Institut für Volksmusikforschung und Ethnomusikologie

Institut für Volksmusikforschung und Ethnomusikologie Department of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology at the University for Music and Performing Art Am 1.

Selbstverständnis
Das Institut für Volksmusikforschung und Ethnomusikologie an der Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien wurde 1965 als zweites derartiges Institut an einer österreichischen Musikuniversität (damals „Musikakademie”) als Institut für Volksmusikforschung gegründet; Hochschulprofessor Walter Deutsch wurde mit der Leitung betraut und schuf als Lehrkanzelinhaber für Geschich

te und Theorie der Volksmusik Leitlinien für dieses Institut, die zum Teil bis heute ihre Gültigkeit haben. 1994 übernahm Gerlinde Haid nach ihrer Berufung auch die Institutsleitung. Nach und nach wurde das Arbeitsgebiet auch auf traditionelle Musik außereuropäischer Kulturen erweitert, was 2002 seinen Niederschlag in einem neuen Institutsnamen gefunden hat. Unter der Leitung von Gerlinde Haid, entwickelte sich das Institut zu einer auch international anerkannten Forschungsinstitution. Jänner 2011, übergab Gerlinde Haid die Institutsleitung an Ursula Hemetek, die ein wohlbestelltes Feld übernehmen durfte.

Join us for our annual concert on May 28, 2026, at the Joseph Haydn Hall. Students from the Department of Folk Music Res...
18/03/2026

Join us for our annual concert on May 28, 2026, at the Joseph Haydn Hall. Students from the Department of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology will present music from a variety of traditions around the world. Students from various fields of study at the mdw, especially those in the Master’s program in Ethnomusicology, will perform music and dance. The evening will offer insights into various musical traditions, including Southeast European, Viennese Music, Latin American, Irish, and Afro-Caribbean traditional music. The annual concert of the Department of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology celebrates the world’s musical diversity, increasing its representation at the mdw.

➡️May 28, 2026
📍Joseph Haydn Saal
Anton-von-Webern-Platz 1, 1030 Wien


Free admission
Please register at [email protected]

Join us for a klezmer workshop with  and  at the  🥰Open to all instrumentalists from intermediate through professional l...
04/03/2026

Join us for a klezmer workshop with and at the 🥰

Open to all instrumentalists from intermediate through professional levels, in this workshop we will learn old spiritual and dance melodies by ear in the way klezmer music has traditionally been passed down. We will also learn to phrase, ornament, and accompany the melodies in the Ashkenazic Jewish folk style, and explore modal improvisation using typical Eastern European Jewish motifs and scales.

Monday, March 9, 2026, 2:00–4:00 p.m., Seminar Room F0106, mdw

Admission free, registration at [email protected]

In the evening, the musicians will also give a concert at the liberal Jewish community Or Chadasch for which students can purchase discounted tickets for €10.

Join us for the symposium „Between Research and Activism: Futures of Music and Minority Studies“February 12–14, 2026, F*...
11/02/2026

Join us for the symposium „Between Research and Activism: Futures of Music and Minority Studies“

February 12–14, 2026, F***y Hensel Hall

The Music and Minorities Research Center (MMRC) enters its next phase with the international symposium, “Between Research and Activism: Futures of Music and Minority Studies“. Founded in 2019, the MMRC celebrates its seventh anniversary by bringing together researchers, musicians, and non-academics for three days of panels, roundtables, artistic-activist discussions, and musical performances.

The symposium explores research approaches into music and minority communities at the intersection of academic scholarship and socially engaged, activist research. It aims to examine current developments, anticipate future directions, and foster collaborative synergies. Grounded in the MMRC’s core principles – committed research, dialogical knowledge production, and critical reflection on power imbalances – the event emphasizes participatory formats that encourage the active involvement of all attendees.

MA in Ethnomusicology - applications opening soon!🔸Study music in global contexts🔹Find your research focus and do ethnog...
20/01/2026

MA in Ethnomusicology - applications opening soon!

