The impetus for the project “Reverse Ethnomusicology: Migrant Musicians as Researchers” was the observation-based hypothesis that migrant musicians, during the process of settling in, act similarly to how ethnographers do: in order to orient themselves within their new surroundings, these musicians must learn to understand local music-related practices, institutions, networks, audiences, and performance contexts.

On 26 January 2024, the Joseph Hellmesberger Department of String Instruments, Guitar and Harp in Music Education will be joining forces with the Exilarte Center for a concert in memory of eight female composers whose works were proscribed and who were driven into exile by the National Socialist regime due to their Jewish origins.

Autumn 2020 saw ECMA – the European Chamber Music Academy initiate a broad-based process of development and professionalisation with the EU-funded project ECMA Pro – International Career Development and Socially Engaged Outreach.

An exhibition entitled Klingende Zeitgeschichte in Objekten. Die mdw* im Austrofaschismus, Nationalsozialismus und Postnazismus [Resonating Contemporary History in Objects. The mdw* in Austro-Fascism, National Socialism, and Post-Nazism], conceived to mark this year’s 85th anniversary of Austria’s annexation by National Socialist Germany, is currently being presented to the public. On view at the University Library through January 2024, it employs a multimedia presentation of historical objects that serve to highlight the institution’s 1933–1955 history in myriad ways.

2023 marks the first time that this award, the result of a cooperative effort between the Department of Music Education Research, Music Didactics and Elementary Music Education (IMP) and the Office of Research Support, has been offered. A total of 63 theses were submitted by final-year school students who engaged in research on a diversity of themes having to do with music and the performing arts at large.

Judith Kopecky’s investigation of Viennese musical life in 1928 for her dissertation project is an accomplishment of meticulous rigor. Her research focused on that era’s genre of the “concert song” (Konzertlied), under which she subsumed not only works for voice and piano but also Lied-type works accompanied by an instrumental ensemble or orchestra.

Those who succeed in being invited to participate in the International Summer Academy of the mdw—affectionately known as “isa”—can expect more than just master classes with top-flight artists. isa’s numerous event venues also invite one to discover the Semmering-Rax region’s immense culturohistorical significance.

This year, the fourth edition of the International Helmut Deutsch Lied Competition rounded out its accustomed emphases on the works of Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler, and Hugo Wolf with a focus on the composer Alma Mahler-Werfel. Scintillating and impressive performances were delivered by all finalists, amongst whom Florian Störtz ultimately emerged as the winner.

The endeavours of practicing, researching, and teaching music therapy are always embedded in broader contexts with which they interact. The reciprocal influencing that occurs here can be examined on various levels.

Just what is it that underpins the actor’s craft? Anja Thiemann, a professor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar since March 2023, provides mdw Magazine with some insights into her work with first-year acting students, her multifaceted career, and her efforts to put suppressed women authors back in the spotlight.