The 14 prizewinners of 2021 are: Alexandre Babel (Geneva), Chiara Banchini (Lugano, TI), Yilian Cañizares, (Havana, Cuba and Lausanne, VD), Viviane Chassot (Zurich, ZH), Tom Gabriel Fischer (Zurich, ZH), Jürg Frey (Aarau, AG), Lionel Friedli (Moutier, BE), Louis Jucker (La Chaux-de-Fonds, NE), Christine Lauterburg (Bern), Roland Moser (Bern), Roli Mosimann (Weinfelden, TG), Conrad Steinmann (Rapperswil, SG), Manuel Troller (Lucerne), Nils Wogram (Braunschweig, D and Zurich).

Stephan Eicher was born in Münchenbuchsee in 1960. He gained his first experience in an electropunk band, the Noise Boys. In 1981, he and his band Grauzone became known in German-speaking countries with the song "Eisbär". His success in France began with the album "Les Chansons Bleues" (1983). Stephan Eicher has released around twenty albums in his career to date, most recently "Homeless Songs" from 2019. In 2021, he will be presenting his project "Das Floss der Unnötigen" on tour.

Every year, the BAK mandates around ten experts from the field of music. They propose candidates from all regions of Switzerland and from all musical genres. Their selection is then submitted to the Federal Jury for Music. In January 2021, the seven members of the jury selected the winner of the Swiss Grand Prix Music and the 14 winners of the Swiss Music Awards. The Swiss Grand Prix Music is endowed with CHF 100,000, the Swiss Music Prizes with CHF 25,000 each.

Born in Schwyz, trumpeter Hans Kennel first played classical music for a short time, then jazz and other experimental music for many years, according to his website, until he happened to see a picture of his father playing with his brother and grandfather in a family album from 1932. He founded the groups Alpine Jazz Herd (together with Jürg Solothurnmann), Alpine Experience and the alphorn quartet Mytha, which also aroused the interest of younger musicians.

In 1998, Hans Kennel was honored with the Central Switzerland Culture Prize for his dedicated and pioneering exploration of elements of Alpine music in the border areas between folk music, jazz and classical music. In 2014, he was nominated for the first Swiss Music Prize (Swiss Grand Prix Music) by the Federal Office of Culture (BAK).

The new program by Ensemble Voces Suaves presents some of the most expressive madrigals by Giaches de Wert (1535-1596) in the context of his biography, in particular his relationship with the musician and intellectual Tarquinia Molza (1542-1617). The two met at the Este court in Ferrara, which was characterized by music but also by intrigue, and became close friends and presumably lovers. The program follows their common path, primarily through the madrigals of Wert and his contemporaries, but also through excerpts from historical letters and poems.

Two musical publications of value from the period of his relationship with Molza occupy a special place in the program: the ninth book of madrigals and the volume of canzonettas. These volumes contain madrigals of contrasting characters: beautifully expressive and complex settings of some of the saddest poems from Petrarch's Canzoniere, alongside light, short, playful and witty canzonettas. These contrasting pieces show the depth of de Wert's oeuvre and how his music vividly portrays the full spectrum of human emotions.

The violinist Anastasiia Subrakova, born in 1994 in Akaban, Russia, first studied her instrument at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Ilya Ioff. She then completed a Bachelor's degree at the HEMU - Haute Ecole de Musique et Conservatoire de Lausanne with Sergiu Schwartz and a Master's degree in Music Performance with Svetlana Makarova. From 2018 to 2020, Subrakova studied for a Master's degree in Solo Performance with Ilya Gringolts at the Zurich University of the Arts. In 2019, she won second prize at the Kiwani Competition.

The Spanish saxophonist Luis Homedes López, born in Madrid in 1994, was taught in Madrid by Angel Luis de la Rosa, among others. From 2014, he studied with Marcus Weiss at the Basel University of Music, where he not only completed his Bachelor's degree, but also his Master's degree in Musical Performance. In 2019 he was a scholarship holder of the Rahn Kulturfonds. He took part in the Darmstadt Summer Courses and the Kurtág-Ligeti Workshop in Budapest and is currently specializing in contemporary music in a further master's degree.

Daniela Braun, also born in Switzerland in 1994, studied clarinet with Paolo Beltramini at the Lucerne School of Music and completed a master's degree in music education, also in Lucerne, in 2018. She is currently studying for a master's degree with Björn Nyman at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. From 2016 to 2018, she was a member of the contemporary ensemble HELIX at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and attended masterclasses with Yehuda Gilad and the Zermatt Festival Academy, among others.

The "Fritz Gerber Award" is open to the public and also accepts recommendations from universities and well-known personalities from the world of art. This year's jury consisted of Michael Haefliger, Director of the Lucerne Festival, composer and conductor Heinz Holliger and Felix Heri, Director of Lucerne Festival Contemporary.

