The jury honored Ayse Cansu Tanrıkulu and Nick Dunston as an "extraordinary duo with impressive artistic multidimensionality and dynamic power". With playful virtuosity, the two moved between improvisation and composition, noise and folk, narrative songs and abstract sound textures. Ankara-born vocalist Ayse Cansu Tanrıkulu studied in Berlin and has been teaching at the HKB since 2023.

The SWR Jazz Prize, initiated by Joachim-Ernst Berendt, is the oldest jazz prize in Germany and will be awarded for the 44th time in 2024 by the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and Südwestrundfunk. It is endowed with 15,000 euros. The last winners in 2023 were Kathrin Pechlof, harpist, 2022: Petter Eldh, bassist, 2021: Eva Klesse, drummer, 2020: Daniel Erdmann, saxophonist, 2019: Liz Kosack, keyboardist, 2018: Sebastian Gille, saxophonist, 2017: Christian Lillinger, drummer and 2016: Julia Hülsmann, pianist.

The Munich Philharmonic Orchestra is a publicly funded symphony orchestra of the state capital of Munich. It was under the direction of Valery Gergiev between 2015 and 2022. Lahav Shani will become chief conductor from 2026. The current artistic director is still Paul Müller, who was previously artistic director of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra.

From 2001, Wiegand worked for the then new Konzerthaus Dortmund, where he founded a choir academy, set up the marketing department and helped develop sponsorship and fundraising projects. From 2005, he took over the management of the artistic operations office and concert planning. He is a jury member of the Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award of the Salzburg Festival and has been a regular lecturer in the Executive Master in Arts Administration program at the University of Zurich since 2019.

As part of a larger research project on the production and design of digital concert experiences, the research team conducted an online survey of 1619 people who use classical concert streams. They provided information on their socio-demographic data, their experience of using streaming platforms and their preferences regarding various possible production features of digital classical music events.

Over half belonged to the "digital concert enthusiasts". This group is open to innovative and diverse concert features that make full use of the possibilities of digitality, as well as the use of social media channels. The "digital concert purists" made up around a third. They prefer traditional concert features and on-demand streams. Around 15 percent of respondents were rather undecided about their preferences and were accordingly described as "undecided and less committed".

The results of the study were recently published in the specialist journal The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society have been published. They show that socio-demographic characteristics and music preferences have a significant, albeit weak, correlation with membership of the aforementioned audience groups. These findings suggest that clearly differentiated types of classical concert streams should be developed in order to reach the widest possible audience.

Original article:
Egermann, H., Siebrasse, A., Weining, C., O'Neill, K., Tröndle, M., & Wald-Fuhrmann, M. (2024). Developing Digital Classical Concert Stream Offerings: A Typology of Audience Preferences. The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, 54(3), 125-141. doi:10.1080/10632921.2024.2347397.

The 66-year-old Brazilian has canceled all commitments, including a summer course in Siena, and has given up teaching. According to a statement published on his social networks, the musician was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive brain tumor, in June. The statement states that the musician is currently receiving palliative medical care in Switzerland, where he lives.

Antonio Meneses' international career began in 1977 when he won the ARD International Competition in Munich. In 1982, he also won first prize and the gold medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Between 1998 and 2008 he was a member of the Beaux Arts Trio. In addition to his solo performances, Antonio Meneses regularly gives master classes in Europe, America and Japan. He has been teaching at the Bern University of the Arts since October 2008.

Michel Vust has been head of the City of Biel's Department of Culture since 2018. He began his career in 2002 at the Locarno International Film Festival, where he was responsible for communications until 2009. At the same time, he was co-director of the International Festival of Fantasy Films in Neuchâtel from 2005 to 2011. In 2012, he became Head of Promotion of Digital Creation at the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia until he took over the position in Biel/Bienne in 2018. He is on the board of the Forum Culture and Economy and on the board of the Commission romande de diffusion des spectacles (Corodis).

