The “language” of conductors consists of gestures and motions. For those who haven’t mastered them, they’re frequently intriguing to watch—and for all those who have, they represent just one aspect of those numerous important skills that are essential to communicating with musicians, an orchestra, or a choir.

When we get goosebumps at a concert, when our eyes tear up at the words we hear spoken onstage, or when we hold our breaths out of excitement during some other type of performance, what we’re experiencing are one-of-a-kind moments that can’t be reproduced in all their aspects—or, for that matter, repeated in exactly the same way.

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.

Be it a concert for hospitalised cancer patients, a neighbourhood forum in a newly developed residential area, or making music together in a park: community outreach can take on all kinds of shapes.

One needn’t to look far to see how things like undue political influence, state interventions, economic conditions, national borders, and lots more can infringe upon human rights, whose enjoyment thus by no means goes without saying.

Art and research may not be things that one would directly associate with each other at first blush.

Just where the term comes from etymologically, how artists deal with criticism, and why music criticism often devolves into mere music journalism.

When we speak of “bass”, we think mainly of the the bass player in a band. On the following pages, we’ll show you how bass is actually so much more.

An impression of the mdw’s diversity and selected bicentennial projects.

Why we need both female and male role models.