Eidgenössische Jury für Musik
Lausanne
Pop Music
Cultural Worker
Laurence Desarzens, a true cosmopolitan, has been active on the Swiss musical scene for over 30 years. With a passion for musical and artistic countercurrents, she started organising concerts towards the end of the seventies. A cultural activist coming from the punk movement, she was a programmer in pioneering venues in Lausanne and Geneva, while studying visual arts in the médiamix section at the ESAV in Geneva. She went on to work as a programmer at the Rote Fabrik, Moods (Zürich) and the Kaserne Basel (Basel), as well as for several festivals including Montreux Jazz. She was the first manager of the band The Young Gods and still advises young Swiss artists today. In Brussels, she worked for the PIAS label, co-ordinating creation and distribution for several international artists and independent American labels. In Paris, she was responsible for creating and implementing cultural projects across France for a major brand. She was strategic and operational director of the jazz and contemporary music departments at the HEMU in Lausanne. She is currently president of Swiss Music Export and a member of the Fédération Genevoise des Musiques de Création. She recognised the potential of the web as far back as the early nineties and has developed several award-winning projects: a platform for the distribution of audiovisual content by the Ars Electronica festival in Linz and a site federating independent Swiss concert halls and cultural centres by 10 vor 10, an SRG broadcast. She has extensive experience with new technologies, which she is keen to build into her work, and often plays a pioneering role in this field.
Luzern
Jazz
Musician and Composer
Sarah Chaksad is a versatile musician, who works as a saxophonist, orchestra director, composer, cultural manager and curator in a variety of musical contexts. Sarah Chaksad plays with various groups of different sizes for which she composes most of the music.
In 2016, she released her first album "windmond" with the Sarah Chaksad Orchestra, followed in 2017 by performances at the Schaffhausen Jazz Festival and the Offbeat Jazz Festival Basel as part of the CD release tour. In 2019, "Tabriz", her second album with her orchestra was released and earned her international recognition for her artistic work. Sarah Chaksad was curator of the Schaffhauser Jazzgespräche from 2017 to 2019, received a grant from the Aargau Kuratorium in 2018, and a work grant in 2020. Together with guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiel, Sarah Chaksad currently leads the unique "Focus year" programme at the Jazzcampus in Basel.
Lugano
Classical Music, Jazz, Metal
Musician
Born in Lugano, Gian-Andrea Costa studied musicology at the University of Bologna and is currently responsible for the Italian-language music department of RTS, the Swiss radio and television broadcasting company. He joined RTS in the early ‘00s as editor and radiophonic conductor specialised in independent national and regional music scenes, and later went on to work for the broadcaster as programmer and producer. As a musician, he plays the bass in multifarious genres, from jazz to metal, and combines an intensive concert activity (about 500 performances in Switzerland, Europe, USA, UK, Russia, China, Japan, South Africa) with his recording work (more than 200 recordings on twenty-something albums and EPs).
Lausanne
Classical Music, Contemporary Music
Musician and Journalist
Recorder and clarinet player Anne Gillot works as much on the creation and preservation of the contemporary music repertoire as she does on researching sound through technology and improvisation. She is a member of the ensembles baBel (Lausanne), Vortex (Geneva), Boulouris5 (Lausanne), and duo 1+1 with saxophonist Laurent Estoppey.
During a residency at the GMEM in Marseille in 2017, she developed "Wildbroadcasting", a dynamic solo conjoining her musical and radio activity, in collaboration with musician and vocalist Alessandro Bosetti. This project is on tour until 2023.
Anne Gillot is also interested in musical improvisation and co-operates in this context with numerous musicians in Switzerland and abroad. In 2021, she participated in the performance of The Glass Cage, 7 Stunden - 7 gläserne Käfige - 7 Künstler (7 hours - 7 glass cages - 7 artists) RATHAUSGALERIE | KUNSTHALLE MÜNCHEN conceived by Stefan Winter.
She sits on the juries for the Nicati, Luc Ferrari, Presque rien of La Muse en Circuit in Paris, and Palma Ars Acustica (international acoustic art competition) competitions, among others. She has been member of the Jury for the Swiss Music Prize since 2019. Interested in the different forms of music on stage, she is active in the performance field, playing Daniel Zea's works for Kinect sensors and movements, the latest of which was created at the ZKM in Karlsruhe in November 2018. She is also a member of the STT theatre company directed by Dorian Rossel. Alongside her musical activities, Anne Gillot is in charge of contemporary music for the Espace2 cultural station of Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS). She hosts and produces a weekly programme, "Musique d'avenir". Anne Gillot also organises the Art's Birthday event at RTS with the European Broadcasting Unions and the Ars Acustica group.
Zürich
Pop Music, Experimental Music
Musician
As a composer and sound designer, Simon Grab produces music and sound for feature films, the stage, dance, and radio. In live performances and installations, he uses the venue as an acoustic playground for his sound. Simon Grab creates his own musical language using noise, sound waste, feedbacks, and deep bass. In transdisciplinary collaborative projects and interacting with other art forms and musical genres, the musical body is placed in different contexts through improvisation. Simon Grab releases his music through Sound-Space London, LavaLava Bristol and -OUS Records Zurich.
Simon Grab holds a Master of the Arts in Transdisciplinary Studies and lectures at the Zurich University of the Arts zhdk. A co-founder of ganzerplatz Tonstudio, he currently lives in Zurich. Simon Grab feels at home wherever new ground is explored and existing boundaries are blurred.
https://simongrab.com
Zürich / Bern
Contemporary Music at the Intersection of Composition, Pop Culture and Visual Arts
Musician
Peter Kraut studied history, sociology, and political science; he works as a culture mediator, lecturer, university manager and author. His interest lies in the intersection of contemporary music, visual arts and pop culture. Peter Kraut’s career path has taken him from empirical social research to touring with an experimental rock band in Europe. Alongside, he programmed hundreds of concerts of cutting-edge music in the framework of "Taktlos Bern" (1980-2007). After working in the cultural programme of the Swiss National Library, he joined the Bern University of the Arts in 2002 where he is now deputy head of the music department.
Loco (TI)
Folk Music, Contemporary Music
Music Ethnologist and Curator
Johannes Rühl is a music ethnologist and curator of music programmes. From 2000 to 2009, he directed the Alpentöne international music festival in Altdorf. At the same time, he researched folk music at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts and held a number of lecturing positions at universities in Switzerland and abroad. Johannes Rühl manages projects and music programmes for numerous cultural institutions and festivals (including Label Suisse, Zwingli-Jubiläum Zurich, Festival Rümlingen, Berlin Philharmonic, Rudolstadt-Festival, Música de Alturas in Lima, Norient and for Pro Helvetia Cairo). His diverse research projects focus on regional Alpine musical traditions and the conditions under which they have evolved. Johannes Rühl lives in Loco in the Onsernone Valley in Ticino where he manages "Villa Rosa", a house for artists.