At the beginning of the year, the Vaud State Council decided to transform the Service des affaires culturelles (SERAC) into a Directorate-General for Culture with effect from August 1, 2024. Aline Delacrétaz will manage the business ad interim. As the current head of the Strategic Tasks department at SERAC, she will have the task of ensuring the continuity of the service for two months. Vust will take up office in October.

The Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de Musique (Sacem) welcomes the judgment of the Tribunal judiciaire de Nanterre of June 28, 2024 in the proceedings brought against it by the heirs of Alexandre Benois and the legal successors of Maurice Ravel, seeking to have Alexandre Benois declared co-author, alongside Maurice Ravel, of the Boléro is recognized.

As the documents submitted by the plaintiffs did not prove that the criteria required for the recognition of such co-authorship were met, Sacem had in fact refused to recognize the Boléro can be regarded as a joint work between Maurice Ravel and Alexandre Benois.

Such recognition would have meant that the term of copyright protection for this work would have been extended until 2039 or even 2051 if, as later claimed by the Ravel estate, the choreographer Bronislava Nijinska was also a co-author of the Boléros would have been recognized.

The Nanterre court followed Sacem's reasoning and therefore dismissed the claims of the Ravel and Benois estates in their entirety, both with regard to Sacem's refusal to recognize Alexandre Benois' alleged co-authorship and with regard to the numerous errors that the estates were accusing him of.

In essence, according to the press release, the aim is to enable the canton to pay higher financial contributions to the Uri music school in future. According to the cantonal law on schools and education, voluntary music lessons are a joint responsibility of the canton and municipalities. The canton is responsible for supporting voluntary music lessons for primary and upper secondary school students through contributions. Following the referendum on the revision of the Education Act on September 25, 2022 and as part of the follow-up legislation, the ordinance on voluntary music lessons at elementary school is now also to be revised.

The consultation on the revised ordinance will last until September 26, 2024, after which the Directorate of Education and Culture will evaluate the comments. The cantonal government can then decide on how to proceed. The earliest possible date for consideration of the revised law in the cantonal parliament is February 5, 2025. If this timetable is adhered to, the revised ordinance could come into force on August 1, 2025.

According to the press release, the role of artistic director also includes an advisory function for the further development and repositioning of the tradition-steeped festival. Christoph Müller will take up his position in autumn 2025 and present his first program at the beginning of 2026.

Born in 1970, Christoph Müller is a trained cellist and has held various positions with the Basel Chamber Orchestra since 1996, including cellist and managing director. He has been the orchestra's artistic delegate and concert manager since 2011. After the 2025 edition of the festival, he will hand over the artistic direction of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy after 24 editions.

The Settimane Musicali have been part of the musical panorama of the Lake Maggiore region and Ticino since they were founded in 1946. It is a springboard for young musicians and promotes Swiss orchestras, such as the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, which is given a special platform with two concerts a year as part of the festival.

On 1 August 2022, the federal government launched the "Young Talents in Music" funding program. The aim is to support children and young people with above-average musical potential and create uniform standards for talent development in the music sector throughout Switzerland. Participation in the program is voluntary for the cantons and is subject to minimum requirements in terms of content and structure.

The Federal Office of Culture (BAK) has approved the Canton of Basel-Landschaft's application for participation. As of 1 January 2025, all interested children and young people from Basel-Landschaft can apply to join the support program. Children and young people who are already part of the Talent Promotion Music Schools Baselland (TFBL) have the opportunity to apply for direct payments from the federal government until August 31, 2024. The application tool will be activated by the cantonal coordination office during the school summer vacations.

Daniel Hope will begin his directorship at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival 2026, the 70th edition of the festival named after its founder Yehudi Menuhin. Following an extensive, multi-stage selection process, he was unanimously elected as the new artistic director on the recommendation of the appointment committee. Hope has known Gstaad for many years and has had close personal and musical ties with festival founder Yehudi Menuhin since his childhood. His mother Eleanor Hope was Yehudi Menuhin's personal assistant.

Hope has been Music Director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra since 2016, which also has close historical ties to the festival. He also has leadership roles at the Savannah Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Philharmonie Essen. He is currently Artistic Director of the Frauenkirche Dresden and President of the Beethoven House in Bonn.

