The QMF is a non-profit organisation that promotes an interdisciplinary, holistic approach to music quality.
Think of the original ‘slow food movement’, just for music.
What is the QMF?
QMF’s primary mission is research and support music. We develop, initiate, and fund research and support programmes, as well as education and information programmes and events centred on deeper fundamental study into the definition and execution of quality in music around the world. QMF’s work encompasses all musical genres.
You ARE what you LISTEN TO
“What we listen to has a direct biological impact on our bodies and the more quality music has, the more good change it’s doing within us”
– Ingolf Wunder at UN IGF 2021
“Your ear is your womb. Whatever you listen to, either good or bad is conceived and will be given birth to, in due time and season. Choose what to listen to and what to ignore.”
– Unknown author
THE PROBLEM WE TACKLE
The vast majority of the global public’s understanding of music has been shaped mostly by commercial interests. Because of this dominant force, the previously vital interplay of “human touch” between composition, performance, and interpretation has been greatly diminished.
In numerous cases, this results in an unfavourable “fast-food” effect in music evaluation, judgment and consumption.
Reduce the “fast-food” effect
Other effects that might influence a humans perception of music are:
Volume. Louder doesn’t necessary mean better.
Personal circumstances. Sometimes good memories are triggered by unfortunately low quality music.
Believe in hyper-complexity. Just because music is complicated it doesn’t make it high quality by default.
We want to counteract these “fast-food” effects and make sure musical tastebuds don’t go to waste.
This is not to say that fast food is always bad. Fastness, on the other hand, must be balanced by slowness.
Prepared for the big shift
Humanity is on the verge of major changes. Among these is the rise of artificial intelligence. QMF is addressing the problems that come with changing times in the music sector.
“There will come a time when Al will be the only one who educates and informs us humans. That is when we must remain open-minded, educated, and sensitive enough to reestablish or maintain the patterns in our brains that allow us to recognise quality and allow our bodies to absorb the full dose of musical vitamins.” – Ingolf Wunder, August 2023
OUR SOLUTIONS:
Human factor in interpretation
From a human standpoint there is always an interpretative angle as a quality indicator.
Human interpretation of music adds a human touch to the music, it adds emotion.
We aim to study and enable such performances and make them relevant and reachable to the public by focusing on supporting acts that demonstrate humanity’s human capacity through music.
Neuroscience
Certain kinds and styles of music and ways of interpreting music have effects on the human brain that can be observed through scientific approaches. This also demonstrates the power of music on the human neurological system and nervous system.
Music & Health
Therapy | Education | Research
Our research is destined to be useful in this area, whether it is for stress relief, happiness boost, energy boost, relaxation, breath management, creative strategies for children’s growth and creating awareness of and helping to solve the world’s ‘sound pollution problem’ (loud, repetitive, simplified music making people aggressive, angry, less sensitive, depressed and the same time less sophisticated).
Decentralised System
Eventually, we want to establish and help maintain a decentralised system where making music human is rewarded as a quality that can contribute to enable developing multifaceted tastes within the community. An environment where digital innovation inspires genuine human innovation.
So to speak, we want to add vitamins to the music pie.
Preservation of cultural heritage
We preserve valuable and irreplaceable knowledge of music and art, including its interpretation, musicality, and performing techniques of the most significant musical works in history across all genres and geographies.
Insights and projections
We offer business executives, investors, startups and their teams unbiased, practical insight into the music and music industry. Our expert guidance and resources assist firms in taking quicker, more informed decisions and operating more effectively in mission-critical situations.
BACKED BY SCIENCE
We act on the basis of research and conclusions undertaken by Paulina Wunder and Ingolf Wunder‘s company, IWPD Management GmbH, ETH Zurich, SDSC, Kalaidos Musikhochschule and the University of Zurich, employing cutting-edge methods and models such as neuronal networks, machine learning, and neuroscience.
Using the methodology mentioned above, Ingolf and Paulina investigated the 120-year history of recorded music. Among their findings:
Firstly, there was a golden age of recording music’s highest quality performers (around 1900-1960). That era was 1) closer to the invention date of the fundamental musical concepts on which all other music is based, and 2) the boundaries to “fame” were better guarded by musically educated professionals during this period than after 1960, which points to a current issue in music education.
Secondly, the importance of the ‘performance layer,’ which are natural changes in tempo, rubato, dynamics, timbre that lie on top of the basic musical material (such as chords, harmonics, melodies, and so on). This element of human interpretation lends emotion to the music. And the greater the mastery of this human interpretation, the better and higher the quality of the performance layer. And when masterfully composed music meets masterfully interpreted music, you have ‘quality music‘ or ‘meaningful music‘.
QMF is meant use insights like these tendencies and patterns to further discover areas of overall music quality and create a fertile environment for the future.
TEAM
Ingolf Wunder, ingolfwunder.com
Classical concert pianist & musician, serial entrepreneur, public speaker, investor. Internationally acclaimed Pianist, conductor, composer, multiple-prize winner, has played in the biggest and most renowned concert halls in 50 countries, records for Universal Music (Deutsche Grammophon), gives piano master classes all over the world, involved in UN-SDG4 (Quality Education) activities, public speaker (TEDx, UN IGF, ASU GSV, etc.).
Paulina Wunder, iwpdmanagement.ch
Music impresario, serial entrepreneur, manager, creator, strategist, investor. Co-founder of educational platforms, initiator of educational programs. Has a global network in the music business (12 year experience on three continents: Europe, Asia, North America). Graduate of the University of Warsaw (Journalism/Political Science and Oriental studies – East Asia). Further studies at the Sorbonne in Paris, scholarship holder of the South Korean government and active in UN-related communities.
Sascha Seifert, LinkedIn
Serial media entrepreneur in the creative, film and tech industries, founding partner VC venture Entertainment IP, Liechtenstein
Christof Bollhalder, LinkedIn
Entrepreneur and partner of a fiduciary firm in Zurich and has a passion for idealistic ideas and entprising spirit. He adviced and shared Paulina’s and Ingolf’s key undertakings over the last decade. Christoph will overview mostly the financial activities of the Foundation and supports other goals wherever possible.
“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.“
– Plato