November 2019 witnessed the establishment of the Music and Minorities Research Center (MMRC) at the mdw, made possible by the Wittgenstein Award (EUR 1.4 million) conferred upon Ursula Hemetek for her ethnomusicological minority research in 2018. On 30 April 2026, the Wittgenstein Award-funded phase of the MMRC’s activities ended after 7 years.

The mdw Campus is now home to 14 new modern and soundproofed practice rooms planned by architect Reinhardt Gallister. This project’s ten-month construction phase also included renovation work on the historic lecture hall around which these new rooms are grouped, which is now likewise available for teaching and research-related use. On 12 May 2026, the newly built structure—called the “Practice Arc”—was formally opened by the Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft (Austria’s federal real estate holding company), Federal Minister of Science Eva-Maria Holzleitner, and the mdw.

We’re currently living through an era of profound social change, change that often goes hand in hand with crises. Though observations like this one are no longer exactly breaking news, what is indeed interesting—and also more challenging—is the question of how a successful approach to dealing with these changes might look. This idea was the starting point for the symposium “Embracing Ambiguity. Zur Rolle der Instrumental- und Gesangspädagogik in Musikpädagogik, Bildungspolitik und Gesellschaft” […On the Role of Instrumental and Vocal Pedagogy in Music Education, Education Policy, and Society], which was held at the mdw on 29 and 30 May 2026.

The mentoring programme “arts of change” symbolically kicked off its seventh year with a performance workshop at Karlsplatz, held in collaboration with the Climate Biennale. "arts of change - change of arts" is an inter-universitary project that has been supported by all six Austrian state art universities since 2019. It is currently organised under the auspices of the Coordination Office for Sustainability at mdw

PopVoxCon is an international conference about popular voice: how we teach it, research it, perform it, and understand it today. It’s for voice teachers, singers, artists, researchers, students, music educators, speech and voice professionals, and really anyone who’s curious about contemporary vocal practice.

Ferdinand Breitschopf, inspector for music at the Vienna Education Authority, and jury chair Karl-Gerhard Straßl provide a glimpse into the 2026 edition of the Wiener Landesjugendsingen [Vienna Provincial Youth Choir Competition]—which the mdw hosted for the first time from 21 to 23 April.

Since early 2024, the mdw has been part of the European Universities Alliance IN.TUNE – Innovative Universities in Music and Arts in Europe. The halfway point of IN.TUNE’s initial phase has now been reached, which makes it worthwhile indeed to take a look back upon the great effort that’s gone into Work Package 6.

To mark the 60th anniversary of the Department of Music Sociology (IMS), the international conference “The Archival Turn in Music Sociology” took place from 5 to 7 February 2026 in the mdw’s Fanny Hensel Hall (and online). Organised by Rosa Reitsamer, Rainer Prokop, and Tianyu Jiang, this conference aimed to highlight the significance of archives, gendered music historiographies, and (the politics of) the reconstruction of music histories.

December of last year witnessed the second opening event of the International Research Center – Gender and Performativity (ICGP). With some distance, we can now look back upon a successful symposium. Focusing on the relationship between gendering and racialisation from a global perspective, topics such as fascistisation, populism, and institutional complicity were critically analysed.

For musicians, music mediators, and researchers, isa opens up a space where artistic stances can be contemplated, advanced in nuanced ways, and enabled to have a direct impact on society.