How do composers and musicians studying at the MDW in Vienna react to engaging with non-Western musical practices? How does musical thinking change when one leaves one’s comfort zone and tries to question the taken-for-grantedness of the musical world(s) one is familiar with?

A group of students and teachers (composers and musicians) from the MDW went on a research trip to Istanbul in 2021 to learn to understand local musical practices and to experience them in the context of their lives. Back in Vienna, new compositions were created that reflect and process the experiences of the field research in a variety of ways. The result is new kinds of works that bring together different musical ways of thinking and draw the participants as well as the listeners out of the usual patterns of concert music in a variety of ways.

Compositions and imprivisations by and with, Salah Ammo, Dominik Förtsch, Haruki Noda, Ece Tuncer, Tolgahan Çoğulu, Sinan Ayyıldız, u.a.