The competition will be held from August 28 to September 6 for the harp - with the Swiss Tjasha Gafner - and from August 30 to September 8 for the double bass.
From September 1 to 9, piano trios - including the Arabesque Trio (Russia/Germany/Switzerland) - will compete and from September 2 to 10, the viola will be on the program. The prizewinners' concerts will take place on September 13, 14 and 15.

The ARD Music Competition has been held annually since 1952 in several disciplines and comprises a total of 21 categories. It is organized by Bayerischer Rundfunk and is considered the largest competition for classical music in the world.

According to unisono Managing Director Gerald Mertens, the fact that 60% of classical music events were underutilized in the nationwide unisono trend analysis last winter is now history. The positive trend is confirmed by numerous reports: the Komische Oper Berlin closed its season with 90% capacity utilization, the Mozart Festival in Würzburg achieved a record 94.2% in July, and the Kissinger Sommer is currently also reporting record audience numbers compared to before the pandemic with 80% capacity utilization.

The fact that tickets for the Bayreuth Festival are still available a few days before the premiere is an isolated case that is due to a lack of marketing and extremely high ticket prices. The influx of classical open-air events is also promising and even promising: "Staatsoper für alle" on Bebelplatz in Berlin reached 33,000 visitors, "Klassik airleben 2023" by the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig 35,000 visitors and the Hannover Klassik Open Air at Maschpark set a new record last weekend with 35,000 visitors.

During the forthcoming planning of the complete renovation of the opera house, the canton writes, a bridging building is to cushion the most urgent need for space. The cantonal government has approved a loan of up to CHF 3.7 million for this temporary building. The opera house commissioned a study on space requirements back in 2019, followed a year later by an analysis of workplace conditions in the existing rooms. The results of both studies are clear: the opera house suffers from a considerable lack of space, which leads to barely acceptable working conditions for many employees. According to the study, waiting any longer is not justifiable.

The findings of the study paint a clear picture: of the total of 358 rooms, 42 have unacceptable working conditions and 90 others have partially unacceptable working conditions. These are rooms with double or triple occupancy, rooms without daylight and workstations in the corridors. The acute lack of space means that the current legal guidelines for occupational safety and workplace design standards cannot be complied with in many places. All in all, the study shows an additional space requirement of around 60 percent.

Original article:
https://www.zh.ch/de/news-uebersicht/medienmitteilungen/2023/07/ueberbrueckungsbau-fuer-das-opernhaus.html

From 1997 to 2002, Nott was chief conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and from 2000 to 2003, he worked for the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris. He is Music Director of the Tokyo Symphony and Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. He took over the position of Principal Conductor and Music Director at the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in January 2017.

The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (OSR) was founded in 1918 by Ernest Ansermet. It is administered as a foundation and is mainly funded by the canton and city of Geneva, is associated with Radio Télévision Suisse and functions as the opera orchestra at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

Deda Cristina Colonna studied ballet at the Civico Istituto Musicale Brera (Novara) and at the École Supérieure d'Etudes Chorégraphiques (Paris). She completed her training at the Sorbonne (Paris), specializing in Renaissance and Baroque dance. She also graduated from the drama school of the Teatro Stabile di Genova and performed in productions in Italy, France and Germany. She was a soloist and guest choreographer with the New York Baroque Dance Company. Since 2021 she has been the director of the Accademia G. Marziali dance school in Seveso.

She has been teaching gesture at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis since 2021. Her most recent productions include Rameau's Castor et Pollux (Warszawska Opera Kameralna, 2021), for which she was awarded the 2022 Jan Kiepura Prize for Best Director, Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle (Teatro Coccia, Novara / Teatro G.B. Pergolesi, Jesi 2021) and Vivaldi's Juditha Triumphans (Teatro Verdi Pisa, Teatro Ponchielli Cremona 2023). She also took part in the opera project Muzio Scevola of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in April 2023.

