this second stage, all members of the expert jury meet for a plenary session to select a maximum of ten projects from the nominees to be supported with a contribution.

The Office for Culture will accept applications until March 20, 2013; the final decisions on the awarding of work grants and stays in Rome will be made by the end of June 2013.

More info: www.kultur.sg.ch
 

The Symphony Club will provide various offers: "Meet & Mingle" with orchestra members, locals and other expats after the concerts, discounts for certain concerts and special events for club members.

A monthly newsletter in English informs members about events and offers. The Symphony Club welcomes not only expats, but also locals who enjoy mingling with Basel's international community. Membership is free and without obligation.

The Symphony Club was launched on the occasion of a "cocktail concert". The invitation to the concert with Richard Strauss' A hero's life (guest conductor: Karen Kamensek), followed by an aperitif, was attended by around 600 expats.

The Symphony Club is ideally supported by a patronage committee made up of the President of the Government Guy Morin, the Principal Conductor of the Basel Symphony Orchestra Dennis Russell Davies and Baselconnect President Kathy Hartmann-Campbell.

The four-day Eurosonic Noorderslag is one of the most important events for European rock and pop music. The presentations are accompanied by a rich conference program.

Switzerland was represented in Groningen by Pegasus, 77 Bombay Street, Hathors and The Pussywarmers & Réka. As part of the festival, the Swiss group Death by Chocolate and two other acts were also nominated for an Interactive Award, which recognizes marketing concepts.

In the end, the Dutch electropop group Krause won the vote with 2028 votes. The group BLØF, also from the Netherlands, achieved 1896 votes and Death by Chocolate 1557.

More info: festival.eurosonic-noorderslag.nl

"What music is good for my child?" The Leopold Media Prize helps all parents who ask themselves this question, as well as music teachers and nursery and primary school teachers, to find their way around. The VdM is awarding the prize for the ninth time.

Recording companies, publishers and producers can apply with sound carriers (CD, MC, DC-ROM and DVD) that awaken children's love of music at a high artistic and technical level and inspire their imagination. These can be traditional or newly created children's songs, intelligent rock and pop music for children, music theater in professional performance, imaginative and target group-oriented "classical music for children", creative compositions of text and music in any form or interesting facts about and with music.

Productions that were published between January 1, 2009 and January 31, 2013 and can be purchased through retailers or other sales channels can be entered. There are three levels to the award:

• the Leopold Media Prize of the Association of German Music Schools for the winners
• the title "Recommended by the Association of German Music Schools" for good and recommendable productions
• the special "Poldi" prize, which is awarded by a children's jury

The award ceremony is scheduled for September 27, 2013 in Cologne. Further information on registration and the documents are available from the Association of German Music Schools, Tel: ++228-95 70 6-0, e-mail: vdm@musikschulen.de or on the Internet at www.musikschulen.de

Picture: Stephanie Hofschlaeger / pixelio.de

Among the numerous chamber music works with piano accompaniment by Paul Juon (1872-1940), the Sextet from 1902 and the Quintet from 1909, two original compositions of central importance. The sometimes orchestral sonority of the work, which is still very much rooted in Slavic late Romanticism Sextetswhich is directed towards Chamber Symphony (Octet) op. 27, stands in the harmonically bolder Quintet is contrasted with a strongly broken-up texture of remarkable transparency, interspersed with pure string passages. The tonal peculiarities of this stylistically more uniform, strikingly austere work include stereotypical whole tone passages, pentatonic turns and seventh chords, which only lose their sharpness through arpeggiation.

In the less mature, but melodically richer Sextet Juon's greatest role models, Brahms and Tchaikovsky, fight vigorously against each other. The Swiss composer, who was born in Moscow and grew up in Berlin, was recognized early on as having a certain affinity with Brahms. This is most noticeable here in the thematic structure of the first movement. The affinity with the 1st movement of the Piano quintets op. 34 by his German colleague cannot be ignored. On the other hand, Juon is even more passionate about Tchaikovsky when he combines the typical Russian folk song theme of the slow 2nd movement with that of the 2nd movement from the Piano trio A minor op. 50 by the Russian composer. Like the latter, Juon also extends the variations to the following three movements (Minuet, Intermezzo, Finale).

