Press
News at the mdwNew teaching staff 2015
Mirjam Schröder
Mirjam Schröder has been the newly appointed harp professor at the mdw's Fritz Kreisler Department of String Instruments, Harp and Guitar since October 2015.
She received her initial instruction from Renie Yamahata in Stuttgart and went on to study with Susanne Mildonian at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. Thereafter, she continued her studies at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold with Catherine Michel and Godelieve Schrama.
She gave her concert debut at the early age of 15 with Mozart's Concerto for Flute, Harp and Orchestra. Since then, she has given concerts all over Europe as a soloist, as a chamber musician, and with contemporary music formations including Cologne's Ensemble musikFabrik.
Frequent concerts are joined by numerous broadcast and CD recordings. She has been recognised for her playing at numerous competitions, including the ARD International Music Competition and Concorsi Arpista Ludovico in Madrid. Mirjam Schröder's newest solo CD, released by Musicaphon in October 2014, is entitled "Don Quijote träumt / Don Quijote dreams…" and contains solo works for harp by Fauré, Tournier, Poenitz, Guridi, and others.
© Markus Schmidt
Christoph Peham
In October 2015, Christoph Peham became the new horn professor at the mdw's Leonard Bernstein Department of Wind and Percussion Instruments.
Peham graduated with honours from his horn studies under Roland Berger at the mdw. Thereafter, he held season contracts with the Stage Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera and also performed with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and Concentus Musicus Wien.
He also participated in chamber music concerts with the Vienna Virtuosi, as well as with various ensembles comprised of Lower Austrian Tonkünstler Orchestra members at the Grafenegg Festival. Numerous concert tours to the great musical cities of Europe as well as to the US, Australia, and Asia round out his musical career.
From 2008 to 2012, Christoph Peham was an assistant for the horn class of Thomas Jöbstl at the mdw, after which he held teaching contracts at the Konservatorium Wien University as well as the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz from 2012 to 2015. Christoph Peham has been first hornist of the Lower Austrian Tonkünstler Orchestra since 2007.
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Florian Boesch
Since October 2015, Florian Boesch has been the newly appointed art song and oratorio professor at the mdw's Department of Vocal Studies and Music Theatre.
Ruthilde Boesch provided him with his first vocal instruction. And during his subsequent studies at the mdw, he was himself a member of the art song and oratorio class under Robert Holl.
Florian Boesch numbers among today's great Lied recitalists and has appeared at Vienna's Musikverein and Konzerthaus, at Carnegie Hall in New York, at Wigmore Hall in London, on the BBC, and in many other prominent contexts, and has also been a guest of numerous festivals in England, Denmark and the USA. His most recent concert projects have included Arnold Schönberg's "Die glückliche Hand" under Simon Rattle in Berlin and Franz Schmidt's "Das Buch mit Sieben Siegeln" under Manfred Honeck at the Vienna Musikverein.
Boesch spent the 2014/15 season as an artist in residence at Wigmore Hall. He works together regularly with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Simon Rattle, Franz Welser-Möst, Gustavo Dudamel, and many others. He received the renowned Edison Klassiek Award 2012 for his recording of art songs and ballads by Carl Loewe (hyperion), and his interpretation of "Die Schöne Müllerin" (onyx classics) received a 2015 Grammy nomination in the "Best Classical Vocal Solo" category.
© Lukas Beck
Christoph Khittl
Christoph Khittl is the newly appointed music education professor at the mdw's Department of Music Education Research, Music Didactics, and Elementary Music Education (IMP) as of November 2015.
Following studies in musicology, music education, philosophy, psychology, and general pedagogy in Vienna, Khittl spent seven years teaching at academic secondary schools while also working as an assistant at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
From 1998 to 2015, he held a professorship in "music and its didactics" at the Heidelberg University of Education, where he was also vice rector from 2002 to 2009 and assumed leadership of the Institute of Art, Music, and Media beginning in 2013.
The emphases of his work lie in music anthropology, the didactics of music production and reception, music theatre, music appreciation, and cultural education. These are joined by constant publishing, editing, and teaching work as well as by experiences in instructional contexts at all types of schools and other educational institutions.
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Lothar Strauß
Lothar Strauß is the newly appointed violin professor at the Fritz Kreisler Department of String Instruments, Harp and Guitar at the mdw as of October 2015.
Strauß began playing violin at Berlin's Special School for Music at age 5. Due to his great talent, he was accepted to the master class of Prof. Werner Scholz at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin at the age of 14, and over the years that followed he proceeded to win several prizes at international competitions. As early as his second year at the Academy, Scholz entrusted him with teaching duties, eventually appointing Strauss as his assistant.
