The first table in the following shows reported COVID-19 cases at the mdw between September 2020 and September 2021. These case figures correspond to the prevailing trends observed in Austria over the same period. Also included is an overview of the Austria-wide lockdowns and the lockdown in Eastern Austria as well as the numerous measures additionally imposed by the mdw.

After eighteen months of more alone-time than usual, including some long periods of purely digital contact with others, more than a few of us have ended up with a new take on how we feel about community and the presence of others.

It’s widely acknowledged that the Global North’s existing set of rules in terms of performance clothing and onstage behaviour can be traced back to the bourgeois culture that was in the process of becoming established during the 19th century. This was a period that also gave rise to public concert life, concert halls, and concert culture.

On 26 January 2022, the mdw Children’s Choir will present the fruits of this past year’s labours in an atmospheric end-of-semester concert at the Future Art Lab. Astrid Krammer, who teaches at the mdw’s Anton Bruckner Department, reveals how a rehearsal of this ensemble looks and why the benefits of its offerings extend beyond the participating children.

It was with the Rotting Sounds Symposium on 23 and 24 September and the concert Einschreibung, Übertragung, Abtragung [Inscription, Transcription, Erosion] on the evening of 12 November in cooperation with Vienna’s contemporary music festival Wien Modern that we presented the Future Art Lab’s (FAL) Sound Theatre to the public with an audience present for the very first time.

Film editors do their work in the background, and exactly what goes on in the editing suite is familiar to very few. It’s there, however, that a film’s content and message are refined and honed, and it’s editing and sound that render the images truly effective. Film Academy editing students Julia Willi and Philipp Mayer tell us about their studies, editing’s importance in film production, and the soft skills brought to bear by editors in their work.

Just how it is when all instruments suddenly fall silent, when rounds can no longer be sung, and when orchestras and choirs have to abruptly stop working was made clear to all of us by the past year. But playing as a group or singing in a choir is about far more.

Enrolled at the mdw since 2017, Programme of study: Master of Arts in Music Education for Voice and Instruments (IGP) – Piano

The FWF-funded research project “Achieving Togetherness in Music Ensemble Performance”, based at the Department of Music Acoustics – Wiener Klangstil, aims to shed light on the experiences of togetherness that arise during music performance.

An international comparison of institutions will show that chamber music and ensemble work enjoy very high priority in the artistic training offered at the mdw. This wasn’t always the case, however, and it’s in fact the result of deliberate decisions and consistent developmental work.