17 August of this year witnessed the 21st edition of Eurovision Young Musicians—the renowned competition for young classical musicians put on by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)—in Bodø, a European Capital of Culture in 2024. Leonhard Baumgartner, age 17, claimed victory for Austria with his outstanding performance of Henri Vieuxtemps’ Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Minor.

The fact that microrhythmic phenomena have often been assigned merely subjective and sometimes contradictory descriptions as a “feeling”. However, highly developed algorithms and machine learning methods are now enabling the measurement of material such as funk grooves, solos by jazz saxophonists, and the Rolling Stones’ typical drum patterns right down to the millisecond.

The international gathering Critiques of Power in the Arts (25–27 April 2024), initiated by the Department of Cultural Management and Gender Studies and co-curated in collaboration with a network of critical friends from the realms of research and practice, stood out for unusual academic formats such as performances, workshops, and jam sessions that were held in various mdw spaces.

In the context of this year’s International Women’s Day we spoke about power and gender relations in theatre at the mdw. Moderator Alexandra Althoff presided over a conversation between Bettina Hering, Petra Paterno, and Julia Wissert.

On the evening of 24 May, the main campus of the mdw was given over to the 2024 Long Night of Research, offering an interested audience of all ages insights into the research taking place at our institution.

What do musique mixte, gender roles in Austrian film, and music mediation have in common? The answer is that all three are topics of mdw dissertations recognised with the 2024 Herta & Kurt Blaukopf Award.

Since January 2024, the mdw has been working together with seven European partner universities on IN.TUNE – Innovative Universities in Music and Art in Europe, the first European Universities Alliance in the field of music and one of only two alliances of arts universities among the 64 EUAs currently in existence.

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.