In its ruling of 9 May 2023, the cantonal court dismissed all appeals against the competition and adjudication process for a new Lucerne theater. The cantonal court's website now shows that this ruling is legally binding. The competition has therefore been successfully concluded with the winning project "überall" by Ilg Santer Architekten Zurich. The project prevailed against 127 other projects. The prize money for the six top-ranked project submissions and the compensation for all 12 projects that were assessed in the second stage of the competition can therefore be paid out.

The revision of the project can therefore begin immediately. It includes various points of criticism from the jury process. Points that strongly influenced the public debate have also been included. The revision process is expected to take around six months. It is then planned to present the result in a parliamentary bill and submit it to the City Council together with the application for the project loan.

Alina Pogostkina was born in St. Petersburg, grew up in Germany and received her first violin lessons from her father Alexander Pogostkin. She later studied with Antje Weithaas at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music and furthered her baroque violin studies with Reinhard Goebel at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Alina Pogostkina plays a Camillo Camilli from 1752.

As the winner of the 2005 International Sibelius Competition in Helsinki, she has performed with major orchestras and festivals worldwide. Together with Danjulo Ishizaka and Nimrod Guez, she has founded a string trio with which she has already successfully toured Germany. With a view to the spiritual aspect of music, she developed the "Mindful Music Making" program in 2018, with which she tries to promote mindfulness and the development of individual creativity and musical language in the 21st century.

In the early years of rock music, age was primarily seen as a reflection of conservative values and morals. Driven by the generational conflict, which, due to the leitmotif described above, raised a critical relationship between the generations, the music and the associated lyrics can be seen as a mouthpiece of rebellion against existing value systems. As the bearer of these values and moral concepts, the older generation becomes a target and a natural enemy.

The rebellious leitmotif became even more extreme in the 1970s with the rise of the punk movement and was transferred further in the lyrics to the external view of older people. Some of the examples of how older people are stereotyped range from the extreme to the highly offensive. This leitmotif has persisted in the texts to this day. In general, it is noticeable that the external portrayal of old age is characterized by a very deficient view that in no way corresponds to the heterogeneity of old age that exists today.

Full original article: https://www.iat.eu/media/forschungaktuell_2023-07.pdf

According to the canton's press release, the building construction office completed the renovation of the theater at the end of June after almost three years of construction. Konzert und Theater St.Gallen will move into the new premises after the summer break and prepare for the 2023/2024 season in the renovated theater. The opening premiere of "Lili Elbe" will take place on the evening of October 22, 2023. In the morning, the public will have the opportunity to explore the theater at an open day.

The theater was opened in 1968. The building, designed by Zurich architect Claude Paillard, is widely regarded as a masterpiece of modern theater architecture. The structural engineering department renovated the building technology and large parts of the operating technology. Energy weaknesses were eliminated. In addition, the restructuring and extension create the framework conditions for contemporary theater operations without losing the defining architectural elements. The project began in March 2020 with the construction of the temporary building. Conversion work then began in fall 2020.

At the end of 2017, the Chur City Council adopted the cultural strategy 2020 - 2025, a key element of which is to address the most urgent shortcomings in cultural spaces. As a proposed solution, the city council drew up the "Target image for cultural spaces". In it, it outlines how it intends to address the lack of rehearsal spaces for various cultural disciplines in the city of Chur. On June 21, 2021, the municipal council took note of the target vision. The city council was instructed to press ahead with the work and to include the necessary funds in the budget processes for 2022 and subsequent years.

According to the city's press release, implementation took place in stages. After a six-month participatory process with the city's cultural department and in collaboration with cultural professionals from all sectors, the corresponding umbrella organization was founded in May 2022 in the form of the "Kulturraumnetzwerk Chur" association. The purpose of the association is the central rental, coordination, organization and operation of new, additional rehearsal and production spaces, which are arranged and rented to cultural professionals of different generations and disciplines. The focus is also on networking and the multiple use of individual rooms by different parties.

The City of Zurich places "a focus on fair and attractive working conditions in the cultural sector". In the new guiding principles period, the city will increasingly design its funding instruments in such a way that "as many creative phases as possible are taken into account and that in funded projects at least the salaries and fees recommended by the professional associations for cultural workers are paid".