Although this year's festival had little to do with previous EJCFs, it was still a great success, according to the festival management. As no audience was allowed on site, some events were streamed. By the end of the festival, around 6000 downloads had been registered.

The international choir exchange ultimately fell victim to the coronavirus regulations. After all, it was all Swiss choirs that traveled to Basel, were accommodated in the Hotel Ibis and catered for in the halls of Messe Basel in compliance with corona regulations. All singers had to be tested every morning and those over the age of 12 had to wear a mask. No infections have been reported so far. The more than 700 children and young people under the age of 20 also followed the strict safety rules when singing together at various events. These included workshops led by experts who are well known in the European choral scene: Sanna Valvanne from Finland, Basilio Astùlez Duque from Spain, RoxorLoops from Belgium and Patrick Secchiari and Dominique Tille from Switzerland. They also sang at choir meetings, as well as on the acoustic walk, on boats and on the Rösslitram.

Over 70 choir conductors from all over Switzerland discussed topics such as stylistics, yodeling, beatboxing unplugged and pop canons for choirs at the 10th Swiss Choir Conductors' Meeting.

Despite all the restrictions, the choirs and volunteers in attendance still had that typical festival feeling. This was reported by festival director Kathrin Renggli in the concentrated one-hour review at the end of the festival in the Hans-Huber-Saal of the Stadtcasino Basel. She and her team showed in exemplary fashion how the unforeseen can be approached pragmatically and creatively in order to create something new.

All the many fans who missed out this year - usually around 30,000 people attend over 40 events - can look forward to the 13th European Youth Choir Festival over Ascension Day in two years' time.
 

According to the federal government's press release, the National Cultural Dialogue notes that more than 60 percent of the Covid support applications submitted since autumn 2020 have already been decided. Furthermore, at the end of April 2021, simplifications were made to the calculation of damages for loss compensation to cultural workers. CHF 130 million has so far been earmarked in the federal budget for 2021 for Covid cultural measures. The National Cultural Dialogue welcomes the fact that Parliament will discuss an additional credit of CHF 148 million in the summer session.

The National Cultural Dialogue also approved two recommendations: In the area of dance promotion, the dissemination of productions by independent dance groups should be strengthened, among other things. In the area of social security for cultural professionals, a support program should be created so that additional cantons, cities and municipalities implement the measures adopted in 2016 to strengthen occupational benefits for cultural professionals. The 2016-2020 work program of the National Cultural Dialogue was concluded with these recommendations.

The National Cultural Dialogue was established in 2011 and brings together representatives of the political authorities and cultural representatives from the cantons, cities, municipalities and the Confederation. Its work is based on an agreement from 2011 and the 2016-2020 work programme adopted in April 2016. The political authorities form the strategic steering body of the National Cultural Dialogue with the head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs (FDHA), representatives of the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK), the Swiss Association of Cities (SSV) and the Swiss Association of Communes (SGV).

Gardens and parks in Basel, Beggingen, Biel, Riehen, Waldenburg and Willisau will be transformed into a stage whatever the weather. Together with Malwina Sosnowski, the following perform in different line-ups: Stefanie Mirwald, accordion, Camilla Steuernagel, words and voice, Antonis Michalopoulos, acting, Benyamin Nuss, piano, Pascal Widmer, drums and Linda Gerber, movement and voice.

The initiator of the garden concerts writes about the program: "We play music full of meaning: from the stormy sounds of Vivaldi to Bach's glowing earworms to wild tangos in the sunshine."

The Conductors' Forum, which is aimed at top young conductors, accompanies the young talents over several years on their way into professional life. Holly Hyun Choe and Ana María Patiño-Osorio, a student and alumna of Johannes Schlaefli respectively, are currently also scholarship holders of the Conductors' Forum.

Jonas Bürgin completed his bachelor's degree in orchestral conducting with Johannes Schlaefli in 2021. He is also one of eight candidates for the Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award 2021. At the Gstaad Menuhin Festival Conducting Academy he was awarded the Neeme Järvi Prize 2019 and in 2017 he won first prize at the London Classical Soloists Competition I. Jonas Bürgin is artistic and administrative director of the Junge Zürcher Harmoniker, which he founded in 2015.

Aurel Dawidiuk has been studying orchestral conducting with Johannes Schlaefli and piano with Till Fellner at the Zurich University of the Arts since 2020. He also receives organ lessons from Martin Sander in Basel. He has won 1st prize in numerous piano and organ competitions. In 2019 he won the IV. International Young Organist Competition Moscow and the TONALi Piano Competition in Hamburg, where he received the Christoph Eschenbach Prize as well as the main prize.