The emotional warmth of the Sextets and the cooler sound atmosphere of the Quintets are performed by pianist Oliver Triendl, cellist Thomas Grossenbacher and the Carmina Quartet with a dedication that can hardly be described as anything other than passionate.

Paul Juon: Piano Quintet, Piano Sextet (2nd Quintet in F major op. 44 for violin, two violas, violoncello and piano; Sextet in C minor op. 22 for two violins, viola, two violoncellos and piano). Oliver Triendl, Thomas Grossenbacher, Carmina Quartett. cpo 777 507-2

The number of single track downloads rose by 22.9% year-on-year to a total of 97 million songs. Album downloads, which generate around 55% of download sales, increased by 20.6% to 16 million. Single bundles, including maxi singles, accounted for an additional 1.5 million downloads in 2012 (up 12.8%).

According to Media Control Managing Director Ulrike Altig, not only pop releases, but also TV compilations, classical music products and music from the children's sector recorded major digital growth.

With over 280 labels and companies from the music industry, the German Music Industry Association claims to represent around 90 percent of the German music market.

From 2010 to 2013, the canton of Uri supported theater(uri) with an annual contribution of CHF 200,000. In order for the support to continue, a new credit decision by the cantonal council is required. The aim is for the loan to be approved by the cantonal council by the end of the year.

The Heinrich Danioth Art and Culture Foundation supports artists who have grown up, live or are entitled to reside in the canton through annual calls for proposals and the corresponding annual exhibition in the Haus für Kunst by providing studio grants (New York, Berlin), the Uri Year of Art, sponsorship and project contributions as well as work purchases and commissions.

The canton wants to formally simplify the foundation's cumbersome regulations, which have not been revised since 1981. The division of responsibilities between the canton and the foundation is also to be reviewed in terms of content.

As part of the cost-cutting measures for a balanced budget in 2013, the credit has been reduced by 500,000 francs, writes the canton. The cantonal government has approved a further 150,000 francs for the Association of Bernese Music Schools (VBMS) for 2013.

The VBMS supports the canton in the quality assurance of music schools, in the further training of music school teachers and school management and in the settlement of cantonal contributions.

The focus of the "Szenenwechsel" festival is the light-footed variety premiere of "Der Fall 'YY'", which will be shown on January 27 and on two further dates at the Theater Pavillon Luzern. The staged performance describes the wild escape of a blameless citizen who accidentally gets caught up in one of the civil defense maneuvers that were common in pre-war Russia. Following its premiere in St. Petersburg in 1931, this will be the first time the play has been performed outside Russia.

On January 28, the student ensemble "Alpini Vernähmlassig" will perform in the Jazzkantine together with accordionist Sergei Simbirev. There will also be a chamber music concert on January 31 with works by various Russian composers in St. Charles Hall Meggen.

Shostakovich's 7th Symphony, which he composed shortly after the invasion of the Soviet Union by German troops, is a harrowing and monumental work on the program at the end of the festival on 1 February. The concert by the Junge Philharmonie Zentralschweiz under the direction of Dmitry Sitkovetsky will take place in the concert hall of the KKL Lucerne.

In addition, a symposium on January 28/29 entitled "An anarchist's hand grenade - Dmitri Shostakovich and the period around 1930" offers the opportunity to take an in-depth look at the famous Russian composer and his time.

More info: www.hslu.ch/schostakowitsch2013

Photo: Elisabeth Anliker (idea and overall direction) and Thomas Usteri (direction and pantomime) in "Der Fall 'YY'". © Martin Vogel, 2012

George Gruntz, who celebrated his 80th birthday on June 24, 2012, passed away this Thursday after a long illness, as his son confirmed to Swiss radio and television SRF.

Gruntz was one of Switzerland's most internationally acclaimed jazz musicians. In 1958, Gruntz performed at the legendary Newport Festival - with Louis Armstrong, among others. From 1971, he led his own big band, The George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band. Gruntz was also a composer and musical director at the Zurich Schauspielhaus from 1970 to 1984 and director of the Berlin JazzFest from 1972 to 1994.

It is with deepest sadness that the Montreux Jazz Festival has announced the death of Claude Nobs. He passed away peacefully on January 10 at Lausanne University Hospital, surrounded by his family and friends. The funeral will take place in the closest of circles. The dates for musical memorial services in Montreux, New York and London will be announced later.