Both amateur and professional dancers are more compatible than the rest of the population and are characterized by a high degree of openness and extraversion. Previous studies have found that this also applies to musicians. However, the MPIEA team also found an interesting difference between the two groups: in contrast to musicians, dancers are not more neurotic, but - on the contrary - less neurotic than people who do not dance.

In cooperation with the director of a dance school in Freiburg and the dance director at the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, the MPIEA team analyzed data from 5435 people from Sweden and 574 people from Germany. The Big Five personality profiles openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism were examined. The study results were recently published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences published.

Original article:
Christensen, J. F., Wesseldijk, L., Mosing, M., Fayn, K., Schmidt, E., Blattmann, M., Sancho-Escanero, L., & Ullén, F. (2024). The Dancer Personality: Comparing Dancers and Non-Dancers in Germany and Sweden. Personality and Individual Differences, 112603. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2024.112603

Last season, only 7.5% of works performed in orchestral concert halls were by women. This is a slight decrease compared to the previous year (7.7 percent). Of the works performed, 5.8 percent were by white women and 1.6 percent by women from the global majority: Black women (0.59 percent), Asian women (0.5 percent), women of mixed race (0.40 percent), Indigenous women (0.07 percent) and women from the Middle East (0.02 percent).

The report by Donne - Women in Music analyzed the repertoire of 111 orchestras in 30 countries for the 2023-2024 season. It builds on an annual survey that began in 2018 and identifies trends in diversity and equality programming in the global concert repertoire.

Link to the report:
https://donne-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/DonneReport2024.pdf

Nuit Incolore was born in Vietnam in 2001 under the real name Théo Marclay and grew up in Saxon. His song "Dépassé" became the diamond single in France and was therefore selected for French television channel TF1's Chanson of the Year 2023. Nuit Incolore also won the French-language Discovery of the Year category at the NRJ Music Awards 2023, the first Swiss artist to win the award since its inception. In 2024, he was nominated in the "Victoires de la musique" in the male discovery category. As part of his tour this year, he will be performing at Sion sous les étoiles, the Paléo Festival and the Olympia.

Ella van der Woude was born in Sion in 1987. At the age of 18, she moved to Holland, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts at the Amsterdam Conservatory in 2010 and a Master of Music in film music composition in 2014. In addition to compositions for the cinema, she released the album "Solo Piano" in 2020. In October 2022, she was the first woman ever to receive the Dutch "Golden Calf" award, an equivalent to the French César, for the best film music for "Moloch" by Nico van den Brink. In May 2024, the film "Armand" by Norwegian director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, for which she produced the soundtrack, won the prize for Best Sound Creation and the Golden Camera at the Cannes Film Festival.

Hubert Hazebroucq is a French dancer, choreographer and researcher specializing in Renaissance and Baroque dance. He discovered historical dance as a contemporary dancer in Lyon in 1998 and has since performed for various choreographers such as Christine Bayle (Cie L'Éclat des Muses), Marie-Geneviève Massé (Cie L'Éventail), Lieven Baert and Sigrid T'Hooft. He was trained in Italian Renaissance dance by Barbara Sparti and Gloria Giordano.

As a choreographer, his aim is to present old repertoires with live music and to bring together creation, emotion and research in historically informed performance. His dance company Les Corps Éloquents, founded in 2008 and based in Paris, collaborates with renowned ensembles, in particular Les Arts Florissants under the direction of William Christie for Molière et ses musiques 2022 (Versailles, Philharmonie de Paris,...).

More info:
https://www.fhnw.ch/de/die-fhnw/hochschulen/musik/die-schola-cantorum-basiliensis/aktuelles/dozent_fuer_renaissance_tanz_hubert_hazebroucq

According to international media reports, the hacker group ShinyHunters claims to have penetrated the systems of Ticketmaster and Live Nation and obtained 1.3 terabytes of data from around 560 million users. The group apparently wants to extort 500,000 dollars.

The group is believed to have obtained email addresses, payment details and credit card numbers. The breach was first discovered on May 15 when unusual activity was detected on Ticketmaster's servers. However, the US law enforcement authorities were not notified until May 25.

Ticketmaster UK was previously fined £1.25 million for failing to keep its customers' personal data safe following a cyberattack in 2018.

