The mdw-trained Tonmeister Winfried Lachenmayr is among those individuals responsible for the acoustics of the new Future Art Lab. In a conversation with mdw Magazine, he explains why working on this extraordinary building was so special to him and what makes it so unique in the context of European musical campuses.

The COVID-19 pandemic prevented the 11th Vienna Music Business Research Days from taking place this year at the mdw with its usual international audience in attendance. But despite the unfavourable situation, the entire conference went forward in the virtual realm.

It was early in life that this passionate musician felt drawn to her parents’ piano—and today, she’s a frequently requested soloist, an enthusiastic continuo player, and a professor of harpsichord at the Institute of Early Music and Historical Performance Practice at the Anton Bruckner Private University of Upper Austria.

Since its founding in 1963, the mdw’s Certificate Programme in Electroacoustic and Experimental Music (ELAK) has embodied an open, present-oriented, electronic sound-based platform for a wide range of practices in audible art ranging from musical composition to live electronics, sound design, inter-media installations, and performances.

“Mood” is the topic of this year’s Wien Modern festival, set to take place from 29 October to 29 November. And as in past years, several Wien Modern events are to be held in cooperation with the mdw.

23 August marked 120 years since the birth of Ernst Krenek. Ernst Krenek numbers among the 20th century’s most important and multifaceted composers.

Since March 2020, Vienna RSO Chief Conductor Marin Alsop has been an artist in residence at the mdw, where she’s also the first woman to teach orchestral conducting. The maestra joined Rector Ulrike Sych and Vice Rector Gerda Müller for a conversation about quotas, excellence, and equal opportunities.

Olga Neuwirth was born in Graz in 1968. She began taking trumpet lessons at age seven but had to give up playing later on due to an accident. In 1986, she went to San Francisco and enrolled at the Conservatory of Music as well as at the Academy of Art College, where she studied painting and film. She eventually transferred to the mdw.