Ever since he was very little, Paul Müller has been fascinated by singing and by theatre. And to this day, the Austrian-Swiss unites these two passions—winning over audiences when he takes the stage as a singer and actor and demonstrating his pedagogical prowess as a school textbook author and secondary school teacher as well as in his position as a senior artist for voice-related subjects at the Max Reinhardt Seminar and lecturer at the Antonio Salieri Department.
Even as a child back in Switzerland, Paul Müller showed a strong interest in music and theatre. “It was always especially gripping for me when the stage action was accompanied by music and when there was also singing onstage.” He participated in annual school theatre productions and also took private voice and piano lessons. His first stage directing experiences were as a teenager, leading productions of plays like Andorra by the Swiss author Max Frisch. Paul’s family eventually moved from their original home in the Canton of Aargau near Zurich to the shores of Lake Constance—which enabled him to join the youth theatre ensemble at the city theatre in Konstanz, Germany. On the side, he also sang in choirs whose repertoire included challenging works like Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.
Paul also got to know different school systems—which, as he now realises, would prove advantageous later on: “I’m relatively quick to orient myself in different learning situations, and institutions now value how I’m adaptable and can also provide new impulses.”
It was the outstanding way in which the mdw’s training is tied to real-life practice that allowed me to discover my knack for teaching. The breath of offerings was overwhelming.
At first, the young theatre fan didn’t consider pursuing formal studies in music. “I had a friend who was a pianist and had won lots of competitions. Since I didn’t view myself as having a comparably strong speciality, I figured that this realm was closed to me.” Even so, he did decide to move to Vienna—where he enrolled in a certificate programme in ensemble direction at the MUK, the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna. Ultimately, however, he decided to study at the mdw after all in order to learn more about choir directing, singing, and the piano. Paul was immediately taken with the breadth of the available subjects and felt like he’d landed at the right place. “I really blossomed in the mdw’s artistically rich environment. Thanks to the high quality of the various offerings and projects, I was able to develop as an artist, pursue my diverse interests, and also cultivate my musical personality.” Paul graduated with honours from his studies in Music Education, Instrumental Music Education, and Music Education for Voice and Instruments (IGP) with majors in piano and voice, and he also passed Austria’s Bühnenreifeprüfung [Stage Readiness Examination] for operatic performers. The period that ensued saw him pursue a multitude of artistic activities, giving Lied recitals and performing in operas—and his subsequent transition to teaching was likewise a fluid one: “At the Antonio Salieri Department, I’d received excellent artistic and pedagogical training in voice that enabled me to be a competent and joyful voice teacher to all kinds of people. And the Department of Music Education was also outstanding: they had us in schools on a regular basis from our first semester onward, which enabled us to tie everything to actual practice. Through that, I discovered how I like teaching and also have a talent for it.”
The University is an amazing place to work: you’re constantly discovering new works and picking up exciting impulses.
In his first year of employment at an academic secondary school, he developed the artistic concept of a “Class for Expression and Movement”—a two-year theatre course for school classes that provides special enrichment in the areas of acting, music, and movement. He accompanied that project with practical research at what was then the mdw’s Department of Music Education (now the Department of Music Education Research and Practice). His course, which was recognised with a Sparkling Science Award from the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, is still running today. “I’ve ascertained that it’s advantageous professionally to come up with your own ideas. It’s a win-win situation, in fact: the school is enriched by new concepts, and you get to work on projects that are close to your heart.”
His openness to new projects can also be seen in his intensive activities as an author for the Austrian Federal Publishing House (ÖBV) and Schott Music. In 2015, he worked as part of a four-person team to develop a new textbook series for academic and compulsory secondary schools that includes a progressive instructional pathway for child and adolescent voices. “From that period onward, I began focusing strongly on vocal work. I took advantage of a sabbatical to finish my MA in Music Education (IGP) for Voice, to work with choirs, and to get back to doing more as an artist.” As a singer, actor, and emcee at the theatre L.E.O., he developed his own stage works and conveyed artistic content that was near and dear to him. Moreover, the voice teacher and vocal coach joined forces with his wife to found “panda – Atelier für Musik und Qigong” [panda – Studio for Music and Qigong] in Vienna’s first district.
My days are jam-packed. But since I enjoy every single thing I do, I can take the resulting energy from one activity to the next.
This duality of interests also finds expression in Paul Müller’s present-day employment at his alma mater. He began teaching singing and voice as well as Musikalische Gestaltung [musical interpretation] and Musikkunde [music fundamentals] at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in 2022 and expanded his teaching to the Antonio Salieri Department of Vocal Studies and Vocal Research in Music Education the following year. “With the actors, the point is to help them build trust in their voices and learn to interpret songs in the context of stage productions. And in this renewed linkage of theatre and music, I’m also giving something back to my earlier self by nourishing the joy of singing in the context of acting.” Alongside cultivating students’ freedom of artistic expression, central emphases of his teaching include a deep understanding of how the voice works and the use of the voice in all school- and education-related contexts. “This closes the circle of my love of theatre, voice, and conveying music to others.”