Brogli-Sacher studied trombone and conducting at the music academies in Zurich, Bern, Lucerne and Vienna. Following engagements at the Stadttheater St. Gallen, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo and the opera house in Halle/Saale, he served as opera director of the Hallwil Opera and as chief conductor of the Jiangsu Symphony Orchestra in Nanjing China. Since 2020, he has been principal guest conductor of the "Ettore Pozzoli" Philharmonic Orchestra in Seregno/Milan and has been director of the Lake Zurich Youth Symphony Orchestra since 2013.

The Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie (NLP) is the orchestra of the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater in Görlitz. It maintains a four-part theater at the Görlitz and Zittau locations and also performs on stages throughout the Upper Lusatia-Lower Silesia cultural region. The Görlitz location produces musical theater, dance and concerts.

Brocal has been deputy head of the City of Winterthur's Office of Culture since 2021, and was interim head of the office from April to September 2023. She previously worked for the Swiss Films Foundation, including as a member of the Executive Board and as Head of Programs and International Relations, as well as for the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia as a project manager and curator. She was also active as an expert on various specialist committees.

Sabina Brocal studied Film Studies, German Studies and Business Administration at the University of Zurich and completed an MAS in Cultural Management at the University of Basel. With the appointment of Sabina Brocal, the management of the Department of Culture is now complete, according to the city's press release. Due to the increase in tasks resulting from the implementation of the "tip initiative" and the new cultural contract with Basel-Landschaft, a continuous second management level will be created at the Culture Department. The Grand Council approved a corresponding proposal by the Government Council last year.

Sol Gabetta was born in Argentina in 1981 and has held Swiss citizenship since 2018. She studied at the Basel Music Academy and has long lived in the municipality of Olsberg in the canton of Aargau. She has directed the Solsberg Chamber Music Festival there since it was founded in 2006 and has taught at the Basel Music Academy since 2005.

Other award winners are: With the composer Ivo Antognini (Locarno, Ticino), Switzerland is represented on an international level with a reference for contemporary choral composition. Simone Aubert (Geneva) is a multi-instrumentalist who has been active in the alternative experimental scene in Geneva for more than 20 years. Simone Felber (Lucerne) is without doubt one of the most interesting and active personalities in new Swiss folk music and shows with formations such as Echo vom Eierstock or Simone Felber's iheimisch how contemporary and emancipated this genre can be.

Leila Schayegh (Winterthur, Zurich) is a leading researcher and violinist of early music. Tapiwa Svosve (Zurich) holds a key position in contemporary jazz as a saxophonist and composer. The group Zeal & Ardor (Basel), led by Manuel Gagneux, is generally recognized as the founder of a musical style that brings together gospel and black metal. In his works, Zimoun (Bern) impressively combines sound with architecture, movement with sculpture and installation with spatial effects.

The special prizes are awarded to important institutions and players for their contribution to the Swiss music scene. They recognize personalities, venues, labels or educational projects that actively promote the status of music, the promotion of music creation and the dissemination of cultural heritage in Switzerland. The Special Prizes Music 2024 go to:

LUFF (Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival), Smem - Swiss Museum and Center of Electronic Musical Instruments and Somatic Rituals: The collective and label from Basel consists of the producers and musicians Kombé, Mafou and Mukuna and has become an important part of the innovative Swiss club scene.

The ring is awarded for life. The first recipient was Friedrich Cerha, who appointed Holliger as the next recipient before his death. A soundtrack with music by Berg is cast into the ring. The Alban Berg Foundation was established by Helene Berg in 1968 to preserve the memory and works of Alban Berg.

Heinz Holliger was born in Langenthal in 1939 and studied oboe and composition at the Bern Conservatory. From 1958, he continued his studies in Paris with Yvonne Lefébure (piano) and Pierre Pierlot (oboe). Between 1961 and 1963, he studied composition with Pierre Boulez at the Basel Academy of Music. After winning first prizes at international music competitions (Geneva 1959; ARD International Music Competition 1961), Holliger began an intensive international concert career as an oboist.

The new, transdisciplinary and transinstitutional ZKK, co-directed by Sylvia Sasse (UZH) and Judith Siegmund (ZHdK), is dedicated to the role of the arts and culture in contemporary social debates. By joining forces with the ZHdK, joint projects in research and teaching are to be encouraged and promoted. With the ZHdK, the arts and their theories are now entering into a new kind of dialog with university science. Artistic practice and the theories of the arts will provide new perspectives and unforeseeable collaborations.

