Isabella Pohl

Drama

“How to do it well again and again?”

For the current academic year of 2023/24, director Sarantos-Georgios Zervoulakos is teaching as a visiting professor of drama directing at the Max Reinhardt Seminar—which is not the first time he’s returned to the institution where he originally studied. Then as now, what he values most of all about the Seminar is Max Reinhardt’s concept of an ensemble that allows actors and directors to “grow up” in an atmosphere of close interaction and mutual inspiration.

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New Spaces and Climate Protection Under the Same Roof

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.

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Self-Management for Resounding Onstage Success

Since this spring, the mdw has been cooperating actively with the Korean Cultural Center in Vienna’s 1st district. Sun Ok Lee—the Center’s artistic director and mdw alumna—speaks in the following about cultural similarities, the importance of self-management, and supporting young musicians.

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One Instrument’s Turbulent History

Long in the illegitimate possession of the KHM and the mdw, restituted in 2019, and now officially back at the Department of Early Music: the 1810 Rosenberger fortepiano.

Film

Ways to a Safe Set

The #MeToo movement and especially last year’s debates in Austria regarding abuses of power on film sets have shifted a new, previously little-known job description into focus: that of “intimacy coordinator” (IC), for which EU-recognised training now exists.

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Arthouse Cinema on the mdw Campus Officially Opened to the Public

At the beginning of the 2022/23 winter semester, the Dolby-certified Arthouse Cinema on the Future Art Lab’s ground floor finally opened its doors to the general public for the first time.

Special

“Even Hans Zimmer doesn’t want to copy Hans Zimmer”

A conversation about music in the cinematic realm, communication, and royalties paid in tuna fish with the newly appointed film music professor Walter Werzowa, media composition and applied music professor Judit Varga, film directing student Wolf-Maximilian Liebich, and film editing graduate Barbara Seidler.

Drama

“We’re constantly dealing with people who lack emotional experience”

At the 2022 Reichenau Festival, Christian Berkel will make his debut as a stage director with a production of Frühlings Erwachen (Spring Awakening) involving Max Reinhardt Seminar students. A conversation on the existential life crisis of puberty, broken homes, and the power of theatre.

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Olga Neuwirth to Receive 2022 Ernst von Siemens Music Prize

This March, Olga Neuwirth was announced as the 2022 recipient of the international Ernst von Siemens Music Prize. This prize, worth € 250,000, is regarded as the most important classical music award in the German-speaking region.

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The mdw’s Future Art Lab Opens

At last: 7 June 2021 saw this brand new multifunctional building on the mdw Campus officially given over to its intended purpose in a festive open-air event.

Posts By Isabella Pohl

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