Francesco Cagnasso comes from the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. He is currently studying in Ulrich Windfuhr's class at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. In 2017, he completed his Master's in Music Theory at the Zurich University of the Arts with Burkhard Kinzler, Felix Baumann, Johannes Schild and Mathias Steinauer, as well as the Certificate in Advanced Studies in Orchestral Conducting with Ivan Wassilevsky.

Unlike last year, the 2021 competition could be held again. 366 young musicians qualified for the final in Kriens at the regional competitions in March. They played without an audience in front of an expert jury. As the SJMW writes in its press release, this restriction deprived the young talents of a crucial experience. The restrictions of the lockdown, on the other hand, could have contributed to the participants' concentration on their instruments and thus to the high musical level of this year, the SJMW suspects.

The final concert was recorded by SRF2 and will be broadcast at a later date. The jurors awarded 311 prizes. The results are documented on the SJMW website.

In its response, the Government Council sees no need for action to deviate from the previous strategic orientation (subject-based instead of object-based cultural promotion). In view of the still highly decentralized cultural life with numerous activities in the municipalities and districts, the lack of an actual cantonal cultural center is still hardly perceived as a deficiency. Rather, what is needed are local event and cultural spaces that meet the needs of associations and cultural professionals.

In some municipalities that recognize an active cultural life as a locational advantage, such spaces have been created in recent years or are repeatedly available to cultural professionals in the form of interim use. The additional possibility of assuming infrastructure costs as part of cultural promotion also entails the risk of financial resources being dispersed.

The entire answer to the interpellation:
https://www.sz.ch/public/upload/assets/53315/P_Kulturförderung.pdf

Support is provided:

"Luigi Cherubini and the teaching of composition at the Paris Conservatoire as a comprehensive educational practice (ca. 1810-1840)". It examines the teaching of music theory and composition at the time and what might be of interest to us today (Claudio Bacciagaluppi)
"At the focus of developments: The Swiss Association of Musicians 1975-2017". How did the discourse on new music develop and what role did women, improvisation and television play? (Thomas Gartmann)
"Writing with voices - on the interaction of symbolic and technical compositional practices of the voice in contemporary music". The focus here is on media-aesthetic considerations, artistic experiments and the case study of Hans Wüthrich. (Michael Harenberg)
"Activating Fluxus": How can an ephemeral art form like Fluxus be revived - artistically, art historically and in terms of conservation? (Hanna B. Hölling)
"Aesthetics of the im/mobile: How Dance and Theater Performances Travel." How does theater and dance by and with people with disabilities travel and how is it disseminated? What potentials of circulation and mobility open up for the participation of people with disabilities in dance and theater? (Yvonne Schmidt)
"Collaborative aesthetics in global sound art": How do Swiss and South African artists work together live and in internet radios, what postcolonial challenges arise and what does this mean for cultural diplomacy? (Andi Schoon)

There's something about it: a creaky, metallic electric guitar goes well with Witten an der Ruhr - and therefore also with the Ruhr region, where a lot of hard work was done, where the machines once ran hot and steel production was very important. The Austrian composer Klaus Lang wrote the sounds for this audiovisual piece called nowhere.Sabine Maier, a light artist, devised a discreet installation using old slide projectors, whose vents whir charmingly into the music. Distorted guitar sounds here, outdated projection technology there: at first, it sounds like nostalgia, like a throwback to beautifully analog times. But things turn out differently: this sonically fascinating nowhere. increasingly unfolds a less harsh, rather very soft, almost contemplative and timeless atmosphere.

Sabine Maier and Klaus Lang are not presenting their audiovisual collaborative work on stage. They created a "Corona-compliant film version" in a model and played the pre-recorded music. In line with the pandemic, i.e. without an audience, the Witten Days to. Twelve hours of the world premiere program were pre-produced in Paris, Cologne, Stuttgart and Witten; festival director Harry Vogt and his team will show everything bundled together on three online evenings lasting several hours from Friday to Sunday. At the beginning of March, Vogt was still hoping for the 53rd year with an audience, but after the sobering news of the lockdown, he had to rethink a lot of things. A radio presentation of installations in Witten's Schwesternpark, which served as a natural recreation area for deaconesses from the neighboring Protestant hospital at the beginning of the 20th century, proved difficult to implement.

The Swiss composer and sound artist Mauro Hertig is inspired by the park. Perhaps he thought that there was already enough death and destruction in the history of music, from Don Carlo Gesualdo to Johann Sebastian Bach and György Ligeti's Requiem. So Hertig begins in Mum Hum does not start at the end of life, but virtually from scratch, or more precisely: with the idea of what sounds a fetus might be exposed to in its mother's womb. All kinds of verbal and instrumental sounds can be heard in the online radio version. Unfortunately, apparently not in the form that was intended on site in the nurses' park: with corded telephones. These would have allowed the character of the high-pitched bubbling or gurgling to emerge more clearly. So it remains "HiFi instead of LoFi" - but still provides an insight into the inspired workshop of Hertig, who was born in 1989 and studied at the Zurich University of the Arts.