The diversity of the city's population is not yet adequately reflected in Zurich's cultural scene, the city writes. It is therefore working to ensure that the cultural offerings reflect the diversity of Zurich's population more strongly: in the audience, but also in the people, projects and organizations supported.

The search for affordable spaces in the city remains a challenge for Zurich's cultural practitioners. The city is therefore committed to providing more spaces for the production and experience of culture. It wants to "secure existing spaces, create new ones, test new approaches and optimize existing allocation practices where necessary". Consideration of the city's climate target of "net zero by 2040" will also be decisive for the promotion of culture.

More info:
https://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/content/prd/de/index/ueber_das_departement/medien/medienmitteilungen/2023/juni/230628a.html

The premiere took place in Munich's Herkulessaal. The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra played under the direction of Matthias Hermann. As a part of the Trio Recherche program was cancelled two days before the concert due to illness, the two guitarists were asked to present Helmut Lachenmann's epochal work "Salut für Caudwell" (1977) to the concert audience in addition to the world premiere.

According to the Basel University of Music, the extremely last-minute preparation and organization to bring this almost 30-minute work to concert maturity was an additional adventure. The composer and the two soloists appeared relaxed and happy about the successful performance after the concert.

More info:
https://www.fhnw.ch/de/die-fhnw/hochschulen/musik/aktuelles-hochschule-fuer-musik-basel/wir-gratulieren-stephan-schmidt

The singer from the city of St.Gallen has long been known to insiders. Ragu inspires "with a mix of rhythm and blues, soul, hip-hop and traditional Tamil music", writes the canton of St. Gallen. In 2021, she played at the Montreux Jazz Festival and performed at the Open Air St.Gallen. According to Ragu, her songs are about challenging stereotypes that Sri Lankan people are essentially all cooks, cleaners or salespeople. People who are looked down upon. People who are rarely envied or desired. She is proud of who she is. And her music celebrates that.

Peter Surber has been "the epitome of a cultural journalist" in the canton of St.Gallen and its neighboring cantons for four decades, the canton writes further. With "precise, honest and well-founded reviews, commentaries and interventions", he has made significant contributions to cultural life.

The St.Gallen Cultural Foundation has revised and redesigned its foundation regulations and its awarding of prizes. The sponsorship prizes are now awarded annually according to pre-selected categories. The culture prize is now called the art prize, is endowed with CHF 25,000 and still honors special achievements by artists from all disciplines.

Original article:
Art and Recognition Award for Priya Ragu and Peter Surber

The members of the Karl Amadeus Hartmann Society unanimously decided to award Patricia Kopatchinskaja honorary membership in 2023 for her outstanding services to Hartmann's work. Patricia Kopatchinskaja has "dedicated herself to the work of Karl Amadeus Hartmann and his humanitarian, humanistic and cosmopolitan ideal with verve and passion for many years". In particular, her exceptional performances of Hartmann's Violin Concerto Concerto funebre would lead to moving events worldwide in their individual interpretation.

Alongside conductors Kirill Petrenko, Ingo Metzmacher and Fabio Luisi, violinist Ingolf Turban, the Munich Chamber Orchestra and the late composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, Patricia Kopatchinskaja is the seventh honorary member of the Karl Amadeus Hartmann Society.

With four recognition prizes, the city honors at least ten years of cultural work that is important for Chur and its immediate surroundings. Two of them go to the rapper LIV and the music producer Geesbeatz. Their releases have titles such as "Churer Gschichta", "Lacuna" and "Giacometti". Gion Andrea Casanova, solo bassoonist with the Graubünden Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra and singer with the well-known band "Furbaz", and performance artist Ines Marita Schärer, who lives in Chur and Brussels, will also receive a recognition award.

The city also awards two sponsorship prizes. These will be awarded to the Chur rock band Okto Vulgaris and Val Minnig. Minnig completed his Master's degree in Fine Arts around three years ago. Both the recognition and sponsorship prizes are endowed with CHF 4000 each.

More info: https://www.chur.ch/aktuellesinformationen/1890989