Special

Special: Science Communication

28. September 2026

The following pages reveal what makes science communication at an arts university special, the challenges that it entails, and the concrete projects and measures through which the mdw is shaping dialogue with various groups of people within and outside of the University.

Drama

Stage Directing Enters into New Realms

How to do good theatre in this day and age? How can a stage director structure the time from the first rehearsal to opening night such the production, the participants, and the audience all benefit? mdw Magazine learned from two 2026 graduates of the Max Reinhardt Seminar’s Stage Directing programme how a new generation views directorial work—and how they’re implementing this approach in their own projects.

Film

SHEEP: Of Animals and Domesticated Humans

Talking sheep are nothing new in cinema and television, one might think at first blush. And even so, the central animals in the new series by Alex Reinberg and Leni Gruber (who shared both screenwriting and directing) are more than just fluffy lead characters in an absurd story.

Research

TODAS: An Interdisciplinary Festival Staging Latin American Women and Fem Musicians in Vienna

In May 2026, the interdisciplinary festival “TODAS. Latin American Women* Musicians in Vienna. Concerts, Lecture, Dialogues” took place at the mdw. This event was an outcome of the research project “Reverse Ethnomusicology: Migrant Musicians as Researchers”. Co-curator Gabriela Dossow Ponce describes how the festival evolved and why it was so important.

Music

Joe Bennett at the mdw

As part of a Eurovision-focused popular music seminar, Bennett worked with students Linda Oppelmayer, Mariella Ackerl, and Leonie Bauer to investigate the contest’s musical language. Their collaboration combined detailed listening, a multi-year data set, and reflection on how popular music shifts along with culture and technology

Music

How MIAGI Is Retelling the Concert Canon

2024 mdw Magazine reported on the successful European tour of South Africa’s MIAGI (Music is a great investment) Orchestra and on its many years of partnership with the mdw. This collaboration has since been continued in an impressive way with a concert at Podium Zukunft in Frankfurt on 27 April 2026. The focus here was less on racking up a further guest appearance than it was on continuing the consistent refinement of an artistic idea.

Music

On the politics of musical excellence

The doors of the underground open practically into the heart of the Gasometer's Tower C – albeit you'd need to walk through several floors of a shopping mall, and past the many fast food options to reach the conference venue “Musik im Dialog-Saal”. Built in the late nineteenth century as a gas storage facility, the building today houses a music school, music venues, and occasional academic discussions, such as Excellently Engaged that asked whether artistic excellence and societal engagement are separable at all.

Music

Salieri’s Letter to the Future

Hidden within the holdings of the Austrian National Library is a manuscript document authored by Antonio Salieri in 1802. It embodies a letter of sorts, addressed to “that person who will one day mount the world première of this opera”. The voice heard here is that of a composer who, realising that he would not live to see his final work for the stage premièred, took pains to lay down instructions that might be read by an unknown recipient in the future. Now, 224 years later, Salieri’s letter has received a response of sorts: this past May witnessed the world première of La bella Selvaggia in Valladolid, Spain.

Music

“The crucial thing is what stories you tell yourself”

For decades, Jeff Beal has been shifting his focus back and forth between film studios and concert halls, and it was with music for productions like House of Cards that this American composer became known internationally. 13 April saw the five-time Emmy Award-winner give a master class for mdw students. In the following conversation, he speaks about artistic processes, inspiration, and how living with MS has changed his understanding of music.

Drama

Music in the Limelight

He brings music to theatre. Imre Lichtenberger Bozoki is a true allrounder of the Austrian theatre scene—and since last autumn, he’s been teaching Music and Dramatic Expression at the Max Reinhardt Seminar. He talked with us about how he went from trumpeter to stage director, why he thinks the Viennese scene is one-of-a-kind, and why his subject is probably the most relaxed one of all at the Max Reinhardt Seminar.

Drama

When Images Themselves Become the Stage

Just two-and-a-half months into teaching at the Max Reinhardt Seminar, and one’s already asked to take stock: it can only be mdw Magazine that’s asking! In response, Magdalena Gut—who began teaching courses on stage design and scenography in October 2025—both gladly and adeptly provided us with answers and insights on a field of foremost significance to theatre that’s all too often relegated more than just literally to the background in the performances to which actors and directors give rise.

