With its early days behind it and with increasing self-confidence, music mediation is now forging a different path than the one originally intended for it by the classical concert business—this in light of our current societal circumstances, under the impression of a way of thinking that is decolonial and critical of power and discrimination, and in keeping with a “social turn” in the arts.

isaScience 2023 is celebrating an anniversary: ten years of isaScience, organised by the mdw! This year’s conference on questions of togetherness and hence also looks inward at the isaScience community.

Autumn 2023 will witness the launch of the new Contemporary Arts Practice (CAP) master’s degree programme.

Every three years, the Collection of Historical String Instruments of the Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB), the Republic of Austria’s central bank, lends out four high-quality historical string instruments to students enrolled at Austrian universities of music—and since November 2022, two of these instruments have been played on by mdw students Teresa Wakolbinger and David Kessler.

With the “mdw young research award”, our institution has become Austria’s only arts university to recognise outstanding pre-academic papers and diploma papers (authored by students of academic secondary schools and colleges for higher vocational education, respectively) on music-related topics. The first awards ceremony will take place in September 2023.

In the series “What do the arts have to do with the Earth’s climate?” the “Green mdw” initiative is inviting concerned individuals to speak out on their personal approaches to this issue. Katja Dor-Helmer completed a business degree at the Vienna University of Economics and Business with specialisations in business management and group pedagogy. She authored her diploma thesis on the subsidisation of the French film industry while studying abroad in Paris.

On 21 November, the Fritz Kreisler Department’s biggest event in 2022—the More Strings Festival—concluded after five days.