1983 saw the then-22-year-old elected First Concertmaster at Berlin's State Opera Unter den Linden, and ever since then, he has been regarded as one of the leading German musicians in his field. As a soloist and guest concertmaster, Strauß has been invited to perform with Germany's most important orchestras in Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne, Leipzig, and other cities, as well as with orchestras in Venezuela, Spain, Singapore, Japan, and Switzerland.
Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, Martha Argerich, David Oistrach, Oscar Petersen, and others have provided him with crucial inspiration for his artistic career. And it is with curiosity that he has devoted himself to big band projects, accompanied a production by Led Zeplin, recorded film music, and also performed with virtuoso baroque specialists such as Giovanni Antonini and Ton Koopman. With his teaching activities at the academies in Berlin and Leipzig, as well as at the Orchestra Academy of Staatskapelle Berlin, Lothar Strauß has helped pave numerous violinists' paths into the music profession.
© Studio Kettenbach
Lilya Zilberstein
As of October 2015, Lilya Zilberstein is the newly appointed piano professor at the mdw's Department of Piano.
The world-renowned Russian-born pianist began playing when she was five years old. Over the twelve years that followed, she studied at Moscow's Gnessin Institute with Ada Traub and later on with Alexander Satz, under whom she completed her concert examination in 1988.
By 1985, she had already won first prize at the Competition of the Russian Federation as well as a prize at the All-Union Competition in Riga. And her international breakthrough came soon thereafter in 1987, when she won the Busoni Competition in Bolzano.
Her victory was a sensation, and it was only five years later that the competition's jury would once again award a first prize. Since then, Lilya Zilberstein has played all over the world with the most famous orchestras, in the most important concert halls, and at the most renowned festivals.
© Susanne Diesner
Nikolaus Urbanek
As of October 2015, Nikolaus Urbanek is the newly appointed professor at the Department of Musicology and Performance Studies at the mdw.
Urbanek studied musicology and philosophy at the University of Vienna, completing his diploma in 2002 with a thesis on sound surface compositions by Friedrich Cerha, and he earned his doctorate in 2008 with a (music-)philosophical study on Adorno’s Beethoven fragments.
Alongside his employment as a researcher for the Complete Critical Edition of Arnold Schönberg’s Writings (Vienna) and the Historical Critical Edition of the Complete Musical Works of Anton Webern (Basel), Urbanek began teaching as a mdw instructor in 2005, after which he switched to the University of Vienna and served as a university assistant for historical musicology from 2010 to 2015.
His current research and teaching emphases have to do with recent music history and the epistemological foundations of musicology as well as issues of music aesthetics and music philosophy.
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Iris ter Schiphorst
As of October 2015, Iris ter Schiphorst is the new composition professor at the mdw's Department of Composition, Electroacoustics, and Tonmeister Education.
The Hamburg-born musician trained as a pianist and gave frequent concert performances, after which she spent two years travelling the world. Once back in Germany, she studied cultural sciences, theatre studies, and philosophy in Berlin and attended seminars led by Dieter Schnebel, Luigi Nono, and Helga de la Motte. At the same time, she became deeply involved in electronic music and sampling techniques and won the first prize in the third Composing Competition for Synthesiser and Computer Music in 1992.
In 1990, she founded the electro-acoustic ensemble intrors, with which she won a prize in 1997 at the international composing competition BLAUE BRÜCKE. From 1996 to 2001, she worked together intensively with composer Helmut Oehring, a collaboration from which numerous compositions arose.
Iris ter Schiphorst has received numerous awards and grants, including a prize at the 2011 "ad libitum" composing competition. And since 2013, she has been a member of Berlin’s Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts). 2015 saw her receive the artists' award Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis, and she is currently a fellow in residence at the International House of Artists Villa Concordia in Bamberg.
Her attitude towards composing and her understanding of music were decisively shaped by her many years of experience as a musical performer (first in the classical field as a pianist, and later as a bassist, drummer, keyboard player, and sound engineer in the most varied rock and pop formations). She most recently taught composition at the Berlin University of the Arts, where she also supervised the series Neue Musik in Diskurs (New Music in Discourse) of Klangzeitort – Institute for New Music Berlin.
© Christian Lehmann
Elke Nagl
As of October 2015, Elke Nagl is the newly appointed Professor of Voice at the Antonio Salieri Department of Vocal Studies and Vocal Research in Music Education at the mdw.
Nagl studied music education and instrumental music education with majors in voice and flute at the mdw, and her outstanding academic performance earned her an honorary prize from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Transport.
It was with a doctoral dissertation entitled Study on Vocal Resilience among Music and Voice Educators that she concluded her training as a voice teacher under Ruth Gabrielli-Kutrowatz and Maria Bayer as well as her combined doctoral studies in philosophy at the mdw and the Vienna University of Medicine under Alfred Litschauer and Berit Schneider with outstanding success.
