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Creative Dialogue 2023
This year, four composers, four kannel players, and six string players from various countries were invited to collaborate with the British composer Julian Anderson, the Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen, and the Finnish kannel player Eija Kankaanranta. The composers wrote pieces for strings and kannel, kokle, and kanklės (traditional instruments), and the instrumentalists played new compositions…
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“I learnt how to LISTEN deeper”
Ivan Tangkulung took part in the isa – International Summer Academy 2023 of the mdw. Ivan, born in 1994, studied composition at Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore, from 2012 to 2015. After graduating he came back to his home country of Indonesia to work as a freelance composer. For the past few years he…
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My Erasmus teaching period at the University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki
Dimitris Chandrakis, a professor at the University of Macedonia who studied violin in Vienna with Günter Pichler while I was a student as well, invited me for the second time to his home city of Thessaloniki. My reciprocal invitation to him to visit the mdw in 2020 unfortunately had to be cancelled due to Corona…
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“The size and organisation of the mdw and the friendliness of everyone is very impressive”
Marko Markanović has been studying guitar performance at the mdw since October 2023. It took a few attempts before everything fell into place. In 2018, he took the entrance examination for guitar performance and was faced with tough competition, with some forty applicants competing for a single spot. That time, it didn’t work out for…
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Organ Prawang Carlson from Mahidol University, Thailand, about her research and teaching at the mdw
Upon arrival, I met with my supervisor, Edith Lienbacher, and discussed our planned research. During the Easter break, I made use of this time to interview fifteen Thai singers who were educated in Austria and already have a career. Each interview took twenty-five minutes to over two hours, and most of the interviews took place…
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From Australia to Berlin by way of New Zealand, Fiji, and India
Ivan Beaufils studies music education at the mdw and completed two successive study-abroad programmes in piano pedagogy: first at the Conservatory of Music of the University of Sydney, and then at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK). In between, he still had time for extensive travel and another training course. In summer 2022, Ivan…
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My teacher training with Erasmus+ at the HMDK Stuttgart
In November 2022, I attended the “European Piano Teachers Association” (EPTA) conference at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz. Among the conference’s many interesting events, the lecture “Pianos That Grow Your Hands”, by Ulrike Wohlwender, professor for piano pedagogy at Stuttgart’s State University of Music and the Performing Arts (HMDK), was especially thought-provoking for…
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The mdw’s Markus Geiselhart and David Panzl visited the Music Department of Witwatersrand University
This five-day series of workshops, masterclasses, and music clinics was hosted by the Wits Music Department (University of the Witswatersrand, Johannesburg) as well as two associated and prominent South African music academies: the CAFCA School (The University of Pretoria, Mamelodi) and the Music Academy of Gauteng, founded by Dr Johnny Mekoa (Benoni). Clinics were hosted…
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On a Fulbright scholarship at Bard College
Thanks to a Fulbright scholarship, mdw graduate Dávid Kéringer was able to spend the 2022/2023 academic year at Bard College, in New York state. He studied clarinet in the mdw’s Leonard Bernstein Department, graduating in autumn 2021. He spoke with the International Blog about his inspiring year at Bard College: “As a graduate student, I…
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An Impressive Journey
At the invitation of Prof. Danny Galyen, I spent ten days in April 2023 at the University of Northern Iowa as a lecturer and guest conductor. I flew to Iowa via Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, so I took advantage of this opportunity to attend a day of rehearsals of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. Because I…
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My teaching stay at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Castilla-La Mancha in Albacete, Spain
In April 2023, I taught for four days at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Castilla-La Mancha (CSMCLM) in the city of Albacete, in south-eastern Spain. Raquel Violero Casero, who several years ago attended one of my masterclasses, is now professor for viola at the Conservatorio and invited me to give a masterclass there as…
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Schnitzler’s “Anatol” in Tel Aviv
“Theatre is therapy.” In the weeklong masterclass held by professor of stage directing Anna Maria Krassnigg in Tel Aviv, this maxim was confirmed many times over. In May 2023, the professor from the Max Reinhardt Seminar was invited by the Department of Theatre Arts at Tel Aviv University to hold a master class for acting…
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“The City of Dragons”—or rather: “The City of Beautiful Bridges”
From 16 to 18 April 2023, I was invited to the Ljubljana Academy of Music, Slovenia, as a guest lecturer on instrumentation and to hold instructional rehearsals. Miha Rogina, who teaches saxophone at the academy and also studied conducting at the mdw, directs the school’s wind orchestra. Prof. Rogina invited me to join two conducting…
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Immersion in Estonian Culture
Roozbeh Nafisi is a PhD student in musicology at the mdw. In April 2022, his PhD short-term mobility took him to the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in Tallinn. Roozbeh chose Tallinn in order to conduct research into the kannel, a traditional Estonian instrument.
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Teaching music mediation in Canada
In April 2023 mdw faculty Axel Petri-Preis taught at the École d´été en médiation de la musique / Summer School on Music Mediation on the campus of the Orford Musique, about a two-hour drive from Montreal. mdw students Hannah Eberle and Sara Glanzer were nominated for taking part in the unique summer school.
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Women composers of German Lied in the Romantic Period
Our adventure in Iceland was scheduled to take place in 2020. Me and my colleague Tanya Aspelmeier, Professor for voice at the Antonio Salieri Department, had our whole trip planned out and our masterclass at the Iceland University of the Arts was completely organized. Of course, the pandemic had other ideas about how we would…
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A high level and a friendly atmosphere
For several years, I have been interested in finding out more about the master’s programme in Wind Orchestra Conducting and Orchestration for Wind Orchestra at the Claudio Monteverdi Conservatory in Bolzano and experiencing first-hand its approaches, philosophy, and study programmes. From February 9 to 11, 2023, I finally had the opportunity to visit my colleague…
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International summer school 2022
Antonia Länger, Doris Neubacher, and Magdalena Auer are three mdw music education students. They travelled to Potsdam, Germany, to take part in the international Summer School 2022, organised by the University of Potsdam. Together with other students and professors, they tried to answer the question: How can we as (soon-to-be) teachers implement the SDGs in…
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About Us
The mdw is internationally and globally networked, with students from over 70 nations and some 190 partner universities from every continent. This vibrant exchange benefits students, teachers, and administrative staff, who travel to our partner institutions or come to the mdw from there. In the International Blog, they share their varied experiences – and why it is so important as members of the mdw community to immerse oneself in the life of another university.
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Even those who do not travel can experience the internationality of the mdw, whether it is through participation in the digital exchange with other universities or through the varied backgrounds of the mdw students and teachers, who incorporate this into their daily activities at the mdw. The stories about personal and professional enrichment, new contacts, and unforgettable impressions can be enjoyed by readers in the International Blog.
Are you interested in sharing your story? Then write to Isabella Gaisbauer, Vice Rectorate for International Affairs and Art: gaisbauer@mdw.ac.at