When people hear the term “music education”, their first association is frequently with a concrete practice: that of music teaching and musical learning in classrooms, at music schools, in workshops, or in work with people of various backgrounds and ages ranging all the way from kids and teens to seniors. Initially less present in their minds is the research accompanying this practice—research that analyses it, critically scrutinises it, and advances its development.

These days, playlists with titles like “Music About Suicidal Thoughts” are easy to find. It’s thus anything but a marginal topic that the book Musik und Suizidalität. Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven sets out to tackle, thereby taking its place among a growing number of publications that scrutinise the effects had by music about suicidal fantasies, intentions, preparations, and acts both generally and on the phenomena that it addresses.

“Why exactly is the Akademietheater called the Akademietheater?” Is its name just an inexplicable relic of bygone times? Is it a former training facility of the Burgtheater? Or perhaps a one-time modernist refuge from the court theatres of the monarchy?

The Vienna-born violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962) was one of the 20th century’s most influential recording artists, and this year marks the 150th anniversary of his birth.

In the following interview with mdw Magazine, Ursula Hemetek—former head of the Department of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology and founder of the Music and Minorities Research Centre (MMRC)—joins us together with the department’s current head Marko Kölbl to look back upon its eventful history, share insights on current developments, and discuss present-day political challenges.

The fact that cultural and above all musical diversity have (and indeed must have) an established place at our university is what this issue’s Special serves to highlight.

The introduction of the Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology at the mdw in October 2019 brought initially subtle but steadily building change to our institution that has, in fact, ended up being quite broad-based. For the first time in the mdw’s 200-year history, it became possible to study styles of music and dance that had previously lacked any representation in an academic context, doing so via both research-based exploration and artistic practice.

A fascination with different ethnicities and worlds of sound has accompanied Salah Ammo since the very beginning. And thanks to a new master’s degree programme at the mdw, this passionate Kurdish Syrian musician has been able to realise a long-held dream: to engage with the broad field of ethnomusicology as a researcher.

With its international symposium “Between Research and Activism: Futures of Music and Minority Studies”, scheduled to take place from 12 to 14 February 2026, the Music and Minorities Research Center (MMRC) will be ushering in a new phase of its existence. As part of this, the MMRC—founded in 2019 to pursue research on music and minorities—plans to celebrate its initial seven years.