Also Daniel Ott had been at Nurse Park Fragments (2021) presented a beautiful environment. Here a mobile steel drum, there a wandering trumpet, plus loudspeakers hidden in the trees with choral singing - the well thought-out examination of the landscape architecture of the English garden sounds promising. But here, too, the audio-only version cuts back on the essentials: the free contemplation in the Wittener Schwesternpark, the unfolding of the sounds in the space, even the experience of Ott's tonal changes of perspective through the movement of the performers is almost painfully neglected. Installations that are close to nature, especially site-specific installations, simply elude a radio presentation, no matter how well-intentioned and well-made. It simply tastes stale.

The online presentation of the Witten concerts is better. As part of the traditional focus on portraits, the French composer and performer Brice Pauset his impressive skills. On a hundred-year-old fortepiano, he plays excerpts from his new series of works with tremendous sound sensitivity Minutes for piano. Historical retrospections are frequent in this 53rd year of the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, including in the case of the 1978 Rapperswil-born Michael Pelzelwho works as an organist in Stäfa on Lake Zurich. Pelzel remembers his youth, when he listened to a lot of Pink Floyd, especially the album Dark side of the moon. It sounds two-dimensional and monochrome, yet very dense and concentrated in his ensemble piece Dark side of Telesto. The use of many gongs lends the work a floating quality and an unmistakably melancholy note. Pelzel may not have been thinking of a musical response to the current coronavirus situation. But the dark work does seem contemporary.

The study "Choral music in times of coronavirus" (ChoCo) documents the critical situation in this area for the first time in relation to all key aspects of choral work. According to study director Kathrin Schlemmer, the number of active singers in the choirs surveyed has declined significantly during the pandemic. Only less than a third were able to maintain their original number of members. The loss is particularly pronounced among the more than 580 young choirs surveyed. Of these, almost one in eight children's and youth choirs no longer exist.

Almost 60% of all ensembles surveyed expect that they will not continue to work with the same number of singers after the pandemic. 15 percent even fear a significant decline in interest from singers due to the long forced break.

Within a short space of time, over 4300 choirs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland took part in the KU's online survey. The project team has now published the initial results of the online survey of choirs in the current issue of the "neue musikzeitung" (nmz).

Link to the study in PDF format:
https://service.conbrio.de/service/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ChoCo-Studie_NMZ_final.pdf
 

Andreas Schoenrock is a sound engineer, musicologist and music consultant for brands. Against this background, he will set new priorities in the degree course, according to the HKB statement: In future, the focus will be on a broad concept of popular music, popular music studies, music business/music and brand, among other things. Andreas Schoenrock will increasingly invite international guests from his broad network to lecture on these topics on the course.

The MAS Popular Music at the HKB offers part-time professionalization in popular music and pop culture. The program combines musical practice with music theory know-how and teaches audio, production and music business skills.

As the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts (HMTM) writes, Harald Strebel was awarded an honorary doctorate on April 24, 2021 "in recognition of his exceptional academic achievements in musicology, in particular his work on the work and life of Wolfgang Amadé Mozart and on organological issues relating to clarinet instruments". The certificate was presented to him at the musicological symposium Historical wind instruments: Build - Play - Sound - Meaning was presented by Bernd Redmann, President of HMTM; the laudator was Irene Holzer, Professor of Musicology at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.

Born in 1942, Harald Strebel studied music in Winterthur and Zurich. He complemented his many years of teaching in Switzerland and abroad with intensive international concert experience as a clarinettist in many renowned orchestras and chamber music formations. His work as a music researcher became increasingly important to him. He was particularly interested in Mozart and Viennese classical music. The HMTM states: "Thanks to his many years of experience as a performing musician, Harald Strebel's work is characterized not only by a high scientific standard and a deep historical-musical understanding, but also by his excellent knowledge of historical instruments." In addition to scientific studies, some of his books are particularly noteworthy: The Freemason Wolfgang Amadé MozartStäfa: Rothenhäusler, 1991; Mozart's sister-in-law Aloysia LangeZurich: Hug, 2003; or, as a central work, the three-volume work Anton Stadler. The work and life of the Mozart clarinettist, Vienna: Hollitzer, 2016 and 2020.

In the Swiss Music Newspaper Harald Strebel has published two articles, which can be downloaded here by clicking on the titles:

"...much too fast". Remarks on tempo and rubato playing in Mozart. In: Swiss Music Newspaper, No. 7/8, July/Aug. 1999, vol. 2, pp. 9-10.

Historical, reconstructed or "modern" instruments? Thoughts on the performance practice of Mozart's music and his contemporaries. In: Swiss Music Newspaper, No. 2, 2/2007, 10th vol., pp. 7-8.