Since 2015, Marialena Fernandes and her students have taken regular trips to the Indian province of Goa. And last year, before the backdrop of Beethoven 2020, they were able to gather some very special musical impressions.
The Webern Kammerphilharmonie, whose players are drawn from the ranks of the mdw, was first brought together with a concrete objective in mind: to support young artists in launching their future careers as professional orchestral players. The ensemble, originally with the English words “Chamber Orchestra” in its name, was founded in 2015. Ever since, it’s been bringing together excellent mdw students and graduates.
Excerpt from the public lecture “Does every crisis justify a crisis of human rights? Crisis-related considerations” by Ruth Wodak at the mdw on the occasion of the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (10/12/2020).
It was even before the Ibiza Affair—that is, under a different Austrian government and political situation—that we first formed the idea for a series of events on populist politics and their critique by scholars and artists.
2020’s Beethoven jubilee inspired a great number of cultural events and musicological research projects in many places—especially in Vienna. And to conclude this year here, 18 students from the University of Vienna’s Department of Musicology (as part of the course “Beethovens Violinsonaten – Entstehung, Analyse, Interpretation”) join forces for an inter-university project with 15 performers from the mdw.
It is immensely gratifying that Austria’s Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research has once again awarded a Diversitas Prize to the mdw! It was in 2016 that the mdw received its first Diversitas Prize for “All Stars Inclusive”, an inclusive band that has continued its activities at the mdw ever since.
The mdw now has a publishing house of its very own: as of March 2021, the growing number of university presses in Austria and Europe is being joined by the open access academic publisher mdwPress.
Online professorship search committee hearings, digital entrance exams, blended learning—the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has catalysed the digitisation process in education. And at the mdw, the Audio/Video Centre—part of the University’s Information Technology Department (ZID)—has been a strong institution-wide partner in these trying times.
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