Artemis Vakianis (Wiener Festwochen) studied economics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business and subsequently completed a postgraduate course in cultural management at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Her dissertation at both universities focused on ‘Management and Financial Control Systems in the Theatre – A Critical Discourse’. Artemis Vakianis has worked at the Theater in der Josefstadt, the Komische Oper Berlin and as executive director at the steirischer herbst festival, among others. In 2014, she founded her own agency, offering consultancy services to cultural institutions on commercial matters. She has also taught at the Department of Cultural Management at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and at the FH Kufstein Tirol – University of Applied Sciences. From 2016 until 2021 she was appointed executive vice-president of the Austrian Science Fund FWF. Artemis Vakianis took up the post of Executive Director of the Wiener Festwochen in October 2021.
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Axel Petri-Preis (mdw – Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien) is a professor of music mediation and community music at mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. His focus in teaching and research lies on topics such as artistic citizenship, the aims and ethics of socially engaged music making, the development and aesthetics of new concert formats, and curricular development. He is co-head of the Department of Music Education Research and Practice, coordinator of the Music in Dialogue subdivision, and chair of the curriculum committee for the master’s programme in Contemporary Arts Practice. He is co-founder and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Music Mediation (IJMM). Most recently, he co-edited the Handbuch Musikvermittlung [Handbook of Music Mediation] and the anthology Turning Social. The Social-Transformative Potential of Music Mediation.
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inn.wien is a collective of young, classically trained musicians based in Vienna. With flexible lineups, they create extraordinary programs and interpret works from different genres. The ensemble is characterized above all by its chamber music-like performances and their creative openness. The musicians organize everything themselves. The inn.wien ensemble has already performed at renowned venues such as the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Wiener Musikverein, and Porgy & Bess. The coming season will bring debuts at the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Brucknerhaus Linz, and the House of Music Budapest. In September 2024, the debut album “LOST INSIDE” was released, together with the jazz trio Drehwerk. The production “What on Earth!”, which premiered in 2024 – a staged concert performance for the whole family – was awarded the international YAM “young audience music award” in 2025.
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Irina Kirchberg (Université de Montréal), a musicologist and sociologist, is the executive director of the Centre for Innovation and Applied Research in Arts and Social Engagement (Artenso). She produced the first Panorama des pratiques de médiation de la musique au Québec (2020), edited an issue of the Revue musicale de l'OICRM (2020) and an issue of Intersections (2025) dedicated to music mediation. In partnership with the Faculty of Music at the University of Montreal, the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne, and the COnservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, she recently produced a competency framework for the field. In Montréal, Irina Kirchberg co-directs the specialized higher education diploma (DESS) in Music mediation and the Etude Partenariale sur la Médiation de la Musique (EPMM). She is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Music Mediation.
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Magdalena Seifert
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Martin Schlögl (mdw - Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien) is a community artist, curator, and music educator whose work centres on cultural participation and diversity. His key projects include Käfigkonzerte and Grätzl Töne. As a music curator, he has worked for the WienLiebe Festival and Kultursommer Wien; as a community music facilitator, he supports projects by Fonds Soziales Wien and Integration Wien. His cooperation partners range from the Vienna Symphony Orchestra to neighbourhood-based cultural associations. At mdw’s Department of Music in Dialogue, he works as Senior Artist for Community Engagement, connecting students with diverse social groups to create spaces where music serves as a tool for dialogue, participation, and social negotiation.
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Martina Fladerer works s an lecturer in the master's program 'Music Mediation' at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, as well as a dramaturg and cultural mediator at ARGEkultur, an cultural center in Salzburg. She studied German literature, instrumental pedagogy (clarinet), and Applied Dramaturgy. From 2019 to 2022, she was a member of the doctoral program “The Arts and Their Impact – Dynamics of Change” at Inter-University Organization Arts & Knowledges (Paris Lodron University of Salzburg/Mozarteum University Salzburg). Her dissertation was about the music theatre as a pluriverse and a place of the many. Besides, is actively involved in civil activities to promote a democratic society, for example in the Salzburg Women's Council.
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music inaudita is a student-organized initiative at the UdK Berlin that focuses on diversifying the “classical” music scene. We want to stage music by artists who have been overlooked by history due to gender, religion, social or national background, race, sexual identity, language, disabilities, or political views and anchor it in teaching and repertoire.
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Rosie Perkins (Royal College of Music, BMus, MA, PhD) is Professor of Music, Health, and Social Science at the Royal College of Music London (RCM). Part of the Centre for Performance Science, Rosie is a leading researcher in the area of music and mental health, where her research investigates two broad and intersecting areas: how music and the arts support individual and societal wellbeing, and how to optimise musicians’ wellbeing and career development. Rosie’s research has been supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Arts Council England, British Academy, Dutch Research Council, and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and has featured in a wide range of international journals and press. Alongside research and knowledge exchange, Rosie teaches across the RCM’s undergraduate, masters, and doctoral programmes and is the Programme Leader for the RCM’s groundbreaking MSc in Performance Science. Rosie is an honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London and a Fellow of AdvanceHE (FHEA) and the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH). In 2019, Rosie was elected an Honorary Member of the Royal College of Music (HonRCM), and in 2025, she became an Affiliate Researcher with the Jameel Arts and Health Lab.
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Sophie Mattiuzzo is a flutist and music educator. From 2018 to 2025, she studied at the Berlin University of the Arts under Prof. Martin Glück and Robert Lerch (Deutsche Oper). In 2022, she founded the initiative Musica inaudita with fellow students, which is dedicated to raising awareness of structurally discriminatory realities in the classical music world and contributing to their sustainable change. From 2022 to 2024, she served as women’s and equal opportunity officer for the Faculty of Music at the Berlin University of the Arts. Sophie taught flute and wind ensembles for several years in the music program at an elementary school in Berlin. Since 2025, she has been pursuing a master’s degree at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and remains active with Musica inaudita. Sophie is a scholarship recipient of the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation.
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Tuulikki Laes (Sibelius Academy) is a University Researcher and Lecturer at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland, and holds a Title of Docent in Musicology at the University of Helsinki. Currently, she is an Academy Research Fellow appointed by the Research Council of Finland (2023-2027), leading the research project “Performing the Political: Public Pedagogy in Higher Music Education.” Her research focuses on educational democracy, inclusion, policy and politics as well as systems thinking in(higher) music education. In 2018, she was a visiting scholar at IIASA (The International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis) in Vienna, Austria. Her latest publications include “The Transformative Politics of Music Education” (Routledge, 2025), co-edited with Gert Biesta and Heidi Westerlund. She also serves as Chair of the ISME Commission on Policy: Culture, Education and Media, and is a member of several other research and policy networks.
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Ulli Mayer (mdw – Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien) studied political science with a focus on gender studies and cultural studies in Vienna and Berlin. She is head of the GGD and teaches at the Institute for Cultural Management and Gender Studies (IKM)/mdw and the Institute for Culture and Media Management at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre (HfMT). In 2016, she initiated and led the course »kD_K Kritische Diversitätspraxis in Kunst und Kultur« at the Institute for Science and Art. Her queer-feminist, activist engagement led her to initiate the Pink Noise Camp in 2011 and to co-found the association pink noise. Association for the Promotion of Feminist Pop Cultural Activities.