It’s been a full ten years since the ub.mdw moved from the former Academy building at Lothringerstraße 18, its home of over a century, to Anton-von-Webern-Platz. Since then, it’s been providing even more effective support to students, lecturers, administrators, and music enthusiasts—with services as diverse as its users’ needs.

Musica inaudita is a student initiative at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) that strives to provide audibility and visibility to marginalised composers who’ve received little or no attention in the classical music world.

How do music, people, and ideas move across geographic, political, and cultural boundaries? This was the central question at the 2026 edition of the isaResearch Summer School, entitled “Across Moving Grounds: Music, Performing Arts, and the Politics of Mobility”. This event saw an international group of 21 early stage researchers from a wide range of disciplines come together to shed light from the most varied perspectives on mobility as a core theme of musical and performative practices.

(:de]Elf Tage, rund 200 Teilnehmer_innen aus über 40 Ländern, 23 Masterclasses, 15 Workshops und zahlreiche Konzerte in Wien: Von 22. Juli bis 2. August 2026 brachte die 35. Ausgabe der isa junge Musiker_innen aus aller Welt am mdw-Campus zusammen. Unter dem Motto „global – local“ wurde intensiv geprobt, voneinander gelernt und es wurden auch neue Freundschaften geschlossen.Eleven days, around 200 participants from over 40 countries, 23 master classes, 15 workshops, and numerous concerts all around Vienna: from 22 July to 2 August 2026, isa’s 35th edition brought together young musicians from all over the world at the mdw Campus. Guided by this year’s motto of “global – local”, participants practiced and rehearsed hard, learned from one another, and formed new friendships.

At the mdw, EMp can look back upon over 40 years of history as an artistic and pedagogical discipline. Particularly in recent years, the relevant practice and research have expanded thanks to dialogue with various groups. The associated range of activities extends from courses for seniors and band offerings for adolescents to child-parent courses, instrumental courses focused on violin, guitar, piano, and wind instruments, and the inclusive band project “Young All Stars” as well as cooperative efforts between EMp teachers and schools and music-making courses for professionals—to mention just a few of the practical teaching formats offered by the mdw’s “Viennese EMp” team.

In May 2026, the European Universities Alliance IN.TUNE – Innovative Universities in Music and Arts in Europe celebrated one of its milestones at the mdw: the first IN.TUNE Summit, attended by around 250 participants from the eight IN.TUNE partner universities in Vienna, Oslo, Bucharest, Paris, Helsinki, Barcelona, The Hague, and Belgrade. Developing joint courses and programmes of study as well as innovative teaching and learning formats, creating seamless mobility opportunities for students and teaching staff between the partner universities, setting up research collaborations, and developing collective strategies are the central themes of IN.TUNE’s work.

With its conferral of the 2026 Herta and Kurt Blaukopf-Award, the mdw has once again recognised excellent dissertation projects that stand out for their innovative methods, interdisciplinary approaches, and socio-political relevance. This award carries forward the legacy of Herta Singer-Blaukopf (1924–2005) and Kurt Blaukopf (1914–1999), two scholars persecuted under National Socialism whose work had a lasting impact on both musicology and music sociology, and simultaneously helps to position the mdw as an international centre of academic research.

November 2019 witnessed the establishment of the Music and Minorities Research Center (MMRC) at the mdw, made possible by the Wittgenstein Award (EUR 1.4 million) conferred upon Ursula Hemetek for her ethnomusicological minority research in 2018. On 30 April 2026, the Wittgenstein Award-funded phase of the MMRC’s activities ended after 7 years.

The mdw Campus is now home to 14 new modern and soundproofed practice rooms planned by architect Reinhardt Gallister. This project’s ten-month construction phase also included renovation work on the historic lecture hall around which these new rooms are grouped, which is now likewise available for teaching and research-related use. On 12 May 2026, the newly built structure—called the “Practice Arc”—was formally opened by the Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft (Austria’s federal real estate holding company), Federal Minister of Science Eva-Maria Holzleitner, and the mdw.

Hidden within the holdings of the Austrian National Library is a manuscript document authored by Antonio Salieri in 1802. It embodies a letter of sorts, addressed to “that person who will one day mount the world première of this opera”. The voice heard here is that of a composer who, realising that he would not live to see his final work for the stage premièred, took pains to lay down instructions that might be read by an unknown recipient in the future. Now, 224 years later, Salieri’s letter has received a response of sorts: this past May witnessed the world première of La bella Selvaggia in Valladolid, Spain.