The Future Art Lab in Pictures.

253 participants from 27 countries, 39 online events, and 22 hours of live streaming from 18 to 24 August: these are the hard facts of this year’s isaDigital.

Behind any person’s favourite song, there’s a personal story—and behind the project lieblingslied.at [Lieblingslied = favourite song—Trans.], launched in March 2020 by the Department of Music Therapy in light of Austria’s COVID-19 lockdown, there’s likewise a story. It’s a story that we’d like to briefly summarise here.

It’s likely that anyone who’s already cast a glance into the new Future Art Lab (FAL) on the mdw Campus has quickly realised how unbelievably much there is there to discover. Ultramodern sound studios and editing rooms, a concert hall that’s to be filled with life right from the start, and an in-house cinema are just some of what awaits students, teachers, and everyone else.

The International Franz Schmidt Organ Competition Vienna is held every two years, and the present year witnessed its eighth edition. Twenty-five young organists from twelve countries managed to qualify for the 2020 competition, which was held in cooperation with the mdw; they tested their mettle from 11 to 19 September 2020 at three churches in Vienna’s city centre.

Mina Yang’s statement “Beethoven and the Dangers of Hero Discourses”, delivered on 19 August 2020, initiated an animated and critical exchange on the various topics of the postponed isaScience conference, entitled “Heroes, Canons, Cults. Critical Inquiries”.

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.