The second edition of isaCommunity, held on the mdw Campus and in the Music in Dialogue Hall (MiD-Saal) at Vienna’s Gasometer complex in July 2026, saw young musicians once again converge on Vienna. Sixteen participants from Europe, North and South America, and the Middle East spent an entire week here working at the interface between artistic practice and social engagement.

On 15 May 2026, the singer-songwriter and band competition “Alle Neun in Contest” celebrated its première edition on the mdw Campus. Singer-songwriters and small bands had been nominated by all nine of Austria’s public and private tertiary-level institutions of musical training to face off and provide a multifaceted glimpse into the current pop music scene.

It’s been a full ten years since the ub.mdw moved from the former Academy building at Lothringerstraße 18, its home of over a century, to Anton-von-Webern-Platz. Since then, it’s been providing even more effective support to students, lecturers, administrators, and music enthusiasts—with services as diverse as its users’ needs.

Musica inaudita is a student initiative at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) that strives to provide audibility and visibility to marginalised composers who’ve received little or no attention in the classical music world.

How do music, people, and ideas move across geographic, political, and cultural boundaries? This was the central question at the 2026 edition of the isaResearch Summer School, entitled “Across Moving Grounds: Music, Performing Arts, and the Politics of Mobility”. This event saw an international group of 21 early stage researchers from a wide range of disciplines come together to shed light from the most varied perspectives on mobility as a core theme of musical and performative practices.

(:de]Elf Tage, rund 200 Teilnehmer_innen aus über 40 Ländern, 23 Masterclasses, 15 Workshops und zahlreiche Konzerte in Wien: Von 22. Juli bis 2. August 2026 brachte die 35. Ausgabe der isa junge Musiker_innen aus aller Welt am mdw-Campus zusammen. Unter dem Motto „global – local“ wurde intensiv geprobt, voneinander gelernt und es wurden auch neue Freundschaften geschlossen.Eleven days, around 200 participants from over 40 countries, 23 master classes, 15 workshops, and numerous concerts all around Vienna: from 22 July to 2 August 2026, isa’s 35th edition brought together young musicians from all over the world at the mdw Campus. Guided by this year’s motto of “global – local”, participants practiced and rehearsed hard, learned from one another, and formed new friendships.

In May 2026, the European Universities Alliance IN.TUNE – Innovative Universities in Music and Arts in Europe celebrated one of its milestones at the mdw: the first IN.TUNE Summit, attended by around 250 participants from the eight IN.TUNE partner universities in Vienna, Oslo, Bucharest, Paris, Helsinki, Barcelona, The Hague, and Belgrade. Developing joint courses and programmes of study as well as innovative teaching and learning formats, creating seamless mobility opportunities for students and teaching staff between the partner universities, setting up research collaborations, and developing collective strategies are the central themes of IN.TUNE’s work.

With its conferral of the 2026 Herta and Kurt Blaukopf-Award, the mdw has once again recognised excellent dissertation projects that stand out for their innovative methods, interdisciplinary approaches, and socio-political relevance. This award carries forward the legacy of Herta Singer-Blaukopf (1924–2005) and Kurt Blaukopf (1914–1999), two scholars persecuted under National Socialism whose work had a lasting impact on both musicology and music sociology, and simultaneously helps to position the mdw as an international centre of academic research.