In 2026, Exilarte – Center for Banned Music is celebrating 10 years as a dedicated Research Center of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. The Center was originally founded 20 years ago as the private association “exil.arte” and has since become an indispensable fixture of the music and research landscape both in Vienna and internationally. Our present issue highlights how the Center rediscovers, propagates, and enables a broad audience to experience forgotten and excluded musical works by composers who were persecuted and/or murdered under National Socialism by way of scholarly research, curatorial practice, international cooperation, and lively concert culture.
We also look back upon an extraordinarily successful 2025: with reConnect, the mdw’s first-ever alumni festival, a platform was created that brings together students, alumni, and numerous experts from the arts and culture at the mdw, creating a space for inspiring encounters and the cultivation of long-term synergies. The music education festival Festwoche der Musikpädagogik, already a tradition in its own right, impressively demonstrated the diversity of the mdw’s music education programmes and invited interested attendees to get to know specialised disciplines, artistic practice, and fields of future professional work from up close. December saw the mdw Advent Calendar open a new door at an unconventional location in one of Vienna’s districts on a daily basis with concerts that made for atmospheric and unforgettable moments—of which the photo spread in this issue provides some vivid impressions. And you’ll also learn about just why aspiring stage directors at the Max Reinhardt Seminar also acquire well-founded knowledge of stage design as well as about the ways in which international cooperative projects open up new perspectives for mdw film students.
I wish you a simulating and intriguing read!