🔸Study music in global contexts
🔹Find your research focus and do ethnographic fieldwork
🔸Train in a music or dance practice of your choice
🔹Learn additional instruments, dance forms and singing styles

Registration for the entrance examination is open from March 2 until May 20, 2026

Find more information about the study program on our website (link in bio)

Interrogating Israeli Folk Dance: Filmscreening “Everything You Have Is Yours”  and Artist talk with Hadar Ahuvia  Frida...
09/01/2026

Interrogating Israeli Folk Dance: Filmscreening “Everything You Have Is Yours” and Artist talk with Hadar Ahuvia

Friday, January 16, 2026, 6 pm
Art-House-Cinema

In Everything You Have Is Yours, NYC-based choreographer Hadar Ahuvia interrogates the roots of the Israeli folk dances she grew up dancing with her mother in the U.S. Confronting romanticized stories about her grandparents, settlers in 1930s Palestine, Ahuvia embarks on a personal journey to reckon with the founding mythologies and transgressions of Zionism.

Through her work, a web of artistic portraits emerges— Jewish, Israeli, and Palestinian dancers living in New York City grapple with the questions of what we inherit and what we embody to carry forward.

Everything You Have is Yours, 2024, 90 min
Directed by Tatyana Tenenbaum

After the screening there will be a Q&A with Hadar Ahuvia via Zoom.

In cooperation with the Music and Minorities Research Center (MMRC) and the International Research Center Gender and Performativity

Symposium: Binary Harmony in Traditional Music and BeyondKeynote: Gerhard KubikVolksmusik (traditionelle Musik) in Europ...
19/11/2025

Symposium: Binary Harmony in Traditional Music and Beyond
Keynote: Gerhard Kubik

Volksmusik (traditionelle Musik) in Europa und weit darüber hinaus kennt zahlreiche instrumentale und vokale Formen, die auf einem ständigen Wechsel zweier kontrastierender Harmonien beruhen. Hierauf verweisen simultane und implizite Harmonik in der irischen, schottischen und walisischen Musik, kaukasische Instrumentalmusik sowie vielfältige Tanzmusikformen Ost- und Südosteuropas und nicht zuletzt des Alpenraums. Außereuropäische Parallelen zu „mundbogen-abgeleitete[r] Harmonik über zwei tonalen Zentren“ (Kubik 1979, 72) drängen sich auf.
Der Forschungsstand zu dem Phänomen ist in den jeweiligen Ländern sehr unterschiedlich ausgeprägt. Vergleichende Forschungen sind selten. Mit einem internationalen Symposium werden deswegen 21 renommierte Fachvertreter_innen aus elf Ländern binäre Harmonik und vergleichbare fundamentale Gestaltungsprinzipien traditioneller Musik öffentlich vorstellen und diskutieren.

Das Symposium wird ergänzt durch ein Lecture-Concert am 26. November, 18.30 Uhr zur frühen walisischen Harfenmusik und zur Volksmusik des Alpenraums.

Zeit & Ort
25. Nov. 2025, 13:00
F***y Hensel-Saal
Anton-von-Webern-Platz 1
1030 Wien

The 2025 MMRC Lecture „Minority Voices in Civil Society: Exclusion - Inclusion - Solidarity in Music“with Martin Stokes ...
11/11/2025

The 2025 MMRC Lecture „Minority Voices in Civil Society: Exclusion - Inclusion - Solidarity in Music“
with Martin Stokes , Isabel Frey and Marwan Abado .abado

Tuesday, November 18, 2025, 7:00 p.m., Future Art Lab Concert Hall,

Where do marginalised groups locate themselves within civil society, and how do they express their concerns? How can music contribute to negotiating belonging and participation? What collective cultural and musical practices can be employed to challenge political power and representation dynamics and create spaces for transnational solidarity? The MMRC Lecture 2025 with Martin Stokes (Kings College, London), Isabel Frey (IVE, mdw) and Marwan Abado (musician, Vienna) wil explore and reflect on these areas of tension from academic and musical perspectives.