Elke Nagl also attended numerous courses on jazz vocals taught by Ines Reiger and Elfi Aichinger to supplement her classical vocal training, she is the lead singer of the big band The Big Bang, and she has founded several amateur choirs and ensembles. As a soloist, she has gathered considerable domestic and international experience in the areas of church music, oratorio, lied, jazz, and popular music.
And since 2001, as a voice instructor at the Antonio Salieri Department, she has taught singing, didactics, student teaching, voice training, and the singing practicum as well as worked in the field of vocal research.
Her current research emphases are acoustic analysis of vocal timbre and hormonal influences on the voice. She is an initiator of "Stimmservice – STIMME EIN LEBEN LANG" (Voice Service – A VOICE TO LAST YOUR WHOLE LIFE LONG) and of the open house event at the Antonio Salieri Department, and she teaches voice at numerous music courses. Elke Nagl has been a member of the study commission for school teaching majors since 2010, becoming its deputy chairwoman in 2012. And since 2014, Elke Nagl has also served as Associate Dean of Music Education Programmes at the mdw.
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Wilfried Kausel
Wilfried Kausel is the new music acoustics professor at the mdw's Department of Music Acoustics – Wiener Klangstil (IWK) as of October 2015
Kausel was born in Vienna in 1957. Following graduation from an academic secondary school, he earned an electrical engineering degree at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) while also earning his performance diploma in jazz (bass) at the Conservatory in Vienna
In 1986, he was hired as an assistant at the Institute of General Electrical Engineering at TU Wien, where he devoted himself to designing CMOS circuits for digital signal processing. He has since developed equipment for well-known semiconductor producers and been awarded numerous patents.
Following over 10 years of research and teaching at TU Wien, he changed gears in 1997 to become a university assistant at the Department of Music Acoustics at the mdw. Kausel received his doctorate in 1999, went on to complete his habilitation thesis in music acoustics in 2003, and was eventually appointed department head in 2010.
He is a member of the Technical Committee on Musical Acoustics as well as the European Acoustics Association and the Acoustical Society of America. The last of these named him a fellow in 2015.
Current research emphases: the influence of wall vibrations on the sound of bass instruments, non-linear wave propagation, modelling, computer optimisation, and measurement technologies.
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Adriano Del Sal
In September 2015, Adriano Del Sal was appointed Professor of Guitar at the mdw's Joseph Hellmesberger Department of String Instruments, Guitar, and Harp in Music Education.
Del Sal, born in 1977, began his guitar studies at the J. Tomadini Conservatory in Udine. He simultaneously attended courses of the F. Tarrega Academy in Pordenone, receiving further instruction from Stefano Viola and Paolo Pegoraro
Del Sal proceeded to win 12 first prizes in international competitions, and after winning the Julian Arcas Competition in Almeria, Spain, he was invited by Radio Nacional de España to record his first solo CD. In 2003, he received the "chitarra d'oro" award for being the best international up-and-coming guitarist of the year in Alessandria, Italy.
2004 saw him take first place at the prestigious International Competition Città di Alessandria. He is also a winner of the historic 2009 edition of the International Francisco Tárrega Competition in Benicássim, Spain. Del Sal numbers among the most important young artists of recent years.
© Manuel Togni
Mario Lackner
Since January 2015, Mario Lackner has been the newly appointed drum / percussion professor at the Department of Popular Music of the mdw.
Lackner's musical training began in 1980 at the state music school in Wels. He went on to graduate from a music-specialised secondary school in Grieskirchen, following which he enrolled in the first phase of Instrumental and Voice Education (IGP 1) at what then was the Academy of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, graduating from that programme and from a non-degree programme in jazz in 1997.
From that point until 2001, he completed the second phase of the Instrumental and Voice Education programme (IGP 2), after which he went on to lead numerous workshops and seminars as well as teaching both privately and at music schools in Lower and Upper Austria. Following several periods of study in the USA, he applied for an artist visa in 2005 and ended up living and working in Los Angeles from 2006 to 2010. He used this period to become acquainted with the international music business in all its numerous facets.
The period since 1992 has seen Lackner perform with a wide variety of bands and solo artists including with his own band No Second Thought and with Marvie Bliss, Kat Bailess, Rockopera, Jaqmoov, Dr. Steel, Justyna Kelle, Hansi Lang, Lovely Rita, Sumitra, Georg Danzer, Dkay, Zabine, and meloX, to name just a few, and he has also attended master classes with figures including Thomas Lang, Jeff Hamilton, James Gadson, Gorden Campbell, Joseph Heredia, Mark Craney, Jimmy Branly and Poncho Sanchez.
Further activities have included work together with Eddie Kramer on projects such as the Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp in Los Angeles.
Further information to Mario Lackner
© Mischa Nawrata
