The mdw’s Department of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology, which is Austria’s largest place of research and teaching in its field, has existed at the mdw for 60 years. It’s hence no wonder that the department’s history is commonly viewed as having begun in 1965. However, folk music as well as research on folk music had been present here long before.

The Music and Minorities Research Center of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna is currently hosting the research project “Sounds of Trauma: Naga Song Responses to Political Conflict” led by Christian Poske and funded by an ESPRIT research grant of the Austrian Science Fund. It began in August 2024 and is slated to run through July 2027.

Earlier this year, after more than a decade of practical work in the field of gender equality and youth participation in cultural life in Serbia, I defended my doctoral dissertation at the University of Arts in Belgrade’s Faculty of Dramatic Arts.

“Every beginning is precarious” is a statement that holds true for a great many projects in creative and artistic fields. But with their film project SOLDAT, Film Academy students Vivian Bausch and Fabian Rausch experienced the exact opposite. Just how they ended up landing a generous filmmaking subsidy, how it feels to write a screenplay as a duo, and how the two assess the current situation for film professionals in Austria are all things they discussed with mdw Magazine.

The work Sonettfabrik [Sonnet Factory], specially conceived for the defunct lignite briquette factory LOUISE in Domsdorf, Brandenburg and produced as part of the Max Reinhardt Seminar’s cooperative relationship with the Lausitz Festival, served as that festival’s opening performance. And shortly thereafter, at the palace Schloss Leopoldskron in Salzburg, a version tailored specifically to this location entitled Reinhardt probt Shakespeare-Sonette [Reinhardt Rehearses Shakespeare Sonnets] was performed.

The upcoming 32nd edition of the tradition-steeped Vienna Days of Contemporary Piano Music, scheduled to take place at the mdw from 30 January to 3 February 2026, will feature Tristan Murail as a guest—reason enough to present a brief portrait of this intriguing composer.

In order to afford women composers a more visible presence in piano lessons, the Ludwig van Beethoven Department launched a three-phase project that links scholarship, artistic practice, and media visibility. The objective was to establish a more diverse repertoire in the realm of instrumental training.

Dance Resonance – Artistic Attunement in Motion was the theme of this year’s symposium of the Gesellschaft für Tanzforschung [Society for Dance Research], which took place from 25 to 27 September at the mdw in spaces formerly part of the adjacent Salesian abbey on Rennweg.

The Franz Schmidt Organ Competition was first held in 2006 and has taken place every two years since then. Its initiator was the mdw organ professor Rudolf Scholz (1933–2012), who headed our university’s Department of Keyboard Instruments. As a tireless advocate and promotor of Franz Schmidt’s organ works, his ultimate intent was to help make Schmidt better known.