New concert formats
 

Are you interested in exploring new approaches and moving beyond traditional ways of presenting music? Do you want to offer your audience an unforgettable concert experience? Would you like to actively involve your audience in the performance? Then this workshop is for you!

Starting from the fundamental parameters of the concert format, you will explore and develop a wide range of strategies for creating a sense of closeness with your audience and enabling powerful, immersive concert experiences through innovative formats. We will ask:

• Why should we rethink the concert? What are the motivations and arguments for doing so?
• Where can we begin? We'll examine the parameters of the concert as a starting point.
• What already exists? You'll encounter inspiring examples of good practice.
• And how can we get started ourselves? You'll develop your own concept in small groups using Design Thinking methods.
   

Objectives

• After the workshop, you will be familiar with key arguments for rethinking traditional concert formats and be able to critically reflect on them.
• You will be able to analyze existing good practice examples in terms of the concert’s core parameters.
• You will have developed both competencies and a methodological toolkit that enable you to design and plan your own innovative concert formats.
   

 

 

Course lecturer Axel Petri-Preis

Axel Petri-Preis is Professor of Music Mediation and Community Music at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, where he heads the department Musik im Dialog (www.musikimdialog.at). For many years, he has been active as a music mediator and project developer in a wide variety of fields, including new concert formats for diverse dialogue groups, community dance projects, participatory music theatre productions, program booklet dramaturgy, workshop facilitation, coaching, and more. His projects have received numerous awards, and his clients include Neue Oper Wien, Wien Modern, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Wiener Konzerthaus, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Jeunesse, and the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn. Axel Petri-Preis is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Music Mediation (IJMM), a board member of IG Musikvermittlung, and author of numerous academic articles and books – including the Handbuch Musikvermittlung (transcript, 2023). He is also a sought-after international speaker.

 

Workshop
 

Date
TU, 21.04.2026
10 a.m. - 1 p.m. + 2 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Location
Senatssitzungssaal, AW L01 23, mdw-Campus, Anton-von-Webern-Platz 1, 1030 Wien

ECTS
The workshop, including preparation and follow-up, counts as 9h of 60 minutes each for the Career Center elective

Registration 
Starting September 2025 at careercenter@mdw.ac.at