The theme of this multiauthor volume, which presents lectures from the 29th Annual Conference of the German Society for Popular Music Studies, hits a socio-political nerve for more reasons than just the increasingly nation-centred coronavirus mitigation strategies.

In music acoustics, the process by which player actions affect the acoustics of an instrument is known as “player-instrument interaction”, which is a research topic that has been investigated in connection with a broad variety of instruments. In single-reed woodwind instruments such as the clarinet and saxophone, sound is produced by the vibration of a single reed attached to a mouthpiece.

So here we are: in its ninth year of existence, isaScience is going “hybrid”! With the mdw’s international and interdisciplinary summer conference having been postponed in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the isaScience team is now preparing for its first-ever hybrid edition, in which it will pick up right where it left off.

On 11 November 2020, the Music and Minorities Research Center (MMRC) launched its first annual lecture, delivered in online form. Despite the special circumstances, this event managed to engage an interdisciplinary audience from all around the world and fulfil its main goal, which was to bring scholars from different disciplines together in constructive and lively discussions.

On September 8, 2020, Europe’s largest refugee camp—Moria, situated on the Greek island of Lesbos and known as a “living hell”—was set afire. The continuous three-day blaze ultimately left the camp completely destroyed and 13,000 people in utter destitution.

Just recently, the mdw saw the establishment of “Voice Science” as a subject area in its own right with its own new career position. And this semester, three mdw students have commenced their scientific doctoral studies in the field.

The COVID-19 pandemic prevented the 11th Vienna Music Business Research Days from taking place this year at the mdw with its usual international audience in attendance. But despite the unfavourable situation, the entire conference went forward in the virtual realm.