Those who succeed in being invited to participate in the International Summer Academy of the mdw—affectionately known as “isa”—can expect more than just master classes with top-flight artists. isa’s numerous event venues also invite one to discover the Semmering-Rax region’s immense culturohistorical significance.

This year, the fourth edition of the International Helmut Deutsch Lied Competition rounded out its accustomed emphases on the works of Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler, and Hugo Wolf with a focus on the composer Alma Mahler-Werfel. Scintillating and impressive performances were delivered by all finalists, amongst whom Florian Störtz ultimately emerged as the winner.

The endeavours of practicing, researching, and teaching music therapy are always embedded in broader contexts with which they interact. The reciprocal influencing that occurs here can be examined on various levels.

News about climate change, species extinction, wars, and the like confront young people in particular with entirely new questions: How does it affect me and my surroundings? Can I just continue on as if nothing were amiss? Won’t everything change? What has to change?

With an eye to communities and collectives ranging from social movements to artist groups and from ethnic communities all the way to “sonic ties” of the non-human sort, the 2023 isaScience conference zeroed in particularly on the interrelations between sound as such and power structures that exist in sound, music, and the performing arts at large.

The third edition of the mdw great talent award powered by Christian Zeller brought with it a broad field of participants, an exceptional overall level, and a virtuoso winner. The Italian organist Raimondo Mazzon claimed ultimate victory at this competition for up-and-coming mdw artists.

For a full decade now, students of Heinz-Peter Linshalm and Petra Stump-Linshalm have been performing at various exhibitions of the modern and contemporary art museum mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien as part of a cooperative arrangement between the museum and the mdw’s Joseph Haydn Department of Chamber Music and Contemporary Music.

In our series “What does art have to do with the Earth’s climate?” the “Green mdw” initiative invites concerned individuals to speak out on their personal approaches to this issue. These questions are answered here by the musician and composer Simon Zöchbauer.

And just recently, on three days in June, a new cooperative project made it possible for three mdw-connected ensembles to perform on this year’s MQ Summer Stage under the heading of “MQ meets mdw”.