The mdw’s worldwide renown is owed especially to its longstanding tradition and expertise in the training of highly talented classical music performers. But beginning in the winter semester of 2026/27, our institution will be expanding its broad range of degree programmes by a first-ever two-year Master of Arts in Popular Music Performance.

The inaugural “reConnect mdw” alumni festival in October invited former students to return to their alma mater, network with current students and faculty, and transform the mdw into a lively place of memories.

From 29 November to 5 December of last year, the third edition of the annual event Festwoche Musikpädagogik took place. This week-long festival enables all of the University’s music education programmes and departments to present themselves in their full artistic and pedagogical breadth. In doing so, the goal is to highlight the music education profession’s societal importance, spark an interest in music education among young people, and eliminate any inhibitions towards the University.

The mdw’s Church of St. Ursula can look back upon 350 years as an important location for (sacred) music in Vienna. Empress Dowager Eleonora Gonzaga, the widow of Emperor Ferdinand III, brought the Order of Saint Ursula to Vienna in 1660. A central concern of this order, one that they shared with the Jesuits, was to promote education. The small group of invited sisters, who arrived from Liège, first took up residence on Dorotheergasse before moving to Johannesgasse in 1663.

Just two-and-a-half months into teaching at the Max Reinhardt Seminar, and one’s already asked to take stock: it can only be mdw Magazine that’s asking! In response, Magdalena Gut—who began teaching courses on stage design and scenography in October 2025—both gladly and adeptly provided us with answers and insights on a field of foremost significance to theatre that’s all too often relegated more than just literally to the background in the performances to which actors and directors give rise.

It was through the Exilarte Center that the passionate chamber musicians of the Ineo Quartet first came into contact with banned music. And today, string quartets by composers such as Julius Bürger and Hans Gál have become fixtures of their repertoire.

Born in Lemberg (today’s Lviv, Ukraine) in 1896 to an assimilated Jewish family, Kremer grew up in Sarajevo until her father—an officer and civil servant employed by the Ministry of War—was transferred to Vienna in 1905. While religion played zero role in her family, education was highly valued: the children were permitted to pursue any avenue of training they desired. Kremer, like her sisters, received her first piano lessons from her mother. At age ten, she continued her pianistic training in a preparatory programme at what is now the mdw.

What if questions of social justice could take tangible shape in our own bodies such that we could discuss complex political issues without relying primarily on words? In an era in which disembodied content consumption continues to polarise much of the Western world, my PhD project explores a different mode of collective sense-making: a performative and educational musical theatre practice for adults not necessarily trained in either dance or music.