Since early 2024, the mdw has been part of the European Universities Alliance IN.TUNE – Innovative Universities in Music and Arts in Europe. The halfway point of IN.TUNE’s initial phase has now been reached, which makes it worthwhile indeed to take a look back upon the great effort that’s gone into Work Package 6.

To mark the 60th anniversary of the Department of Music Sociology (IMS), the international conference “The Archival Turn in Music Sociology” took place from 5 to 7 February 2026 in the mdw’s Fanny Hensel Hall (and online). Organised by Rosa Reitsamer, Rainer Prokop, and Tianyu Jiang, this conference aimed to highlight the significance of archives, gendered music historiographies, and (the politics of) the reconstruction of music histories.

For musicians, music mediators, and researchers, isa opens up a space where artistic stances can be contemplated, advanced in nuanced ways, and enabled to have a direct impact on society.

How do art and research mediation relate to pro-democratic awareness-raising? What contribution can research and democracy ambassadors active in schools make to the cultivation of critical thinking as a skill central to democratic action? And how might this be done in actual practice? These questions were the focus of an exchange event at the mdw’s Banquet Hall on 11 December 2025.

The mdw’s first-ever Pop-Up Advent Calendar this past December saw musical performances play out at various spots all over Vienna—getting the public in the Christmas spirit in a special way and making for unforgettable concert moments.

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.

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.

What topics from the world of music and the performing arts at large captivate the minds of soon-to-graduate secondary school students? To what questions do current political, societal, and environmental developments give rise? On all this, the recent conferral of the mdw young research award to its third crop of winners offered some insights.

It’s packed—more than packed. The Joseph Haydn-Saal is filled to the last seat, with people sitting on the floor, perched on windowsills, and leaning against the walls despite the live video feed in the foyer and the hot summer temperatures. The programme that’s brought everyone here consists of welcoming addresses, a programmatic introduction, and a keynote, all revolving around questions of gender, performance, and the performative. It’s the official inauguration of the International Research Center – Gender and Performativity (ICGP).

It is music’s power to overcome barriers and leave people deeply touched that the association Musethica has to thank for its consistent development since the very beginning.