The event will also be livestreamed and will be available afterwards on the mdw Mediathek.

Register on the Website of the Music and Minorities Research Center (MMRC)

Lecture and workshop “Gugak - Korean musical traditions”With Prof. Anna Yates-Yu (Seoul National University)Monday, Nove...
10/11/2025

Lecture and workshop “Gugak - Korean musical traditions”
With Prof. Anna Yates-Yu (Seoul National University)
Monday, November 10, 2025, 5:00 p.m., F***y Hensel-Saal, mdw

Anna Yates-Lu, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at Seoul National University, gives an introduction to selected instruments and genres commonly referred to as gugak or traditional Korean music. Her presentation is accompanied by live performances by students from the Korean Music Department at Seoul National University.

Congratulations to Elnaz Mohammadzadeh  for completing her MA in Ethnomusicology with distinction!! Elnaz is not only an...
10/11/2025

Congratulations to Elnaz Mohammadzadeh for completing her MA in Ethnomusicology with distinction!!

Elnaz is not only an alumna of the MA program but also works as an archivist for our department’s audiovisual archive. Her master thesis researched music and dance in East Khorasan in Iran with a particular focus on transmission and gender dynamics. Congratulations!! 🎉🎉🎉

Wir feiern 60 Jahre Institut für Volksmusikforschung und Ethnomusikologie! Feiern Sie mit uns beim Festakt am 30. Oktobe...
29/10/2025

Wir feiern 60 Jahre Institut für Volksmusikforschung und Ethnomusikologie!

Feiern Sie mit uns beim Festakt am 30. Oktober um 19:30 60 Jahre Forschung künstlerische Praxis Lehre und gesellschaftspolitisches Engagement an unserem Institut. Es wird musikalische Darbietungen, eine Keynote und Wortspenden von Freund*innen des Instituts, unserer Fach-Community und darüber hinaus geben. Der Festakt wird auch live über die mdwMediathek gestreamt.

Featuring .music .rahmaani .vienna Liangzi Li und .ana

Danach folgt ein informeller Ausklang und Party mit mehr Musik. Kommt vorbei!

On the occasion of its 60th anniversary, the Department of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology at the  – University ...
16/10/2025

On the occasion of its 60th anniversary, the Department of Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology at the – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna cordially invites you to a symposium and an evening celebration!

We kindly invite you to join us on 30 October 2025 for celebrating 60 years of research, artistic practice, teaching, and social engagement at our department. The symposium titled sound, move, transgress brings together researchers, performers, practitioners, and students and offers a reflection on six decades of departmental history, a poster forum with students’ research, an exploration of intersections between artistic performance, transmission, and research; a discussion of ethnomusicology’s future directions amid current political turmoil; and a showcase of glimpses into the department’s audiovisual archive.
The day will conclude with an evening celebration featuring musical performances, a keynote, and addresses by members, students, and friends of the department, our disciplinary community and beyond. The evening celebration at 19:30 will be live streamed via the mdwMediathek.

Guests at the symposium include Urmimala Sarkar Munsi , Muhammad Noramin Bin Mohamed Farid , Sylvia Bruinders, Evelyn Fink-Mennel , Shzr Ee Tan , Mojca Piškor, Thomas Nußbaumer and Salah Ammo

Keynote by Ana Hofman .ana

Musical performances by students and former students of the department - tba!

Symposium
30.10.2025, 09:45-19:15
F***y Hensel-Saal

Evening celebration
30.10.2025, 19:30
Joseph Haydn-Saal

Adresse

Anton-von-Webern-Platz 1
Wien
1030

Öffnungszeiten

Montag 09:00 - 15:00
Dienstag 09:00 - 15:00
Mittwoch 09:00 - 15:00
Donnerstag 09:00 - 15:00
Freitag 09:00 - 15:00

Benachrichtigungen

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