After extensive research, Ariel Lanyi, one of the winners of the Kissingen Piano Olympics, caught Rudolf Buchbinder's attention, write those responsible. He was particularly impressed by his interpretation of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata.

Ariel Lanyi was born in Jerusalem. He lives in London and graduated from the Royal Academy of Music with Hamish Milne and lan Fountain. In 2021, Ariel won 3rd prize (the Roslyn Lyons Bronze Medal) at the Leeds International Piano Competition and played the Brahms Concerto No. 2 in the final with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andrew Manze. In 2022 he undertook a solo tour of Argentina.

The idea of the "Prix Serdang" was born during the pandemic and serves to "promote and preserve artistic creation". It has been awarded annually since 2022. Curator Rudolf Buchbinder recommends a maximum of three young talents. The choice is ultimately made by initiator Adrian Flury and cultural manager Thomas Pfiffner.

Guido Simmen has left his mark on Zug's cultural life "with his continuous, outstanding and highly acclaimed work", writes the canton. In 2004, he developed the VoiceSteps musical school from the two children's choirs of the Catholic parishes of Cham and Steinhausen. He composed various children's songs and was co-author and composer of numerous children's and youth musical theater pieces.

Simmen has also directed countless VoiceSteps stage productions and founded the Swiss Youth Musical Network. His "unwavering passion for musicals and interest in the development of children and young people" have motivated and inspired Guido Simmen over the past decades.

The Zug Recognition Prize is endowed with CHF 15,000 and is awarded every two to three years by the Zug Cantonal Government Council at the request of the Cantonal Culture Commission.

Conceived and coordinated by Lukas Loss, director of the Infinity Music Festival in Basel, the project requires the orchestration of three complementary visions: Science, sound and image. The unconventional pairing of artists and physicists in the multidisciplinary project Tinguely Entangled is ambitious: Latvian composer Linda Leimane is creating a bespoke musical arrangement in close collaboration with some of the world's leading quantum researchers.

Interventions by five scientists from the National Center of Competence in Research SPIN and visual representations by artist Luca Scarzella complement the performance. At the Department of Physics, Jung-Ching Liu, Henry Legg, Arianna Nigro, Rafael Eggli and Valerii Kozin took up the challenge of communicating the complex principles of quantum physics to a lay audience.

More info:
https://www.unibas.ch/de/Aktuell/News/Uni-Agenda/Tinguely-Entangled-verwandelt-Quantenphysik-in-Melodien.html

The interest group "art but fair" has been campaigning in Germany, Austria and Switzerland "for ethical and fair working conditions and appropriate fees in the performing arts and music" since 2013. The association "art but fair UNITED" has now been founded in Vienna. As Europe's first professional association, it aims to represent the economic and social interests of freelancers at publicly funded or publicly sponsored permanent theater companies, festivals and concert stages. Among other things, it aims to work towards eliminating loopholes in current legislation.

The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically highlighted the precarious situation of the newly self-employed, writes the newly founded association. In the last three years, however, "legally questionable employment models at publicly funded institutions that have been practiced for decades" have also come to light. This is currently the subject of a model lawsuit for the entire choral sector at the Salzburg Festival, which has now been set for hearing at the Labor and Social Court in Vienna on April 24 of this year.

The association will start operating and accepting membership applications on May 1, 2023.

More info: https://artbutfair.org

What is described in the Federal Council's press release as a "temporary decline" in growth, writes Suisseculture, means budget cuts of two percent in figures for 2024. Cuts that would hit culture at the worst possible time. The Federal Council has set the upper limit for target growth in the financial decisions for the years 2025 to 2028 at 1.2 percent in the area of culture. The target growth would therefore by no means compensate for the cuts made in 2024. This would make it impossible to tackle the challenges facing the cultural sector or compensate for inflation.

At a time when a cost-of-living adjustment of several percent of the wage bill is being negotiated, a reduction in cultural expenditure (the vast majority of which flows directly into wage payments) is not justifiable. Instead, it is time to introduce sustainable measures to improve social security for cultural workers - with corresponding adjustments to the first and second pillar pension systems.

