The archive comprises the estate of Elena Ostleitner (1947-2021), which came to the Institute for the Sociology of Music (IMS) after her death in the form of an extensive collection of material and has been accessible to the (broader) public since ///. The choice of this physical location for the storage and processing of her estate was no coincidence. Elena Ostleitner worked at the IMS from 1975 until her retirement in 2010 and gained international recognition as a music sociologist early on, including for her research on “women and music”, on the living and working conditions of musicians in exile, on young orchestral talent in Austria and for her cultural-political commitment to the inclusion and equality of female musicians and musicians of color in orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic. With these historical and empirical studies and her activities as a teacher, publisher and member of numerous art advisory boards, Elena Ostleitner made a significant contribution to the development of music sociology in Austria and to the establishment of the research program of the “Vienna School of Music Sociology”. The Elena Ostleitner Archive was established by the IMS in order to make this contribution, which has received little attention to date due to the androcentric narrative of the discipline's history, visible and accessible to the public. It complements and expands the Kurt-Blaukopf-Archive.

This website is a work in progress and offers an overview of selected archive holdings. We invite interested parties to explore Elena Ostleitner's legacy from an artistic, music education, activist, feminist, postcolonial, cultural-political or other perspective.

We recommend this interview, which appeared in the Journal of the IAWM (International Alliance for Women in Music) in 2010, as an introduction to Elena Ostleitner's teaching and research activities: Interview with Elena Ostleitner (PDF)

 

Elena Ostleitner © RegionalMedien Niederösterreich

Project management and contact person: Rosa Reitsamer

Consultant: Melanie Unseld

Inventory od the archive holdings: Lis Vovka (Projektmitarbeiter_in), Raphaela Viehböck, Katharina Alexi

Student collaboration: Namen

Graphic design of the website: Sebastian Engler (Studienassistenz IMS), Elija Unfried (research assistant)

Funding: Rektorat der mdw, Institut für Musiksoziologie