Grace Newcombe specializes in medieval and renaissance music. She performs throughout Europe and records with renowned medieval renaissance ensembles such as Ensemble Leones, Peregrina, Le Miroir de Musique, Ensemble Gilles Binchois, SchoEnsemble Dragma and Musicke & Mirth. She is the founder and director of the medieval ensemble Rumorum. As an instrumentalist, she has performed with medieval harps and Clavicymbalum can be heard.

Grace studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, where she obtained a Master's degree with distinction in Early Music Vocal Pedagogy. Since then she has taught there regularly as a guest or substitute teacher for singing, Tudor and Elizabethan vocal polyphony, medieval vocal polyphony and Gregorian chant.

As a performer and teacher, Grace specializes in non-classical vocal techniques and currently also teaches voice training at the Institut Jazz in Basel. She wrote her doctoral thesis on performance practices for vernacular songs in thirteenth-century Britain. She uncovered previously unknown melodic and textual peculiarities of Middle English verse.

Alexandra Dovgan, who according to the press release was born into a family of musicians in 2007, began her piano studies at the age of four and a half and passed the entrance exam for the Central Academic Music School in Moscow at the age of five. She has won numerous international competitions, including the Vladimir Krainev Moscow International Piano Competition. At the age of ten, she was awarded the Grand Prix at the II International Grand Piano Competition in Moscow. Alexandra has already performed in the Berlin Philharmonie, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam under conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel and Paavo Järvi.

The Prix Serdang was established in 2022 and awarded to Martin James Bartlett. Ariel Lanyi received the prize in 2023. It is endowed with 50,000 francs, is not a competition and is not tied to any conditions. Rather, it is an award, an incentive and support for a young career and an investment in artistic creation. Pianist Rudolf Buchbinder is the curator of the award.

The idea of publishing a catalog raisonné of Caroline Charrière's works arose during the cataloging work on the composer's estate between 2022 and 2023 in collaboration with the Association Caroline Charrière. Ultimately, the decisive factor for the creation of the project was the fact that over 50 additional works were found during the inventory of the estate in the Cantonal and University Library, which are not listed in the chronological list of works kept by Caroline Charrière herself (2018).

The catalog of works was also based on the catalog by musical genre compiled by the musicologist Irène Minder-Jeanneret (2021), the catalog of the music publisher Bim and the list of works in the inventory of the Caroline Charrière estate (2023). The catalog contains a total of 199 works, 40 arrangements of works by other composers, 6 miniatures composed for special occasions (birthdays and baptisms) and 40 sketches. Charrière also wrote other pieces for private use, but these are not included in the catalog as they are not intended for the public.

Caroline Charrière (1960 - 2018) was a Swiss composer and conductor. She studied flute and composition in Lausanne, Biel and Manchester and conducted the Fribourg women's choir Chœur de Jade in addition to working as a freelance composer.

More info:
https://www.fr.ch/de/kub/news/caroline-charriere-publikation-des-werkkatalogs

Born in 1974, Philippe Bach studied horn at the Bern University of Music and the Conservatoire de Genève and conducting in Zurich with Johannes Schlaefli and at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with Sir Mark Elder. From 2006 to 2008 he was Assistant Conductor at the Teatro Real in Madrid and assistant to Jesús López Cobos. From 2008 to 2010, he was First Kapellmeister and Deputy GMD at Theater Lübeck and from 2010 to 2022 General Music Director of the Meininger Hofkapelle. He has been Chief Conductor of the Bern Chamber Orchestra since 2012 and Chief Conductor of the Kammerphilharmonie Graubünden since 2016.

Founded in 2009, the 36-member Fribourg Chamber Orchestra (FKO) performs at the Equilibre Fribourg, the Podium Düdingen and in one of the halls of the CO of the Bulle region. It can also be heard in the music theater season of the NOF - Neue Oper Fribourg and regularly accompanies the projects of numerous vocal ensembles in the region.