Original article:
https://www.suisseculture.ch/?article=der_bundesrat_verkauft_kuerzungen_als_wachstum

Last year, according to the canton's press release, young people worked on rap beats and hip-hop lyrics; this year, pupils from primary classes 1 to 4 are practising a fixed repertoire of songs from all over the world. They form the basis for fourteen concert evenings with integrated storytelling, in which a total of 1400 children are involved in singing.

At the main rehearsal and the subsequent concert, the respective school choirs will be conducted by Alpnach singer and singing teacher Antonia Gasser. Musical accompaniment will be provided by the Bodenäbe trio, with Christoph Blum on double bass, Hans Blum on clarinet and Willi Stierli on Schwyzerörgeli. Stefanie Dillier, head of the Alpnach music school, will act as storyteller and overall project manager.

Under the title "Ghipft wiä gsungä", the first season took place in Alpnach, Giswil, Sachseln, Sarnen and Stalden with nine concerts in front of packed audiences. The second season starts on March 17, 2023 in Wilen, followed by a concert in Lungern on March 20 and a double concert in Kerns on March 21. The final concert will take place in Engelberg Abbey Church on March 22, 2023.

As outlined in the message according to the canton's press release, a staggered increase in the subsidy from the canton is to take place. Its contribution to the Zweckverband Grosse Kulturbetriebe will be gradually increased by CHF 660,000 by 2026. The Lucerne Festival Foundation intends to expand its activities and gain international significance with an artistic reorientation.

The Commission welcomes the intended further development and the majority are convinced that the status and reputation of the Lucerne Festival will be strengthened. The Commission also takes positive note of the aspect of youth promotion. A majority of the SFBC is in favor of increasing the operating contribution and recommends that the Lucerne Cantonal Council approve it.

A minority of the committee is critical of the planned subsidy increase. Reasons such as the imbalance in the financing of small and large cultural institutions, the demand for greater financial independence for the Lucerne Festival or the desire to postpone the matter until the regulation of regional cultural funding (including project and structural funding) are among the reasons for the negative attitude, writes the canton.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt's estate consists of audiovisual media, around fifty meters of sheet music and almost two cubic meters of correspondence, essays, notes on works and performance practice, lecture manuscripts and material relating to his many years of university teaching.

The estate has already been viewed and the organizational, content-related, legal, technical and economic issues regarding the digital archiving and archive use of the material have been evaluated. As a result of this preparatory work, the Nikolaus Harnoncourt Center will now be officially founded at the Anton Bruckner Private University.

The estate is to be scientifically processed and digitized at the center. It will also serve as a "cultural-philosophical think tank with events in St. Georgen". The budget of the Nikolaus Harnoncourt Center is made available to the Anton Bruckner Private University from funds provided by the province of Upper Austria and amounts to around 460,000 euros per year.

More info

Apple Music Classical offers curated playlists, exclusive albums, biographies of composers, guides to important works, browsing features and more. Subscribers to Apple Music can download the app as part of their subscription at no additional cost. Apple Music Classical launches on March 28 and is available to pre-order now.

With the app, Apple is already competing with active classical music streaming providers such as Idagio, Primephonic, Qobuz, Spotify and Tidal. Deutsche Grammophon also offers expanded streaming services.

Thomas Aeschbacher lives with his family in Langenthal. He has been a member of the Pflanzplätz band since 1993, occasionally teaches advanced Schwyzerörgeli privately and works part-time as a music teacher at the Burgdorf upper school. He has been running Schwyzerörgeli courses at the folk music weeks in Arosa and for the Swiss Folk Music Association VSV for decades. He teaches alpine folk music/world music at the Bern University of the Arts.

He has already played the Schwyzerörgeli in various projects, including in the film "Mein Name ist Eugen" and with the whole family from 2008 in the "Bärner Jodlerpredig" by and with Hannes Fuhrer. The award ceremony for Thomas Aeschbacher will take place on September 30, 2023 in Langenthal.

