When it comes to music and the performing arts, the mdw is among the world's very best. Passion and perfection are at home here – guaranteeing the artistic excellence for which this world-famous institution stands. As a city of music, Vienna has its hotspot here, where about 3,000 musical talents from around the world are trained to perfection.

2023: 4th place for mdw in the QS World University Rankings! QS World University Rankings!

Those who pass the entrance examination here have already spent 10,000 intensive hours with their instrument and have an extraordinary ability. This is refined to the highest level with the support of the best teachers. Quite a few of them are the very best in the world. Graduates and former students include Alfred Brendel, Friedrich Gulda, Angelika Kirchschlager, Elisabeth Kulman, Gustav Mahler, Zubin Mehta, Birgit Minichmayr, Heinrich Schiff, and Mitsuko Uchida.

Interesting fact: The mdw and its 1,300 events each year is one of the biggest organizers of cultural events; moreover, the stars of tomorrow can be heard for a discount or even free of charge. – A tip for music lovers who value the unusual.

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MUK

The MUK – Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna also combines the best of the next generation and outstanding teaching staff. While the number of students each year is lower at about 850, the claim is just as high: the MUK positions itself as a progressive university for music and the arts. Creative sparks fly in the areas of music, dance, acting and singing. Among the university's graduates are violinist Julian Rachlin, actor Nicholas Ofzcarek, and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature Elfriede Jelinek. And the MUK, too, organizes concerts accessible to everyone.

Exhibitions at exil.arte

The exil.arte Center for persecuted music belongs to the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. It is located in the best musical company: in the same building as the Akademietheater, between the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Arnold Schönberg Center. It is dedicated to the reception, research, preservation and presentation of works by Austrian composers, performers, and music researchers who were deemed 'degenerate' by the Third Reich.

Thomas Angyan, for 32 years the director of the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna, summarizes it perfectly:

"The association exil.arte lets silenced voices speak again and brings the violently muted back to our ears – and thus also to our hearts."

The permanent exhibition "Wenn ich komponiere, bin ich wieder in Wien” (I return to Vienna when I compose) focuses on the moving fates of over 50 people, including Alma Rose (she conducted the "Girls' Orchestra" in the Auschwitz concentration camp), Walter Arlen (music critic of the LA Times, composer) and Erich Wolfgang Korngold (who had a major influence on Hollywood film music).