What happens after a fixed-term contract ends? How can career development, international mobility, and caregiving responsibilities be reconciled? The uncertainty and precariousness alluded to in these questions are only compounded by the increasing pressure to publish as well as dependence on third-party funding. Discussion of these issues is ongoing both nationally and in European research at large.

In its current exhibition, the mdw’s Exilarte Center has created a space of remembrance for the exiled Viennese composer Erich Zeisl. Erich Zeisl was born in Vienna in 1905, and it was with flying colours that he passed his entrance examination at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (today’s mdw).

Michael Frischenschlager and Clemens Hellsberg speak with mdw Magazine about this once-in-a-century virtuoso and great humanist on the occasion of his 150th birthday in 2025.