The initial reactions were admittedly sceptical when a veritable recorder afficionado contacted us from Boston, USA to announce his desire to stage a competition for recorder students at the mdw in memory of his Israeli father Hans Lewitus, who had been active in Peru—initially as a clarinettist and eventually also as a player of the recorder, for which he went on to arrange and compose numerous works.

The mdw’s worldwide renown is owed especially to its longstanding tradition and expertise in the training of highly talented classical music performers. But beginning in the winter semester of 2026/27, our institution will be expanding its broad range of degree programmes by a first-ever two-year Master of Arts in Popular Music Performance.

The inaugural “reConnect mdw” alumni festival in October invited former students to return to their alma mater, network with current students and faculty, and transform the mdw into a lively place of memories.

From 29 November to 5 December of last year, the third edition of the annual event Festwoche Musikpädagogik took place. This week-long festival enables all of the University’s music education programmes and departments to present themselves in their full artistic and pedagogical breadth. In doing so, the goal is to highlight the music education profession’s societal importance, spark an interest in music education among young people, and eliminate any inhibitions towards the University.

Dance Resonance – Artistic Attunement in Motion was the theme of this year’s symposium of the Gesellschaft für Tanzforschung [Society for Dance Research], which took place from 25 to 27 September at the mdw in spaces formerly part of the adjacent Salesian abbey on Rennweg.

The Franz Schmidt Organ Competition was first held in 2006 and has taken place every two years since then. Its initiator was the mdw organ professor Rudolf Scholz (1933–2012), who headed our university’s Department of Keyboard Instruments. As a tireless advocate and promotor of Franz Schmidt’s organ works, his ultimate intent was to help make Schmidt better known.

From 24 to 27 September 2025, the mdw’s Future Art Lab hosted the 21st International Harp Competition of the Franz Josef Reinl Foundation.

What topics from the world of music and the performing arts at large captivate the minds of soon-to-graduate secondary school students? To what questions do current political, societal, and environmental developments give rise? On all this, the recent conferral of the mdw young research award to its third crop of winners offered some insights.

On 15 October 2025, Gertraud Cerha received an honorary doctorate from the mdw. With this distinction, our University sought to acknowledge Gertraud Cerha’s internationally recognised accomplishments in more than one of its academic fields—namely musicology, music education, and music mediation.