The golden treble clef was created in 1958 by Paul Künzi to honor people who have made a special commitment to folk music and have thus rendered outstanding services. The most recent recipients include Claudia Muff, Johannes Schmid-Kunz, René Wicky, Ruedi Renggli, Arno Jehli, Dani Häusler and Heidi and Ruedi Wachter.

Reports of possible positive effects of listening to Mozart's Sonata K448 on epilepsy symptoms have received a great deal of media attention. However, the empirical reliability of the findings has remained unclear to this day. Now, psychologist Sandra Oberleiter and psychologist Jakob Pietschnig from the University of Vienna have shown in a study published in the journal Nature Scientific Reportsthat a positive effect of the Mozart melody on epilepsy has not been proven.

The alleged Mozart effect can be attributed to selective reports, too small samples and inadequate research practices in this body of literature, writes the University of Vienna.

Original publication:
Oberleiter, S., & Pietschnig, J. (2023). Unfounded authority, underpowered studies, and non-transparent reporting perpetuate the Mozart effect myth: A multiverse meta-analysis. Nature Scientific Reports. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-30206-w

As the current Rector Reinhard Schäfertöns will be leaving his position prematurely on March 31, 2023 after two and a half years, the position was advertised again. The selection process is currently underway.

Lang taught as a lecturer at the Zurich University of the Arts from 2010 and was appointed Professor of Music Theory and Composition there in 2014. In 2016, he was appointed Professor of Composition and Music Theory at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin. Since the 2018/19 winter semester, he has been teaching as Professor of Music Theory at the Rostock University of Music.

He studied composition, music theory, conducting and musicology in Rostock, Salzburg, Hanover, Lugano, Bremen and Edinburgh. He completed his composition studies with a concert exam and a doctorate, and his musicology studies with a doctorate.

According to the festival's announcement, the duo will introduce themselves as the artistic management team on July 5, 2023 as part of the "70 Years Künstlerhaus Boswil" anniversary concerts. They will organize smaller festival activities over the course of 2024 and then present the first full summer festival in 2025.

Julia Fischer, born in Munich in 1983, teaches at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich alongside her international concert activities and was Germany's youngest professor when she was appointed. She has been committed to bringing classical music to young people for years, which is in line with the focus of the Künstlerhaus Boswil, the festival continues.

Benjamin Nyffenegger, born in Bern in 1984, is deputy principal cellist in the Tonhalle Orchestra and is a member of the Julia Fischer Quartet and the Oliver Schnyder Trio. He is also artistic director of the Seetal Classics in Seon.

The new cultural strategy contains three fields of action: cultural offerings, framework conditions and access and anchoring. Seventeen action-oriented measures have been defined for these fields of action. In addition to reviewing and adapting the practice of cultural promotion, cooperation within the cultural sector and exchange with third parties should be encouraged. The city also writes that the space situation for cultural professionals needs to be improved. Aarau's visibility as a city of culture can be improved with targeted cultural marketing.

The development of the strategy and its measures is based on a participatory event (over 100 participants) and was then reflected on again in an online survey (138 participants). The strategy was drawn up by a committee of representatives from the worlds of culture, politics and administration. The cultural strategy is valid until 2030. Parallel to the strategy paper, a detailed lead article was drawn up, which elaborates on the specific projects, tasks and the respective partners. The Culture Department is convinced that the implementation of the various measures can only succeed if we work together. In future, a regular newsletter from the Culture Department will provide information on the ongoing process and the weighting of the various topics.

More info:
https://www.aarau.ch/kultur-freizeit/kultur/kulturkonzept.html/164#kulturstrategie

Poschner has been principal conductor of the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana since 2015. He currently also holds the position of Principal Conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz. With Tristan and Isolde he also opened the Bayreuth Festival in July 2022. The recording of Offenbach's Maître Péronilla with the Orchestre National de France was awarded the German Record Critics' Prize in 2021.

The Basel Symphony Orchestra was formed in 1997 from the merger of the Basel Symphony Orchestra and the Basel Radio Symphony Orchestra. It is financed by contributions from the cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft, income from its own events, guest performances, rentals and third-party contributions. The British conductor Ivor Bolton has held the position of chief conductor since the 2016/17 concert season.