Drama

Shakespeare in Contrasting Locations

The work Sonettfabrik [Sonnet Factory], specially conceived for the defunct lignite briquette factory LOUISE in Domsdorf, Brandenburg and produced as part of the Max Reinhardt Seminar’s cooperative relationship with the Lausitz Festival, served as that festival’s opening performance. And shortly thereafter, at the palace Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg, a version tailored specifically to this location entitled Reinhardt probt Shakespeare-Sonette [Reinhardt Rehearses Shakespeare Sonnets] was performed.

Drama

A Realm of Free Thought

The Iceland-born opera and stage director Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson recently teamed up with third-year acting students at the Max Reinhardt Seminar to tackle one of the greatest theatrical tragedies of all time: Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In this interview with mdw Magazine, he speaks about the joys of working with a new generation of actors, aspirations for his role as a visiting instructor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar, and just why Shakespeare’s analyses of power and people manage to outlast every era.

Film

The Film Academy Vienna at Berlinale 2026

Every February, Berlin becomes the centre of the cinematic world. The Berlinale, whose competition awards the famed Golden and Silver Bears, is one of the world’s biggest film festivals. It boasts a varied array of programme sections, among them the short film competition Berlinale Shorts—which, in 2026, included a first-ever film from Film Academy Vienna: Ein Unfall [An Accident] by Film Academy student Angelika Spangel.

Film

Award-Winning Examples of International Cinematic Cooperation

Lena Zechner and Melvyn Zeyns study production at Film Academy Vienna. November 2025 saw both of them win German Short Film Awards, Germany’s most important and lucrative form of recognition for short films. These awards are conferred annually in six categories at a ceremony in Hamburg.

Film

In a Military Jacket to Millions in Funding

“Every beginning is precarious” is a statement that holds true for a great many projects in creative and artistic fields. But with their film project SOLDAT, Film Academy students Vivian Bausch and Fabian Rausch experienced the exact opposite. Just how they ended up landing a generous filmmaking subsidy, how it feels to write a screenplay as a duo, and how the two assess the current situation for film professionals in Austria are all things they discussed with mdw Magazine.

Research

mdwHistory: Of Madrigal Comrades, Offended Ministries—and a Cold Wind

It was with these tongue-in-cheek lines that Hans Gál (1890–1987) gently but firmly reminded the members of his madrigal choir of their first rehearsal in 1938. This musical good-luck pig was served up as a three-part canon formatted as a postcard and garnished with tastefully placed madrigalisms. And indeed, madrigals were a huge love of this versatile musician—a fact that even earned him the nickname “Madri-Gál”.

Research

Sounding Pandemics?

When exactly does a pandemic begin, and when does it end? Is there a clear “before”, “during”, and “after”, or does our understanding of such things have more to do with our perception of temporality? And by what exactly are the knowledge and memories we have of past pandemics shaped? Simply by images, monuments, and statistics? Or perhaps also by sounds and music?

Research

Review: The Flavor of Thinking: Philosophy in Artistic Research – Artistic Research in Philosophy

Arno Böhler and Susanne Valerie Granzer’s collection entitled The Flavor of Thinking is a 21st-century engagement with one of Western philosophy’s oldest problems: the (perceived) tension between “thinking” and “feeling”.

Research

Alumna in Focus: Anke Schad-Spindler

“These days, when I look back, I sometimes ask myself where I got the self-confidence to go out into the big wide world,” says Anke Schad-Spindler with a laugh. Now general manager and scholarly head of EDUCULT as well as a freelance businesswoman, this mdw alumna studied in Germany, Italy, England, and Austria—and her dissertation on cultural governance was awarded a state prize by what was then Austria’s Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research.

Research

Elemental Music Education on the Move

At the mdw, EMp can look back upon over 40 years of history as an artistic and pedagogical discipline. Particularly in recent years, the relevant practice and research have expanded thanks to dialogue with various groups. The associated range of activities extends from courses for seniors and band offerings for adolescents to child-parent courses, instrumental courses focused on violin, guitar, piano, and wind instruments, and the inclusive band project “Young All Stars” as well as cooperative efforts between EMp teachers and schools and music-making courses for professionals—to mention just a few of the practical teaching formats offered by the mdw’s “Viennese EMp” team.

Music

Drama

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Research

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