On 11 November 2020, the Music and Minorities Research Center (MMRC) launched its first annual lecture, delivered in online form. Despite the special circumstances, this event managed to engage an interdisciplinary audience from all around the world and fulfil its main goal, which was to bring scholars from different disciplines together in constructive and lively discussions.

Conference attendance, lecture tours, guest lectureships: research is international and produces an enormous ecological footprint. So how can it be made to function in a more climate-friendly manner?

In the September 2019 issue of the music periodical  nmz (Neue Musikzeitung) , German composer and concert educator Bernhard König published an essay entitled “Monteverdi und der Klimawandel” [Monteverdi and Climate Change]. What König wrote there represented some important food for thought for many at our institution.

Writing about writing is a paradoxical act—seeing as it involves articulating oneself using the very tool that one is attempting to describe.

In the run-up to the 30th International Summer Academy of the mdw, the present year will also see the Semmering region host the eighth edition of isaScience. This conference invites researchers, arts professionals, and activists of all academic levels and from various academic disciplines relevant to music and the performing arts in general to join in the discourse on “Heroes?!”, this year’s thematic emphasis at isa.

Since 2005, the violist Wei-Ya Lin (who has since also become an ethnomusicologist) and Johannes Kretz (a composer specialised in electronic sound production) have been paying regular visits to the Tao community.

Back in 2018, the mdw began offering internal financial support for pilot projects in the field of artistic research.