This also includes the establishment of a bridge professorship for Digital Cultures and Arts, which will be filled by image and media scholar Roland Meyer from 1 July 2024 as part of the digitization initiative of the Zurich universities (DIZH). Meyer will research and teach at both the UZH and the ZHdK. His areas of focus include algorithmically networked image cultures, operative images of facial and pattern recognition, forensic image practices, generative AI and synthetic media as well as new body and perception relationships in medially expanded spaces. During the kick-off, he will co-moderate the panel "Art With/Against AI".

The kick-off event on May 24, 2024 at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich will be dedicated to this cross-university collaboration: lectures and discussions will present artistic and cultural-theoretical approaches to pressing contemporary issues.

More info: https://www.zkk.uzh.ch/de.html

In addition to the main prize, Zurflüh won the prizes for the best song interpretation (1500 euros), the best aria interpretation (1500 euros) and a concert engagement with the Beethoven Philharmonic Orchestra (1000 euros). The jury consisted of Kammersängerin Angelika Kirchschlager (chair) as well as Thomas Böckstiegel, Samantha Farber, Franziska M. Kaiser, Michael Linsbauer, Sebastian Schwarz, Daniela Spering and Justus Zeyen.

Chelsea Marilyn Zurflüh grew up in Pieterlen. She completed her Master of Arts at the Bern University of the Arts with the highest grade. She has been a member of the International Opera Studio in Zurich since September 2021. She was first prize winner of the Marianne & Curt Dienemann Foundation Music Competition, winner of the Migros Culture Percentage Singing Competition, the Kiefer-Hablitzel/Göhner Music Competition and first prize winner of the Elvirissima Singing Competition.

The new study "Value Creation of the Music Industry in Austria 2024" shows that around 117,000 jobs are directly and indirectly linked to the Austrian music industry - that is as many jobs as in the entire mechanical engineering sector and significantly more than in the IT or financial sector. It generates fiscal effects amounting to 4.35 billion euros, or around 2.8 percent of Austria's GDP.

The study was commissioned by the Austrian Film and Music Industry Association, the Association of the Austrian Music Industry - IFPI Austria and the music collecting society AKM in order to identify and rectify a glaring statistical problem: The music industry has so far lacked a clear classification in the political and economic system.

More info:
https://www.akm.at/studie-zur-wertschoepfung-der-musikwirtschaft-in-oesterreich-2024

Flavian Graber comes from Liestal and already has an impressive career behind him: over 500 concerts have taken him to festival stages in Switzerland and Europe. His successes include five studio albums and various TV and radio appearances. His songs have also found their way into the soundtracks of several films. After twelve years of English-language indie pop, he switched to a solo career with dialect singing, accompanied by guitar or piano.

Graber has hosted the "SongwriterCircle" at the Palazzo Theater in Liestal since 2020. The aim of the format is to promote songwriting and the exchange of ideas between musicians in the region. He also initiated the "Hiking Concerts", where concert guests hike with the artist while listening to his dialect songs and the sounds of nature. These events range from sunrise hikes and matinees followed by lunch to evening walks with views over the city or hikes through the vineyards with wine tasting.

Albrecht studied at the Academy for School and Church Music in Lucerne, graduating in 1987 with professional diplomas in organ and choir conducting. After a further year of study in Vienna, he obtained his concert diploma for organ with distinction in 1991 under Monika Henking at what is now the Lucerne School of Music, where he has been a lecturer in conducting (choral conducting) and score playing since 1989. In 1996, Stefan Albrecht took over from his father Roman Albrecht and has been working as a church musician in the parish of Ingenbohl-Brunnen ever since. He conducts the Singkreis Brunnen, the Allegro children's choir, the Schwyz-Brunnen orchestra, the Brunnen orchestra, the Urschweizer Kammerensemble and, since 1992, the Engadiner Kantorei. He also conducted the Schwyz Youth Orchestra from 2015-2023.

The Mauz Music Club, which has existed since 2017 under the direction of André Kälin and Astrid Gerber, is a concert and cultural venue in Einsiedeln. Pirmin Huber studied jazz at the Lucerne School of Music and has established himself in contemporary new Swiss folk music and electronic music.

Stefan Albrecht receives a prize of 10,000 francs. The cultural sponsorship prizes for the Mauz Music Club and Pirmin Huber are endowed with 5,000 francs each.