Benjamin Harasko, Preparatory Programme in Music Education – Voice; Voice (BA)

Persecution of dissenters, hollowing out of democratic rights, exclusion of people based on their religion, their origins, their skin colour. Whenever an injustice like one of these takes place, is accepted, is enforced, it is the consequence of a long process via which that injustice has been legitimised.

2020 was the year that saw the term “white privilege” truly arrive in our society. It describes the fact that white people enjoy social and economic advantages rooted in colonialism, imperialism, and the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

In truth, one should be grateful. All one’s acquaintances are healthy—and as for those who weren’t, at least the virus didn’t hit them all that badly. Considering how the ongoing pandemic has now claimed over a million lives worldwide, that’s actually quite something.

We used to call Metternichgasse 12 the Film Academy. There was a semi-basement there that we referred to as the cellar, and in this cellar was a designated office for the department’s student reps that we called the ÖH Room.

It’s not often that one gets to see a new university department founded. And for me, having witnessed the mdw’s enormous development in terms of early music since I began my studies, the founding of this particular department is something that’s very special.

Back when I was a child, my mother never had a babysitter for me and my siblings. But she did have an old record player. And in the afternoon, she’d set it up for us along with a stack of records so she’d be able to work in peace for at least a couple of hours in the next room.

It really is fascinating how relatively quick and drastic society’s reactions to acute, deadly threats such as the coronavirus can be—and it’s good that this is the case. But when it comes to a more chronic ailment like the climate crisis, which in truth represents a far greater threat to all of humanity, people are acting as if we had all the time in the world.

Fast food, that quick bite to eat in between one thing and the other, is a pleasure that exists strictly in the moment.

“Hey, Travnicek, you hear how they closed the opera, too?” – Yeah, so are you missing it?” – “Naaah … as far as I’m concerned, it can just stay closed...”