Since last autumn, higher education didactics expert Caroline Ebel has been responsible for working with the studies commissions on the development of teaching at our institution as well as for the advising, coaching, and professional development of faculty. In the following conversation with mdw Magazine, Ebel provides an initial impression of how her work has been progressing.

In January 2024, the mdw is co-launching the first European University Alliance in the area of music and performing arts. In July 2023, the EU Commission granted the mdw and seven European partner universities approval for IN.TUNE.

The loft conversion at the mdw Campus is now finished, providing enhanced energy efficiency and more space for mdw departments. On 13 October 2023, the mdw and the Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft (BIG), Austria’s federal property manager, celebrated the grand opening of the converted loft spaces at the mdw’s main campus on Anton-von-Webern-Platz.

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.