It was early in life that this passionate musician felt drawn to her parents’ piano—and today, she’s a frequently requested soloist, an enthusiastic continuo player, and a professor of harpsichord at the Institute of Early Music and Historical Performance Practice at the Anton Bruckner Private University of Upper Austria.

Since its founding in 1963, the mdw’s Certificate Programme in Electroacoustic and Experimental Music (ELAK) has embodied an open, present-oriented, electronic sound-based platform for a wide range of practices in audible art ranging from musical composition to live electronics, sound design, inter-media installations, and performances.

“Mood” is the topic of this year’s Wien Modern festival, set to take place from 29 October to 29 November. And as in past years, several Wien Modern events are to be held in cooperation with the mdw.

23 August marked 120 years since the birth of Ernst Krenek. Ernst Krenek numbers among the 20th century’s most important and multifaceted composers.

Since March 2020, Vienna RSO Chief Conductor Marin Alsop has been an artist in residence at the mdw, where she’s also the first woman to teach orchestral conducting. The maestra joined Rector Ulrike Sych and Vice Rector Gerda Müller for a conversation about quotas, excellence, and equal opportunities.

Olga Neuwirth was born in Graz in 1968. She began taking trumpet lessons at age seven but had to give up playing later on due to an accident. In 1986, she went to San Francisco and enrolled at the Conservatory of Music as well as at the Academy of Art College, where she studied painting and film. She eventually transferred to the mdw.

In 2012, an international group of instructors at the conservatory in Zaragoza, Spain joined forces with professors at that city’s university. This team set about gathering support both public and private in order to launch the project Musethica.

On 9 July 2020, former mdw student Gisela Zdenek will be turning 100. Research in the run-up to her birthday celebration led members of her family to the mdw Archive, which in turn drew our attention to this strong-willed woman’s life history—which has always been accompanied by music. We had a birthday conversation with Zdenek about her time at the “Academy”.

This year will see the International Beethoven Piano Competition Vienna held for the 16th time. Its sixth edition, which took place around 40 years ago, was won by an exceptional young musician who can now look back upon an outstanding career as a concert pianist, chamber musician, and university professor: we’re talking about the mdw’s own Avedis Kouyoumdjian.