Exile is not a place, but a state of being. It simultaneously represents a refuge and banishment. One flees because one must—not because one wants to.

Enrolled at the mdw since: 2016, Programme of study:Music Education (MEd.)

At some schools, the subjects of music and art share an unfortunate common fate even today: neither is taken seriously, least of all by teachers of other subjects.

A couple of years ago, I chanced to be in Paris on 1 May. I was travelling for work, and it hadn’t even occurred to me beforehand that I’d be in the French capital, of all places, on the traditional day of worker protests.

Enrolled at the mdw since: 2017 / Programme of study: IGP – Classical Piano (MA)

Enrolled at the mdw since: the 2018/19 winter semester.

It’s human nature to set arbitrary points in time after which we envision everything being different. Decadal birthdays, graduation, or the ultimate classic: New Year’s.

Enrolled at the mdw since: October 2019, Programme of study: Music Therapy

It’s one of the impressions from that nursing home that I’ve never been able to forget: a 65-year-old daughter playing her 90-year-old mother—who was suffering from dementia—a few measures of Mozart on an old cassette player every afternoon.

Enrolled at the mdw since: 2018, Area(s) of study: Composition & Media Composition